Four of us are spending a long weekend in the area but only one day at the garlic festival. What other activities would be good for four older women who are very active (ie no hiking)? Any restaurants in the area to recommend? We are traveling from NH.

Sorry for the delayed response - I'm never online at your hour......

a few ideas
Walkway over the Hudson - you can access it from the west side (Highland) or east (Poughkeepsie)
Woodstock is close by - no specific reco's there from me.
Culinary Institute (Hyde Park) - but that might be a bit of a drive.
FDR/Vanderbilt estates, also Hyde Park.

you say active, but no hiking?

Olana, Frederic Church’s home overlooking the Hudson, is about 15 miles from there. Tour the home; reserve a tram tour of the grounds.

https://www.olana.org

The Thomas Cole house is on the other side of the Hudson. See this page on their website for suggestions of other things to do in the area—

https://thomascole.org/plan-your-trip/

Opps, K62, I meant not very active.
we love farmers markets and food tours, wine and hard cider tasting. Last year we visited a candy store where one friend stocked up on candy for her and some other friends to use for gingerbread houses.

I would probably spend two days at the garlic festival but I'm a vegetable gardener and cook. Two,others enjoy cooking but don't garden.

A tram ride sounds good to me.

You have to visit Opus 40, a sculpture park in Saugerties. It’s a wonderful site that was created over nearly 40 years, using the stone quarried from the site. A must!
https://opus40.org

Thanks for the tips. My friend has scheduled us to visit the places she liked best after reading the posts.

dfrost: my husband and i visited the grounds of Olana last Saturday. It was a nice day and quite crowded in the area around the house but it was all well organized. We walked the ridge trail near the house and the electric tram rides was going along that trail at a similar pace, stopping at different vantage points. There seemed to be a lot of good information from what we could overhear. Church carefully landscaped his property and considered the design a major work of art.
there isn't much signage outdoors explaining the house or the landscaping. There is a 20 minute film at the end of the welcome center/gift shop but not much else for orientation. The website has a lot of good background information.

thanks, VT. Our friend signed us up for both the house and tram tour. I'll visit the website and share link with my friends to read ahead of time. We are reading Garlic and Sapphires for our evening book discussion since we no longer do much at night deciding at our age it's better to drink at our air b&b instead of going out unless there's a play to see.

The house tour is also well worth doing. It is a unique building in a spectacular setting.

one other piece of background information you might find useful is the brochure on 19th Century Painters: the Hudson river school at this link
https://www.hudsonrivervalley.com/or...res-guidebooks
The brochures on architectural traditions and landscapes and gardens are also good.

Additional thanks, VT. I should know more about the artists but don't. One friend was a history major. Wonder if she knows much about this area.

Thanks for the link, VT. One downloadable brochure is about gardens and landscapes and includes many that are now on our list. We have visited a few of them. Just north of NYC, in Yonkers, is Untermyer Gardens where ongoing renovations are revealing the beautiful original design and plantings. Quite an achievement!