The Pendry Natirar is New Jerseys most luxurious new resort

If you’ve ever wondered why they call it the Garden State, book a suite at the Pendry Natirar this fall.Set on 90 acres among the rolling hills of Somerset County, NJ, the 66-room retreat (opening this month) celebrates nature in all its riotous bounty.

Here, beside the Raritan River (see what they did there?!), a 10-acre farm and 80,000-bee apiary shape the menus at both a 19,000-square-foot spa and the newly relaunched, much beloved Ninety Acres restaurant.It all began more than a century ago, when whaling heiress Kate Macy Ladd purchased 500 acres of wooded land between Bedminster and Peapack-Gladstone.She spent eight years constructing an expansive Tudor-style mansion.

In 1983, her charitable fund sold the property to Hassan II, the late king of Morocco, who wanted a pied-à-terre near Princeton University so he could entertain family and friends when visiting his sons.The offspring eventually sold it to the county, who last year leased the central core of vibrant parkland to a local developer.

They contracted with Michael Fuerstman, co-founder of Pendry Hotels & Resorts (along with his father, Alan Fuerstman, founder and CEO of parent company, uber-luxe hotel group Montage International), to create and manage a bucolic escape that will most definitely alter the world’s perception of north-central New Jersey.Fuerstman the Younger converted the acreage — an hour’s drive from Manhattan, or 10 minutes by car from the Peapack-Gladstone train station — into an American version of a country house hotel, with Ladd’s 1912 mansion as its centerpiece.“We are thrilled to introduce a new chapter of elegance and hospitality in this unique countryside setting,” the son of a native New Jerseyan tells Alexa.Guests enter the quaint yet sprawling resort by first cutting through wooded Natirar Park, driving up a hill, passing the old carriage house (now home to the resort’s signature eatery) and then the well-ordered farm.

“Cue the deer,” jokes Kelly ...