I am planning to rent a card and ride through Hudson river Valley during the weekend, July 7-8, this after being 8 days in Manhattan. I would appreciate your advise about my plans, in these points:

1. What towns or places must I do?
2. What hotel you recommend me to stay, wife and 7-years-daughter?
3. Is it okay two days to go shopping and hanging around? what about Woodbury outlets?
4 Is it scenic?
5. Is it worth to do it?

Off course I acept recommendations or alternatives

Thank you so much for your help.

We just spent 4 days in the Hudson Valley, so I can answer a few of your questions.

1. We enjoyed the towns of Cold Spring, Rhinebeck, Hudson and Saratoga Springs (technically a little north of the northern end of the Hudson Valley).

2. We just picked motels whereever we were. Two nights we stayed in a Courtyard by Marriott, one night in a Holiday Inn Express and one night in a Hampton Inn & Suites.

3. Don't know, except for the towns I mentioned in no. 1, which have plenty of little shops -- Cold Spring has a lot of "memorabilia" stores, Hudson has a lot of antiques, Saratoga Springs has a lot of clothing stores.

4. It is incredibly scenic.

5. We loved it -- we needed "downtime" following our son's graduation and wedding and it was perfect. Check this link to my thread on the same subject:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...#comments-open

Last year, we spent 6 wonderful days driving from Tarrytown to Kinderhook and back. Didn't shop--not my idea of a good time.

We especially loved Storm King, Manitoga, Kykuit, West Point, Olanna, the Roosevelt sites in Hyde Park.

One note - if you haven;;t rented the car already you are likely to find that there aren't any left. Many people that live in the city do not own cars - and rent one every weekend in the summer to go to the beach or the country. If there are any left expect to pay a premium price.

The Hudson Valley is lovely with a ton of things to see and do. Woodbury Common isn;t one of them - that's across the river and frankly, while it has a lot of discounts, unless you go for a special sale the prices aren;t lower than sale prices in NYC. The people that I know thata go only do so on one of their special sales weekend.

There is so much to see and do there that I would put shopping at the bottom of the list.

You can see on the far side Bear Mountain (yes, they do have bears) state park. Also the US Military Academy at West Point. (check on web site to see any activities).

On the east side of the river you have a bunch of historic houses - FDR's house and the Vanderbilt mansion at Hyde Park, Rockefeller's Estate and Sleepy Hollow near Tarrytown (near the Tappan Zee bridge. This whole ares was settled by Dutch padroons (aristocrats) before the British moved in and turned New Amsterdam to New York.

Sorry can;t help with hotels - we are so close we do it as day trips. But if you are looking at inns do check to see if they take children - many want guests over 12 only.

You may want to see if there are any cars left at Hertz in North White Plains, which s usually half the price of a rental in Manhattan and easier to reach than the local airports. But they usually sell out on weekends.

Thanks a lot for those good points and recomendations. I will consider them serously and help me to plan the weekend.

Thanks a lot for those good points and recomendations. I will consider them serously and help me to plan the weekend.

I have another question regarding heading back to home via JFK airport. We have flight at 6 o'clock am on Thuesday July 10th. How convinient is to ride from Hudson Valley to the aiport directly early in the morning of July 10 or should we stay that night in a hotel near the airport?. thanks for your advise.

If your flight is at 6am, you have to be at the airport by 4 or 4:30 am, possibly earlier if it's international.

There will be almost no traffic on the road at that time, but I wouldn't want to have to add another hour - two hours (where in the Hudson Valley?) driving time.

To me, this is the obvious scenario for getting an airport hotel. Assuming you are renting a car, you can turn it in the night before and take the hotel shuttle (if operating that early) or taxi to get to the airport in the morning. That saves some more time.

Thanks nyer, so you mean to stay the night in a hotel near JFK, and get to the airport via taxi or shutlle. it is wise. Regards

You should check out the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie. It's a converted railroad bridge turned into a pedestrian walkway and the scenery is beautiful. Check it out athttp://www.walkway.org/

Agreed, we loved walking over the pedestrian walkway, in part because we love the fact that they re-purposes the old bridge and in part because the views from the bridge are great.

Very good ideas, I really appreciate it. Thanks