Metro North to Hudson Valley
 

Has anyone ever taken the Metro North up to the quaint towns in the Hudson valley? Which towns are serviced by the train? Is it hard to get to the cities from the train stations? Renting a car in New York City and getting out of town does not thrill me.Thanks

If you look at the Metro North web site it will give you a map of the various towns it serves. Generally the train station is right in the center of the town.

The problem is that what you want to see is usually outside the town - and public transit is extremely limited - which means taking cabs (rare) to see much of anything.

Talking the train up the Hudson is nice for pretty views in the spring or the fall - or to visit someone - but not very practical for touring around to see sights.

Renting a car on the upper west side and then driving 4 or 5 blocks to hop on the west side highway at 79th St is probably a better choice.

Yeah, I agree. Renting a car is best if you want to get around with ease. I'm from Poughkeepsie and the cab/public transport situation isn't great in the area.

I agree with nyt and tff. The only exceptions would be if you were looking for a simple day trip to the Dia Beacon museum (right near the Beacon stop) and dinner in Cold Spring - 1 stop closer to NYC from Beacon.

It is possible to take a train to spend a day at some individual towns, but as others have mentioned, not really practical to get from town to town.
For example, Cold Spring is a town where the train station is really right in the middle of the town with shops, restaurants, and a nice riverside park. You could spend a whole day there.
Rhinebeck is another walkable town you could spend time in, but you would need to get a taxi to and from the nearest train station.

Some individual attractions / historic houses may be doable too (taxi to/from station to house)but you would pretty much have to stick to one place.

Another option (which I have not tried) is to take the train to one of the stations, rent a car there, use it and return it, and train back to the city. Might be a good option for an overnight trip and if you don't want to deal with the driving part into and out of the city.

You might try a combination of metro north and zipcar. I noticed that they have a zipcar spot at the Beacon parking lot.

Zipcar also has cars at Tarrytown and North White Plains.

Totally agree on escaping NY on the weekends. Especially during summer.

What is zipcar?

I go to Hudson---about as far as you'd probably want to go in the Hudson Valley---to visit friends a few times a year. It's a fairly nice little town, but the train station is actually at the bottom of a fairly steep hill, though certainly walkable in 10 or 15 minutes up to the main street. I believe there is at least one hotel as well as several nice restaurants in town.

I've never taken the train to Rheincliff (for Rheinbeck), but I've been to Poughkeepsie on one of the weekend Metro North excursions, where they provided a bus for transportation. But those have been offered usually only in summer.

To be honest, Amtrak is so expensive, I'd probably concentrate on places I could get to on Metro North. You could rent a car in White Plains to avoid having to drive in and out of the city. I definitely get your hesitation about driving in and out of the city; when I've done this it makes me a nervous wreck. Though I must say that the drive up the Hudson Valley is much better on the Taconic Parkway, which has a slower (actually enforced) speed limit and less traffic.

But the main draw of the region is out in the country, and public transit is basically non-existent. Taxis are possible and can be called but are expensive, so you really need a car to do any kind of exploring.

I have lived and worked in the Hudson Valley (West Point) for the past 16 yrs. Whenever I go into the city we take the metro north into grand central, just easier than driving and parking. Unfortunately it is in my opinion not a good choice to take the train from NYC to the Hudson Valley unless you rent a car when you arrive up here. All of the sights are pretty much spread out and require a car for the most part.

zipcar is a flexible and painless car sharing service, perfect for a HV day trip. Join zipcar for a fee, reserve the car, by hour or day, get to the car via internet, zap your card on the car and you're done. Gas (180m) and insurance is all paid for. An EZ pass is built in. Return the car, zap the card. Done.

I am not a zipcar employee, but a frequent user.

For longer trips, use the North White Plains stop - Hertz is just across the street. The hours aren't too bad as well. They actually open pretty early.

If you leave early in the morning on weekends, no traffic, no stress. Coming back is the problem, unless you come back super early in the morning as well, but weekend night traffic, while not as bad as weekday traffic, can be stressful as well.

I drive alot in the summer, and by November, I do not want to drive a car again for weeks. Seriously.