Need help with Hudson River Valley Trip
 

Hi,
I need some suggestions for places to stay and eat. I'm also wondering if we should pick two places to stay, one lower and one upper for bases of touring. Really open to suggestions.

We will start out from Stewart airport in Newburgh on Sat am July 25. We've got 5 days and then head to Cape Cod to meet up with friends.

Things of interest to us (also open for suggestions) in no particular order:
Washingtons' Headquarters - Newburgh
Kykuit - Tarrytown - Ok, most of the tourist things listed in Tarrytown in the Fodors Guide
Manitoga (Russel Wright) - Garrison
Chuang Yen Monastery - Carmel
Hudson River Maritime Museum - Kingston
Eleanor Roosevelt - Valkill - & Franklin D. Roosevelt - Vanderbuilt Mansion - Hyde Park
Visiting some Wineries - Hiking - Maybe a river cruise trip - just soaking up the ambiance - maybe shopping of local made things

Prefer smaller places to stay like inns or B&B that have less than 20 rooms ($100-$350. depending on the place)

Had previously got suggestions to eat at CIA restaurants but they will be closed the time frame we are in town.

Really excited about seeing this part of the country.
Thanks a lot.
Laurie

I think you have more than 5 days activities/stops and travel here. If you look at a map, you'll see Kykuit is considerably south of the airport and all the other stops. If you definitely want to see it, go there first. If you wanted to stay in one location, Poughkeepsie area seems logical. If you want 2 locations, Beacon would work for the southern stops and there are several good restaurants & inns & b & b's there. Mt. Beacon gets good reviews. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._New_York.html If you stay there, DIA Beacon is worth a visit. http://www.diabeacon.org/

For the northern stops, look at Rhinebeck. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._New_York.html

Have you thought about a visit to West Point and maybe lunch at the Thayer Hotel?

The definites (in no particular order):

*Kykuit
*West Point
*FDR's home and museum
*Valkill
*Vanderbilt Mansion
*Olana (Victorian estate of artist Frederic Church in Hudson)
*Storm King Art Center (a magnificent sculpture garden in a multi-hundred-acre site in Mountainville, featuring works of some of the greatest sculptors including Calder, Nevelson and Moore)
*DIA: Beacon (a wonderful gallery housed in an old Nabisco factory!)

There are some very pleasant river cruises of not-too-long duration leaving from Newburgh and Kingston.

Thanks for the replies so far.
Mclaurie, I love the links to the B&B's you posted. They are right up my alley. I did a "Mapquest" from the airport to Kykuit and it said it was about 41 miles away. Is that not correct? It listed the driving time as about 1 hours and 2 minutes. I always take the info off there with a grain of salt. Will the drive be considerably longer in time?

Charsuzan - as Mclaurie pointed out, I do have a lot of things already on my list and I have to be discerning. I know for many people West Point is certainly a "not miss" For me, I'm sure I would be glad I went but it is not a priority.

Howard - I love that you listed your definites. Olana is one I forgot to put down on my post. Storm King Art Center looks very good too!

Does anyone else have feedback on driving times and moving from lodging to lodging? I don't want to try to shove too much in.

I figure we should end up "near" the interstate 90 so we can head to Cape Cod.

That driving time from Stewart is correct.
(PS: On second thought, I agree with you about West Point. Though certainly worth your time, I wouldn't put at the top of my list!)
Storm King is indeed a wonderful experience. It's one of our top destinations in the whole Hudson Valley.

Great, thanks Howard. How much time do you think we need at Kykuit? Can you recommend any place to stay in the area?
Thanks.

Nothing to add about the sights as others have given you good info.

Depending on where you end up staying I can give you recs on restaurants the stretch on/near Rt 9 from Cold Spring north to Rhinebeck.

You have a choice of tours at Kykuit. Do a google search for Kykuit and you'll see your options. I would recommend the combination tour, i.e., the interior of the mansion and the exterior. So, you're talking of at least 2-3 hours. But, it'll be time well spent. I think it's best of the mansions in the Hudson Valley.
As for places to stay, you have many nearby options in Tarrytown--both a regular Marriott and a Courtyard, plus aSheraton, Springhill Suites, Doubletree, etc.

If you want a spectacular place to stay in Tarrytown, here it is:

http://www.castleonthehudsonhotel.com/

Deb

I meant to include that are withing you budget and they have packages which include Kykuit Tour:

QUADRICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION PACKAGE
Package includes One night Accommodation, Three-Course Prix Fixe Dinner for Two in the Award Winning Equus Restaurant, and Continental Breakfast for Two with the option of In-Room dining. Two Adult admission tickets to Kykuit for the three hour Grand Tour along with a gift bag that includes a hard copy of the book: The Rockefeller Family Home: Kykuit.

Deb

I would suggest that you consider the Boscobel Restoration (http://www.boscobel.org/), a Federalist-era mansion with a magnificent view down the Hudson (including West Point from afar) towards the Bear Mountain Bridge. You might want to take in an evening performance by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (http://hvshakespeare.org/), held in a large tent on the grounds at Boscobel.

I didn't include Castle on the Hudson in my list of Tarrytown hotels, as it is very, very expensive. By all means, if you can afford it, stay there. The place, including the Equus Restaurant, is quite elegant.

PS: Yes, Boscobel is a "worthy" site. I put it just below the half dozen sites I previously mentioned. And yes, it's view of the Hudson is excellent.

I was just pointing out that all your other stops are north of the airport and Kykuit is not. Fwiw, I prefer using maps.google.com for directions vs mapquest.

Here's a page from the Kykuit website that lists nearby accomodations. http://www.hudsonvalley.org/content/view/87/152/
But given your schedule, I'd try to head north on the first day after Kykuit. I still think Beacon is a good base.

West Point and Storm King would be convenient to do right upon arrival as they are directly south of & very close to Stewart airport.

To minimize back and forth this is the order I'd visit

day 1 Arrive SWF
Storm King Art Center
West Point
Kykuit (probably move to day 2 depending on arrival time)
Overnight in Tarrytown area at one of the chain hotels listed above.

Day 2+
See what you want to in Tarrytown
Drive north - & continue as you wish.

Personally I think Rhinebeck is a better base than Beacon. You have better access to hiking near New Paltz, cruise out of Kingston, and mansions in Hyde Park area, wineries like Millbrook, plus Rhinebeck itself is a nice little town. Beacon is really a dumpy little town that's seen better days - some regentrification has underway due to access to trains to NYC but it's slowed down due to the economy.

I so preferred Valkill over the Hyde Park "Mansion"

Wander around Hudson if you like antiques

I really appreciate every one of your posts. Geez, it all looks so good! I looked up Boscobel and it looks amazing. I forgot to mention I love gardens.

Question to help me narrow down further.. As for logistics, on my original post I listed Kykuit - most of the things listed in Tarrytown in the Fodors Guide book. These would be: Lyndhurst, Philipsburg Manor, Union Church, Van Cortland Manor, Stone Barns Center for Food & Ag., Sunnyside....
So, do you think some of these things rate on a 2nd visit instead of first time? I would love to visit in the fall.

The Castle on the Hudson is very attractive to me but it is awfully expensive. When we were in Ireland we visited the gardens at Lismore Castle. I found out you can rent out the whole castle and I always thought that would be such an amazing thing to do. I was able to find a link for that offer and it starts at $575.00 hmmmm.......... not sure that will fly. I'm sure it would be quite a memory to have though.

Thanks!

Mid week room rates at The Castle were mid $200 when I put in a few dates this summer just to see. Try your dates, just for giggles, and see what comes up.
Deb

If you're coming in the Fall, I'd recommend focusing on the Tarrytown/lower valley area first, although keep in mind it only takes about 2-2.5 hours to go up the Hudson from NYC/Westchester-Tarrytown (lower end) to Albany (near northern end) so this isn't a huge area or involving lengthy travel times overall. I think Kykuit closes for the winter, not sure when. Make sure you make reservations for Stone Barns. The Union Church is small and has wonderful Chagall stained glass windows (so lovely that I got married there!). It's very close to Kykuit and Stone Barns. There's a hiking trail in the Rockefeller Park near there. I don't think anyone suggested Sunnyside, home of Washington Irving, not far from Tarrytown. There used to be a package for tours of several mansions at: http://www.hudsonvalley.org/. Look for the Shakespeare festival at Boscobel: http://hvshakespeare.org/. Check out the mansions at http://hudsonriverheritage.org/staat.html. If you'd like, you can save your visit to the CIA until the fall when I'd pair that with visits to Beacon and the DIA. Rhinebeck is a cute small town, good for a shopping visit if you head upriver from Beacon and CIA. As you're traveling north to I-90, Chatham is off the Taconic Pkwy just before it meets I 90, and has some nice small shops and good restaurants (Blue Plate, Lippera's). Hudson has a lot of antique shops. The valley is spectacular in autumn, but peak leaf times can vary by weeks, so good luck with that!