250 Years Ago, General George Washington began his campaign to create an independent nation on the American continent, and three of the most important battles occured in Central New Jersey—an agricultural region that today still offers some of the nation’s most inviting farms, wineries, and farm-to-table restaurants.

Enjoy lunch and a wine tasting at Hopewell Valley Vineyards.

For the first time, you can enjoy a three-day tour of a region where Washington crossed the Delaware River and won pivotal battles at Trenton and Princeton during “ten crucial days” inspired by the words of Thomas Paine: “These are the days that try men’s souls.”

While touring these historic sites and battlefields, you’ll also visit farms for cheesemaking and seeing livestock, enjoy tastings at a brewery and winery, and shop and dine in picturesque Princeton and Hopewell.

The three-day, two-night tour is offered by Starr Tours in association with Discover Central New Jersey and Ten Crucial Days, a non-profit organization offering expert tours of Revolutionary battlefields and sites.

A guestroom at the Chauncey Hotel.

Travelers will stay at the Chauncey Hotel & Conference Center, a luxurious, 100-room hotel in a campus-like setting, close to Princeton and Central Jersey farms.

The tour is being offered in November this fall, with the opportunity to see where the Continental Army departed and landed on the shores of the mighty Delaware River. (Unfortunately, you won’t see the reenactors depicted in the photo above unless you make a special trip for the twice-annual reenactment of the crossing that occurs each December.)

For a detailed itinerary, accommodation details, departure dates, more photographs, and costs, visit the Starr Tours website.

Princeton’s historic shopping district offers great restaurants and more.

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, America’s Revolution nearly died in New Jersey. During “times that try men’s souls,” General Washington dared to cross an icy Delaware River to start what would become Ten Crucial Days through Mercer County, New Jersey, where he saved the Revolution with three dramatic battlefield victories.

Get ready for the nation’s coming 250^th anniversary by personally experiencing those Ten Crucial Days in a private automobile tour of the Central Jersey towns where the revolution was saved.

The Trenton Battle Monument marks where the tide turned in favor of the Patriots.

On the tour you’ll visit the spot where Washington and 2,400 troops crossed the Delaware River; follow the route of a Christmas night march that brought the Continental Army to Trenton for two crucial battles; wrap up your journey in Princeton, where Washington rallied the troops by confronting enemy fire on horseback, at grave risk to his own life.

Your tour guide will be Roger S.  Williams, with the nonprofit organization TenCrucialDays.org. Roger is a public historian, the State Historian of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and a lifelong resident of Mercer County. Join him in his Range Rover or listen from your car, caravan-style, via walkie-talkie, as he describes the significant locations and events that made American independence possible.

You’ll start at Washington Crossing Historic Park and stop at the Old Barracks in Trenton, the Trenton Battlefield Monument, and the Princeton Battlefield, in one of our most charming college towns. Roger’s narration throughout paints a tapestry of 18^th Century life. While traversing the Ten Crucial Days, you will be transported back in time to where Washington and his officers led farmers, students, printers, wainwrights, coopers, millers, sailors—the common denizen of colonial America—to accomplish a feat that changed the course of history and launched a nation.

The tour typically runs three to four hours, leaving plenty of time to complete your Central Jersey experience with a farm-to-table lunch or dinner, a stop at a local winery or brewery, or a visit to one of Central Jersey’s bountiful farms. You can also make it a longer visit with a stay in one of our terrific hotels.

See the Princeton Battlefield where Washington risked his life.

Mention you heard about the tour at Discover Central New Jersey and get $25 off.

Philadelphia may have been the place where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed on July 4, 1776, but it was New Jersey that had more battles among all 13 original colonies, and where General Washington spent the most time. You’ll be visiting hallowed ground where Americans, British, and Hessian soldiers  put their lives on the line in a struggle that would shape the world.

The United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026. This is the perfect opportunity for you and your family to experience this vital story of our founding. Learn more or book your tour by emailing roger@tencrucialdays.org.

Thomas Paine’s words inspired the Continental Army as they marched with Washington through Central Jersey to save America’s Revolution are immortalized in the American psyche:

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

Join the Cause with Washington, and you will be inspired, too!

Princeton’s historic shopping district offers great restaurants and more.