New hotels in Princeton

We track one recent hotel in Princeton: Graduate Princeton, a 180-room hotel on Nassau Street that opened on 19 August 2024 in a restored and enlarged 1918 dormitory. Hilton's opening announcement called it the first new hotel in downtown Princeton in nearly 90 years. The town's other long-standing downtown address is the Nassau Inn, on Palmer Square, which dates in its present form to 1938. Supply in the center has always been thin, and that shapes every booking decision below.

Princeton is a single municipality of 30,681 people (2020 census) on 18 square miles, roughly midway between New York and Philadelphia. The university was founded in 1746 and settled here in 1756, when Nassau Hall was finished. At the time it was the largest academic building in the American colonies. British troops were inside it during the Battle of Princeton on 3 January 1777, when three cannonballs were fired at the building and two hit. One mark is still visible on the south side. From 30 June to 4 November 1783 the Congress of the Confederation met in its second-floor library, which briefly made Princeton the provisional capital of the United States.

Almost everything a visitor wants is within a mile of Nassau Street. The exceptions are the battlefield and the Institute for Advanced Study, which need a short drive or a taxi.

What to do

A weekend in Princeton

Start on the campus, which is open to walkers. Nassau Hall still houses the president's office and the administration. The University Chapel, finished in 1928 to a design by Ralph Adams Cram, seats almost 2,000 and has more than 10,000 square feet of stained glass. Access times change with services and events, so check before going.

The Princeton University Art Museum reopened in a new building on 31 October 2025, on the same site as the old one. David Adjaye designed it with Cooper Robertson as executive architect, and it holds more than 117,000 works. Admission is free. The posted hours are Monday to Wednesday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m., with closures on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day and the Fourth of July. The museum also runs a restaurant, Mosaic, on its third floor.

Palmer Square, behind Nassau Street, was built between 1936 and 1939 by Edgar Palmer, heir to a zinc fortune, with Thomas Stapleton as architect. The Colonial Revival buildings borrow their woodwork and roof tile from Colonial Williamsburg. Restaurants, a few anchor retailers and the inn fill the square. For books and records, go to Labyrinth Books at 122 Nassau Street and the Princeton Record Exchange at 20 South Tulane Street, which Barry Weisfeld founded in 1980 and which carries more than 100,000 titles. The Princeton Public Library is at 65 Witherspoon Street.

A second day, a little farther out

The Institute for Advanced Study, at 1 Einstein Drive, was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner with the money of Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld. Albert Einstein joined in 1933, and from 1935 until his death in 1955 he lived at 112 Mercer Street. The Institute bought that house in 1986 and keeps it as a private residence, so it cannot be visited. The Institute owns more than 600 acres and has preserved 589 of them as woods, wetlands and farmland since 1997. Its visitor guide sets out what the public may enter, and that is worth reading before a walk.

Princeton Battlefield State Park is on Mercer Road, about a mile and a half south of the university, and it is free and open daily. The Thomas Clarke House, built in 1772 by a Quaker family, served as a field hospital after the fight on 3 January 1777. General Hugh Mercer, wounded in the battle, died there nine days later. A stone patio marks the common grave of 21 British and 15 American soldiers. Trails from the park lead toward the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Institute's land.

Lake Carnegie is the other short excursion. Andrew Carnegie paid for it at the request of Howard Russell Butler, a painter from the class of 1876, so that the university's crew would stop sharing the narrow canal with commercial barges. The lake is private property of the university, open to the public for boating, skating and fishing. The canal towpath, part of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park, follows its south shore and can be joined from Alexander Road, Washington Road and Harrison Street. Princeton's rowers train from the Shea Rowing Center on the north shore.

Evenings

McCarter Theatre programs plays, dance and music through the year. Its 2026-27 season includes Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Purpose and the world premiere of Carter Bays's comedy True Marriage, and a new series, McCarter at the Museum, starts in November at the art museum. The eating clubs line Prospect Avenue, and the student bars are along Nassau Street, which leaves the blocks around Palmer Square quiet after dinner.

Where to stay

Nassau Street

Graduate Princeton sits across Nassau Street from the campus gates. AJ Capital Partners, the developer behind the Graduate brand, restored the building with the architects Stonehill Taylor. The property had been a university dormitory since 1918, in the Colonial Revival style, and the owner added to it rather than only converting it.

The design follows the campus closely. The two-story lobby is laid out as a Gothic library, with orange and black floor tiles, shelves of books, vintage Reunions jackets (the garments given to alumni at their 25th reunion) and a reception desk flanked by four carved wooden tigers. A 30-foot table is meant for studying, and the names of the eating clubs are painted in gold leaf on the bookcases. In the rooms, the seersucker drapes are orange and white, the carpet is apricot, and the bedside lamps are modeled on the cannon behind Nassau Hall. Each bathroom has a framed sketch by Einstein. The hotel's release gives 6,000 square feet of public space and does not describe event rooms or suites.

Ye Tavern, at the far end of the lobby, takes its name from a bar of the 1930s that stood on the site. The press material describes a carved wooden bar and a menu of classic American dishes with pre-Prohibition cocktails.

Palmer Square

The Nassau Inn, at 10 Palmer Square, has 188 rooms and the longer history. The first inn opened in 1769 at 52 Nassau Street, in a house built in 1756, and the building was demolished in 1937 to make way for the square. Its Yankee Doodle Tap Room has a large Norman Rockwell mural behind the bar. The inn lists 14 banquet rooms, more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space and an outdoor patio used for weddings. The shops and restaurants of the square are at its door.

Outside the center

Chain hotels cluster outside the walkable center, mostly along the Route 1 corridor near the research parks and corporate offices. They suit business trips and anyone with a car. The drawback is the drive back into town, where street parking is metered.

Which hotel for your trip

University business: parents, alumni, applicants

Graduate Princeton is the hotel built for this. It is in sight of the main gate, so a campus tour, a lecture or a dinner with a student needs no car. It is also where demand concentrates on the university's big dates. Reunions in 2026 ran from Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 May, with the P-rade, the alumni parade, at 2 p.m. on Saturday 23 May and fireworks at 9 p.m. The university expected nearly 25,000 alumni, family, guests and staff. Late May rooms go early.

A weekend with a car-free plan

Both the Graduate and the Nassau Inn are in the walkable center, so a visitor who arrives by train needs the Dinky and little else. The Institute and the battlefield are the two places that do need wheels. A taxi booked in advance or a rental car for a day covers both.

Weddings and meetings

The Nassau Inn has the larger stated event capacity of the two central hotels. The Graduate has 6,000 square feet of public space and a lobby that photographs well, but its release does not list ballrooms.

Princeton as a stopover

Princeton works as an overnight between New York and Philadelphia. The town is not a place for a long hotel stay, and a night or two covers the campus, the museum and one excursion.

Practical notes

The Dinky is a 2.7-mile NJ Transit shuttle between Princeton station, on the edge of the campus, and Princeton Junction on the Northeast Corridor. It runs without intermediate stops, takes about five minutes and is timed to connect with trains. NJ Transit replaces it with buses for maintenance, as it did on weekdays between 14 and 25 July 2025, when the transfer took about 20 minutes. The Daily Princetonian's analysis of the timetable found a fastest weekday trip of 1 hour 7 minutes, leaving Princeton station at 8:09 a.m., changing at the Junction and reaching New York Penn Station at 9:16 a.m. The average weekday trip was 1 hour 25 minutes. The university's own guidance gives 70 to 90 minutes from Penn Station to the Junction.

Driving into the center is easy, parking less so: street spaces are metered. On foot is the normal way to see the town.

Museum hours in particular change with the semester and with holidays. The art museum, the Institute and the state park each publish current times online.

Frequently asked questions

What is the newest hotel in Princeton?

Graduate Princeton, which opened on 19 August 2024 with 180 rooms. It is the only hotel we currently track in the town, and Hilton described it as the first new downtown hotel in nearly 90 years.

Where is Graduate Princeton?

On Nassau Street, directly across from the Princeton University campus, in a restored 1918 dormitory. The hotel's release does not give a street number.

How long does it take to get from Princeton to New York?

About 1 hour 7 minutes at the fastest on a weekday and 1 hour 25 minutes on average, by Dinky to Princeton Junction and then NJ Transit to New York Penn Station.

Can you visit Einstein's house in Princeton?

No. The house at 112 Mercer Street belongs to the Institute for Advanced Study and is a private residence.