If you’re 15-20? Yes. If you’re 21+? Mostly yes. You’ll find a few spots to hang, but will mostly go elsewhere.

If you’re 30+, married with kids? Still yes, but you are happy about it.

Yeah I’m 30 married with kids. Feels kind of boring but love the quiet. I guess when the kid gets older, we’ll venture out a bit in NJ. I know NJ cares about their trees and all, but would love some more things to do where it doesn’t feel so isolated.

Dare I ask what you were expecting?

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I was expecting that, and I thought and think I like it.

That’s why I wanted to move here. Feel like we’re close to multiple worlds.

Matawan and Old Bridge have good pizza, better than many towns north of it for sure.

If you’re coming from the city or JC or hobo.. wildly boring. If you’re coming from anywhere else, there’s plenty to do.

I mean, if you have friends… you could stay home and have fun. Or go to a bar or be anywhere and have fun.

Boring isn’t the town, it’s your situation

Good point!

Yeah we have good pizza here for sure.

Agreed- I used to work in Matawan and Salerno's in Hazlet has fantastic pizza.

If you're bored in CNJ, you'll be bored anywhere. You're close enough to NYC, Philly, and the beach. There's a ton of great restaurants all over the place and many nearby towns with a lot to offer.

True! We need to venture out more but it’s tougher with a 2 year old. Can’t wait for the spring weather so we can go to the beaches.

Boring in what regard? Compared to a bigger city like Jersey City, yeah. Most of CNJ is middle class suburban 9-5 families, middle aged people. There's not really party areas like the equivalent of Bourbon St.

However there's plenty to do on the weekends- hiking, golfing, the shore, etc.

Marlboro guy here, married with 2 kids. I love it here, I grew up in Union county and when I went back a few months ago everything seemed so congested. Love the space here, also tons of retail on route 9. I don't have to venture more than 5 miles in either direction to get what I need

I grew up in Manalapan. I wasn’t bored as a teen but I think I did miss out on having a “downtown” to walk to with my friends like my daughter does now in our north Jersey town.

Me neither! We love how much retail is in route 9. And we’re close to the bus stop! We were in NY today and it was so congested. Everything took forever to get to.

Yes! That’s what I think I miss. The areas you can walk around and have local spots to hangout.

Couldn't pay me to go into the city anymore

Yeah. Though to be fair, I didn’t even know I was missing out on something until I was an adult. (My husband grew up with a downtown and insisted it was the greatest thing ever). There was no place at all I could walk to from my house growing up.

The good thing is that we’re not far from traveling there. It’s just that my daughter won’t get to experience that same feeling as when I was little in NY. I was always around the neighborhood, walking with friends, biking to the parks. I just don’t get that feeling you can do that here.

LaMadonna has an excellent upside down pie, Deninos is great as well.

Matawan has a downtown that's slowly getting better every year. We have a donut shop!

Awesome! We’ll have to check it out! We are currently in Old Bridge so not too far!

I grew up in Freehold and have family in Matawan & Marlboro. Yeah that area is rather boring. Okay for like living day to day life and Matawan has Alternate Ending Brewery, the bowling alley, and a couple of bars, but it’s pure suburbia there.

Boring means different things for different people. What are you looking for?

Old bridge/Parlin have a lot of good food. The night life blows and you need to drive everywhere. NYC and philly are both close though and Aberdeen/Matawan have a train station. It’s also close to the beach during summer and has a lot of places to hike. Boring is subjective but there is a lot to do in the area when the weather is nice.

I think the issue is the weather right now and we just recently moved. We love the beaches so we’ll be there often when the weather permits.

I didn’t know Aberdeen and Matawan have a train station but good to know! I can’t seem to find GREAT food in Old Bridge, maybe I should make a recommendations post and try and get some recommendations.

Old bridge has a lot of good italian food. Perth amboy for latin food, good indian food in parlin(thou not as good as edison), good Portuguese in south river, good Japanese in Aberdeen. I work like 3 miles from North end of old bridge so i eat out a lot in that area. Old bridge is big.

If you’re in old bridge with a 2 year old, have you tried the library yet? They have a great children’s section with toys and story times and such. Lots of parents take their kids there so you can chat them up. There’s also an ice skating rink right next to the library.

There’s a YMCA right next to Manino Park (? I think that’s the name?) that is on 516, right down the street from the Rita’s and Carvel. Manino Park/the park by YMCA has a nice playground and a couple baseball fields, I believe. There’s Cheesequake park for hikes which also has a little pond with a tiny beach. The park is really nice and depending on your location in old bridge, a 10-20 min drive. Cheesequake farms used to have hayrides with corn cannons and zombie paintball in the fall, but I think they closed last year.

In terms of nightlife, no, there’s not much going on. There are lots of decent restaurants (two Thai places if you like Thai) but I’m a boring adult with little kids so I don’t care for nightlife. There’s a Harvest(?) restaurant that does special dinners and cooking lessons I believe on 516 also.

Anyway, good luck! We used to live in OB and liked it a lot! We could walk to the Rita’s/Dunkin/grocery store/pizza on 516 and it was a 7 minute drive to Costco. Still miss it lol

If you’re going to Matawan, Keyport shouldn’t be too far. The Lawrenceville section of old bridge is on the water and has some parks/playgrounds with views on the water. Keansburg is also nice for walking around I think—it’s been a while. I forgot which one has a nice boardwalk with restaurants and shops further in—keyport maybe?? but it’s not very far at all from old bridge/Matawan. We used to go for little day trips and it was nice, even in the cooler weather. Lots of people bundled up and walking around, some guys fishing, nice cute little shops and restaurants and a fish fry take away spot.

Hopefully someone else can chime in or I’ll ask my husband which one was which. We used to drive over from old bridge and it was a 20-30 min drive. It’s right near Cheesequake park too, which I mentioned in another response.

Good luck!

Is it Asbury Park? I heard some good things about Keyport recently but I always thought the neighborhood may be bad?

I'm starting an event business over the next year and will keep y'all in mind haha

Lived in Old Bridge for the past 8ish years in the Sayrewood South area. Definitely boring and safe. Good if you have young kids.