Hello folks,
We'll be traveling from Brooklyn up into the Hudson River Valley by train before continuing on the Amtrak Adirondack into Montreal. The idea is we'll stop in the Hudson River Valley for two nights, rent a car, and visit some cideries and breweries.

Does it make sense to take the Adirondack from Manhattan to get off in Poughkeepsie or better to take a local service train like Metro North? We'll need to exit the train and get a rental car near the station for those couple days in HRV.

THANK YOU.

Amtrak (From Penn Station) to POK will be a little faster, but more expensive. There are frequent enough trains that run to Albany so you can have your pick of what time you leave.
Metro North (MNRR, from Grand Central) - there are 2 types of trains - local, and express. The express will make fewer stops and therefore is a faster ride. The cars on all of the trains are the same.

Both Amtrak and MNRR use the same tracks once outside of Manhattan, and use the same station/platforms at Poughkeepsie. I'd pick whichever NYC station is easier for you to get to. Personally I much prefer Grand Central. Trains start there, and you can board at your leisure well ahead of departure time.

At Poughkeepsie, I don't recall there being a car rental right at the train station, but that may have changed. There is (or was) a local Avis & Hertz branches just up the road next to the IBM plant - you'd have to search what is still open and how to get there.

Another option is to take Metro North to White Plains. There is a Hertz office very close to one of the WP stations. That'll get you out of the city and into HRV.

Thanks so much for your detailed response!

Would you expect Ubers/Lyfts to be easy enough to catch at the Poughkeepsie station? Or is it too remote up there? We're from LA, so we're not real familiar with how easy or not it would be to get a ride from Lyft/Uber in other parts of the country. TY!

Put your stops in the app and see.

Right this minute, there are two cars near the train station with an estimated 5 minute wait for a pickup. The fare is $8.19 for a ride to the CIA restaurants.

We were there last week. Had a great time eating at the CIA restaurants and visiting the Roosevelt homes.

There is an Enterprise rental place in Poughkeepsie. Enterprise will usually pick you up and drop you off.

You guys are all the best! Thanks for helping out!