Crystal Springs Resort, New Jersey
There should be a picture of Crystal Springs in the dictionary for the entry “under the radar.” Somehow this sprawling destination has remained a local secret despite being the largest golf resort in the Northeast, one of the largest in the nation, and by far the largest resort of any kind within an hour’s drive of New York City.
How big is Crystal Springs? It has two full-service resort hotels including the AAA 4-Diamond Grand Cascades Lodge, and both have large destination spas, fitness centers and pool complexes. The resort has a serious culinary focus, hosts the prestigious New Jersey Wine & Food Festival, tends extensive chef’s gardens onsite, and has more than a dozen dining and drinking venues, including its fine dining Latour, which has won the highest possible Wine Spectator Grand Award of Excellence for 17 straight years and claims to have the nation’s second largest list. There are six golf courses, four eighteens and two nines, including Golfweek’s No. 1 rated public layout in the state, Ballyowen—complete with caddies. When the golf courses shut for the winter, there’s a full ski resort outside the Mineral Springs hotel, and all year round there are sporting clays, hiking, axe throwing and virtually every activity you could imagine, all just 45 minutes west of the George Washington Bridge.
Then there are the cigars.
Because the resort is so spread out, there are three separate golf clubhouses, including the main one at the Grand Cascades Lodge, and each has a large and well-stocked humidor. All three were recently upgraded to new climate-controlled custom humidors and filled with information cards describing the characteristics, flavor profile, size, strength and origin of each cigar within. Each Clubhouse also has outdoor terrace or balcony dining, where you can smoke while getting full food and beverage service. Because the resort does an enormous number of weddings (they average five a week) in addition to leisure golf and corporate outings, they sell a lot of cigars. Their supplier has more than 3,000 options, and the selection is frequently changing due to high volumes, but notable offerings on a recent visit include the Cohiba Weller, Partagas Decadas Limited Reserve and 2021 Limited Cohiba Spectre from General Cigar. There are always choices from Montecristo, H. Upmann, Ashton, CAO, Arturo Fuente, Oliva, Rocky and Romeo y Julieta, and because they cater to golfers, sizes skew larger with many Toro and Churchill options. An unusual number of them are in glass or metal tubes, better to handle golf bag abuse. In addition to the clubhouse bars and the golf courses themselves, there are a lot of outdoor sitting areas, firepits, cocktail patios and the like throughout the property, and most rooms have outdoor balconies.
While the wine program is world class, including daily tasting classes and a curated retail shop, Crystal Springs also has a deep focus on whiskies, represented in all three clubhouse bars. In addition, using the onsite bar liquor licenses, they sell full bottles of quality selections in the pro shops alongside the humidors, an unusual option. There are more than 60 whiskies offered at Crystal Springs, including multiple private barrel bottlings for the resort, such as Maker’s Mark and a no longer available private cask of Hudson Whisky’s original recipe Baby bourbon. Special bottles include Japanese whiskies such as the coveted 18-year-old Yamazaki, collectible Bourbons including George T. Stagg and Pappy Van Winkle, Ireland’s Yellow and Green Spot, and many 25 and 30-year single-malt Scotches.
With green wooded hills and fairways everywhere you look, Crystal Springs is an immersive escape near one of the world’s most densely populated metropolitan areas, and is very well set up for relaxing with a cigar, food and drink before, during, after or instead of a round of golf.
Crystal Springs Resort
Grand Cascades Lodge
3 Wild Turkey Way
Hamburg, NJ 07419
855-977-6473
www.crystalgolfresort.com
Pro Shops are typically open 7 days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. in high season, varying with daylight and golf hours.
Grand Cascades Clubhouse Bar: 7 days, 8 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Ballyowen Clubhouse Bar: (May-September) 7 days, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Black Bear Clubhouse Bar: (May-September) 7 days, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
