Baseball Hall of Fame - estimated length of visit?
 

As may be evident from my screen name, I'm a baseball fan. I'm going camping in NY state with my dad (also a life long baseball fan) and my 9.5 twins in July. Our itinerary brings us near Cooperstown so I'd like to surprise my Dad with a visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Anyone have a suggestion as to how long we should budget (in hours) for a visit to the Hall? It's open until 9pm during the summer, so hopefully we can visit as a break on travel day (It seems to be about half way between the campsite we're leaving - near Lake Placid - and Corning NY.... in theory we could leave the campsite around 11am, stop somewhere for lunch around 1pm, hit the road by 2pm, arrive in Cooperstown between 3-4pm, and visit the Hall for 4-5hrs including dinner. One of the best cafeteria meals I've ever had was at a Baseball Hall of Fame exhibit at a museum, where they featured hot dogs from baseball parks around the major leagues!)

Thoughts welcomed!

We spent the better part of a day there 6-7 hours counting lunch . . there is a lot to see if you are a fan. After the Hall we walked down the street by and thru the shops. . nice way to end the day.

We arrived the evening prior and spent two nites before going on to Vermont

Forgot to mention . . we had our 75 year old MIL with us and she loved the place . . She is a rabid Phillies ( pardon the language ) fan and there are a lot of those guys in the Hall

We planned to stay for an hour or so and ended up spending the entire day, taking a break for dinner and then returning until closing. Check out my trip report - http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...with-teens.cfm

just be careful about the dates... the annual ceremony for the HOF is July 20-23... that's a tough time to get in for a visit...

Have been here several years ago, and agree with those who say you could spend much of the day here, depending on how thorough you are.

Whoops, I typo'd our dates -- we'll be in NY state in August. (We have different plans for July)

Crosscheck, thanks for the link. I really enjoyed your trip report, and have stadium-envy. (I worked at SkyDome, now RogersCentre, as a teen but have only visited a few other ballparks - Fenway/Boston, Yankee/NYC, Milwaukee, Detroit, Montreal and Alamedia County (home of the As IIRC). We need to add to that list!

Jaysfan, Luckily, you have plenty of time to see all the stadiums with your kids. Mine are now 18 and 21 and they've been all over the world with us, but remember the baseball trip as one of their best vacations ever. We still try to visit one random stadium every year, but it's tougher with their schedules. Enjoy Cooperstown!

Thanks, Crosscheck, but it turned out we didn't have time for Cooperstown. We had to shorten the trip due to other commitments at home -- we ended up going to and from Lake Placid on the same route. We'll have to leave Cooperstown for another time. It's on my Dad's bucket list, though, so I expect to do it in the next few years while he's in good enough health and young enough to keep sharing the driving ;)

I live in the Cooperstown area and my husband is with the sheriffs dept. I tell everyone when I hear they are coming to Cooperstown to park far away and take the trolly. Also plan on spending more money on the basball stuff there then other places. This year there isnt even inductions so the ceremony, which I work every year is going to be short. Good luck on the trip, feel free to ask me anyrhing about the area.