United States · New Jersey
Where to Stay in Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton is a Passaic County city in North Jersey, crossed by highways, a commercial hub and a bedroom suburb within the New York Metropolitan Area.
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Where to stay in Clifton
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Highway junctions decide it here. Clifton's hotels sit near the interchanges rather than any main square, and a room by the routes crossing the city puts New York City, Passaic, and the rest of Passaic County within an easy drive. That suits business travel best.
North Jersey firms bring people through, and the commercial strips carry the kind of rooms that answer a night's work rather than a week's sightseeing. Rooms near the interchanges also serve anyone driving on toward Trenton or the far side of New Jersey, since Clifton sits on the through routes rather than at the end of one. Old Clifton lies off the strips.
The streets around St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church and the Reynier Speer House keep a quieter grain, and anyone who wants the city's older side should look away from the junctions toward these blocks. Passaic sits immediately alongside. The neighbouring city shares the same built-up ground, so a bed there or in Clifton makes little difference to the drive into New York City in the morning.
Staying out here trades the city for the drive, which is why plenty of visitors to the New York Metropolitan Area base themselves in Passaic County instead. The Von Schmid House and the Van Reyper-Bond House mark two such quiet corners.
About Clifton
Highways define the city.
What is Clifton known for?
Several major routes criss-cross Clifton, and the junctions have made it a regional commercial hub for North Jersey rather than a place with a single old centre. Commuters fill the streets each morning, since Clifton works as a bedroom suburb of New York City inside the New York Metropolitan Area. Older ground survives in pockets.
The Garritse-Doremus-Westervelt House and the John and Anna Vreeland House stand among the newer blocks, farmhouses left over from the country the city covered.
What are the main landmarks in Clifton?
Churches and farmhouses make the list. St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church anchors the older parish streets, and the Garritse-Doremus-Westervelt House, the John and Anna Vreeland House, and the Reynier Speer House survive from the farming country the city grew over. The Van Reyper-Bond House and the Von Schmid House complete the set of older homes.
Nothing here draws crowds. Clifton's interest lies in the ordinary streets of Passaic County rather than in any monument, which is the honest measure of a commercial city in North Jersey.
What is the history of Clifton?
Farms came first. The oldest buildings in Clifton are houses, and the names they carry, Vreeland, Doremus, Westervelt, Van Reyper, and Speer, come from the households that held this ground before the city took shape. Nothing in the record fixes a charter date.
Clifton's beginnings sit in that farmhouse period rather than in a founding date, and the Garritse-Doremus-Westervelt House is the clearest survivor of it. The John and Anna Vreeland House still stands. Roads made the modern city.
Several major highways were driven across the municipality, and the junctions where they cross turned Clifton into a regional commercial hub for North Jersey, drawing trade from Passaic and the rest of Passaic County. Housing followed the same roads. The city filled with commuters working in New York City, and Clifton settled into its place in the New York Metropolitan Area as a bedroom suburb rather than a destination.
Churches went up with the parishes. St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church and the congregations around it served the arriving households, while the Reynier Speer House, the Van Reyper-Bond House, and the Von Schmid House stayed on among the new streets.
Where is Clifton?
Clifton fills a stretch of Passaic County. The city runs against Passaic on one side and the wider built ground of North Jersey on the others, with no water or ridge to give it an obvious boundary. Highways do that job instead.
New York City lies close enough that the whole municipality belongs to the New York Metropolitan Area, and the drive in crosses continuous suburb the whole way. Farmhouses mark where the fields were.
What is the climate of Clifton?
The built ground holds the heat. Clifton sits in the temperate band with the rest of the New York Metropolitan Area, so summers run warm over the highways and pavements while winters bring the cold in properly. Four full seasons pass.
Passaic County shares the pattern with North Jersey as a whole, and nothing in the city's ground shelters it from what the wider region gets.
How do you get to Clifton?
Driving is the way in. Several major highways cross Clifton, and the city's whole shape follows them, so arrivals come off an interchange rather than out of a station hall. New York City lies a short run away, and commuters cross out of Passaic County every working morning from Clifton and Passaic.
Trenton lies far to the other end of New Jersey, and the through routes that serve Clifton carry traffic the length of the state as well as into the city. The junctions never really empty.
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Updated August 2026