New Hope & Lambertville
Two towns, one river — and a long weekend's worth of things to do.
A stay with Lock & Lambert puts you in two towns at once. New Hope sits on the Pennsylvania bank of the Delaware; Lambertville faces it from New Jersey; the bridge between them takes about five minutes to walk. Park once and you can spend a whole weekend on foot, crossing the water whenever the mood takes you.
Here is some of what we would point you toward.
New Hope
The busier of the two — a river town that has drawn artists, walkers and weekenders for the better part of a century. A few things worth building a day around:
The Bucks County Playhouse
Founded in 1939 in an old mill on the riverbank, the Playhouse still stages a full season and is well regarded among the East Coast's regional theatres. Worth seeing what is on before you come.
The Delaware Canal towpath
The towpath that runs behind our Main Street place follows the canal for miles in either direction — level, quiet, and made for a long walk or an easy bike ride.
Main Street, New Hope
The length of the town is galleries, bookshops, antique dealers and places to eat. It is the kind of street that rewards an afternoon with no particular plan.
The New Hope Railroad
Vintage trains run a short, scenic loop out into the Bucks County countryside — an easy hour, and a long-standing favourite with children.
Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve
A little south of town, the preserve keeps trails through native woods and meadows. It rewards the short drive, especially in spring.
Lambertville
Cross the bridge and Lambertville is the quieter half of the pair — smaller, calmer, and, for a town its size, remarkably full of things to look at.
Antiques and galleries
Lambertville is one of the region's great antiquing towns — more than twenty galleries and shops, including a much-loved emporium that fills four floors of an 1839 building with furniture, art, lighting and old clothes.
Bridge Street
The town's main street, and the lanes that run off it, hold galleries, makers and cafés — a smaller, slower browse than New Hope, with fewer people on the pavement.
The riverfront and the canal
The Delaware and the canal give you the same slow water New Hope does, on a quieter bank. Lambert Lane, where two of our places sit, runs right down to it.
For dinner
When guests ask where to eat, we point them to The Burgerly — a chef-driven burger room in New Hope. A brisket-chuck-short-rib blend on a brioche bun, sauces made in-house, a small short-list of sides, and a wall of jazz on vinyl behind the counter. Open for lunch and dinner.
Beyond that one recommendation, the river towns are well-stocked with places to eat and drink, and we will let you find your own way through them.
A weekend here
However you plan it, the towns work best on foot. Leave the car where you parked it, walk the bridge once or twice a day, and let the two sides become one trip — coffee on one bank, dinner on the other, the towpath in between.
The river towns are also a popular place to get married, and a fine base for the weekend if you are here for someone else's wedding. The Whole House on Lambert Lane sleeps eight and keeps a family or a wedding party under one roof; the smaller places suit a couple or a pair, close to the bridge and to everything the two towns hold.
Three places to stay, two towns to wander, one river between. When you know your dates, we can get you a room with a view of all of it.
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