Things to do / Travel Guide
Let the locals lead you to the Catskills and the Hudson Valley' well-kept secrets. Book and website in hand you can learn a lot in the region, but only a tour guide can tell you those nuggets of tales and factoids that keep you rapt with attention. A wide variety of Hudson Valley and Catskill tours allow you a guided and informative foray into the region.
Mansion Tours in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley
Many of the well-known historic mansions in the south of the region are open for tours. These tours emphasize the grandeur of the grounds and the architecture, with tie-ins to history, biography, and culture. The collections of former owners' china, their personal articles and clothes, their art, are all on display as well. You can catch these mansion tours in Tarrytown:
- Sunnyside, Washington Irving's residence, which has been open for tourists since 1947, when John D. Rockefeller bought it from the last of Irving's descendants.
- Lyndhurst, financier Jay Gould's residence; a somber affair of stone, asymmetrical design, and wistful turrets.
- Philipsburg Manor, a reconstructed 17th- and 18th-century manor, the original of which was used as a way-station for sold slaves.
- Kykuit, the Rockefeller family's estate, the grandest of them all, and probably the only one still occupied to some extent by the family by which it's known.
There are also other estates and mansions you can tour outside of Tarrytown:
- Boscobel, in Garrison - a thoroughly neoclassical affair from the early 19th century
- Locust Grove, in Poughkeepsie - where Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, lived
- The Roosevelt Estates, Springwood and Val-Kill, in Hyde Park - the former where FDR was born, bred, and lived all his adult life, the latter where Eleanor lived after her husband's death
- Wilderstein, in Rhinebeck - an Italianate masterpiece inhabited by the Suckley family until 1991. The last Suckley, Miss Margaret Lynch Suckley, was a close confidant of FDR, and his archivist until her death 1991.
- Montgomery Place, in Annandale-on-Hudson - built in the early 19th century and opened to the public only about 20 years ago
- Persian Olana, in Hudson - built by Frederick Edwin Church, a major figure of the Hudson River School of painting
All these places offer tours; most of them are year-round, while some are held only in the summertime. The mansion tours usually last around an hour.
Tours of the Hudson River
There are many cruises and tours up and down the Hudson River, and they depart from most of the major port cities of the region. The challenge is to decide what type of tour you're looking for. Most commercial boats offer cruises with choices of food or time of day. Some boats also offer bona fide tours complete with narration, while others concentrate on giving the passenger a memorable experience, with a bar and endless sightseeing.
Also variable for these Hudson River cruises are the points of embarkation and disembarkation; sometimes the cruises embark from cities outside the region such as New York City or Albany. When these are different places there's a bus to return you to your car. Some focus on fall foliage, while others are more summer-based. Most cruises last about two hours. Furthermore, the mode of transportation varies, as sometimes the boat is a yacht, while otherwise it can be an antique vessel, or double-decker, or smaller, more intimate affair.
Tours of West Point
There are vast amounts of history and famous spots at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. You can take a comfortable bus tour to experience a good amount of these attractions, and groups can also be accommodated. West Point tours require that anyone over 16 must bring photo ID. From spring-summer, tours leave every 30-45 minutes, from 9:45 a.m.-3:30 p.m. During the rest of the year, tours are sparser, but are still offered daily. All tours last about two hours, and the departure point is the visitor's center.
Tours of Storm King Art Center
The Storm King Art Center boasts some of the best outdoor post-World War II sculptures in the world. There are docent (lecturer)-guided tours at 2:00 p.m. daily. The sculptures are the creations of 20th-century greats such as David Smith, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, and Louise Nevelson. The tour is free with admission ($10 for adults), and lasts an hour.
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