New Brunswick is a small city on the Raritan River, defined above all by Rutgers University — the State University of New Jersey, whose campus sprawls across much of the town. The result is a college-town atmosphere with a good mix of cheap food, live music, and a surprisingly active theatre scene centred on the State Theatre and the George Street Playhouse on Livingston Avenue.
The Dutch founded the town in the 17th century, and a handful of colonial-era buildings survive in the old centre around Neilson Street — Christ Church, the First Reformed Church, and a clutch of brick and brownstone houses. The free Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers campus is the best museum for an hour or two, and the Rutgers Geology Museum in Geology Hall is a delightful Victorian-era one-room cabinet of natural history.
Trains run every half hour to New York City from the station on Route 27, making New Brunswick an easy day trip or stopover.