99 Best Sights in Hudson Valley, New York

An extensive boardwalk leads you deep into the reeds and rushes of this lush, wildlife-filled tidal marshland. In winter the boardwalk is a prime lookout spot for bald eagles. Tromp through the 280-acre sanctuary's bluffs and woodlands, or visit the educational center, where a 500-gallon aquarium offers an up-close look at fish, crabs, and other resident wildlife. Note: parking is quite limited.

You'll feel like you're walking through the pages of Country Living at this three-day fair held at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds every June. There are antiques, home decor, furniture, and artisan-made products for sale. You can also meet the magazine's editors at various seminars, as well as participate in craft and cooking demonstrations.

The East Coast branch of the country's most respected cooking school is on the grounds of a former Jesuit seminary overlooking the Hudson River. Tours are available Monday to Thursday when school's in session. Five student-staffed restaurants are open to the public. The Craig Claiborne Bookstore stocks more than 1,300 cookbooks in addition to culinary equipment and specialty foods. One- and two-day workshops and lectures are offered on weekends.

An unpretentious cottage, Val-Kill was first a retreat and later the full-time residence for Eleanor Roosevelt. A biographical film, First Lady of the World, is shown at the site. The property encompasses 180 acres of trails and gardens. It's also the location of Val-Kill Industries, Eleanor's attempt to prevent farm workers from relocating to the city for employment; reproductions of early American furniture, pewter, and weavings were produced here.

Every August you can watch giant puppets and imaginative spectacles unfold before the Esopus Creek in Tina Chorvas Waterfront Park. You'll be dazzled once the sun goes down and local puppeteers transform the park into an otherworldly extravaganza.

Scene of a 1777 Revolutionary War battle for the Hudson River, this fort (well, its foundation at least) is still visible on the 14½-acre site, which is on a cliff with stunning Hudson River views. The museum holds artifacts, weapons, a 15 minute film, and large-scale models reenacting the historic battle. To get to the site from New York City, take the Palisades Parkway north to Route 9W north and proceed just over ½ mile. The parking area is on the right.

Vassar was the first college in the United States to have an art gallery, and that gallery eventually grew into the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, housed in a 1993 Cesar Pelli building. The center's collections include more than 19,000 works, from Egyptian and Asian relics to 19th- and 20th-century paintings. Highlights are the Warburg Collection of Old Masters prints and several significant Hudson River School paintings donated by Matthew Vassar.

Antiques dealer Fred J. Johnston rescued this 1812 Federal mansion from the wrecking ball in the 1930s; the Friends of Historic Kingston inherited the house in 1993 through Johnston's will. His collection of 18th- and 19th-century Hudson Valley furniture and decorative arts is on display as well as a Friends of Historic Kingston gallery that features different local history exhibits which change every year.

Occasional walking tours of Oak Hill Cemetery and downtown Nyack are led by Friends of the Nyacks; call or check online for dates and times.

This cupcake festival began in 2008 and attracts more cupcake enthusiasts every year with more than a dozen vendors, an amateur baking contest, helicopter rides, and even a 5K race for those who wish to burn some calories before binging on tasty Hudson Valley baked goods.

The oldest harness track in the United States is also a National Historic Landmark. You can watch daily training or take a self-guided walking tour of the premises, but these days races are run only in June and July.

Pick your own asparagus, peas, berries, apples, and pumpkins at this local farm spread across 100 acres of rural farmland. The Hudson Valley Farmer's Market, where you can get local produce, baked goods, cheese, meats, and wine is held here every Saturday from 10 to 3, from early May to mid-October.

Overlooking the track is this museum and hall of fame dedicated to harness racing. Exhibits include a three-dimensional racing simulator, prints, and paintings. Original track stables house some of the displays.

This free museum is part of Bard's highly respected Center for Curatorial Studies. Located on the south end of the Bard campus, it's known for cutting-edge exhibits of contemporary art and includes more than 3,000 works by some of most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Donald Judd, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Cindy Sherman.

The childhood home of artist Edward Hopper now serves as an arts center and exhibition space. The famed painter owned the Federal-style house, which was built in 1858 by his grandfather, until his death in 1967. A group of Nyack citizens saved the structure from ruin in 1971. Jazz concerts are held in the backyard on Thursday evenings in July. Look for free street parking one block north.

Models, artifacts, and photographs illustrate the region's maritime history. Changing exhibits show tugboats and antique fishing and sailing craft. You may board the Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson's ship, when it's in dock. Tours to the Rondout Lighthouse (also known as the Kingston Lighthouse) leave from the museum's dock.

Upward of 50,000 people make a pilgrimage to Saugerties the last weekend of September for a celebration of the "stinking rose," otherwise known as garlic. Although you find much of the usual fair fare here—crafts booths, fried-dough stands, live musical performances—one vast section of the festival is devoted to farmers, arts-and-crafts people, and food vendors all providing tributes to garlic.

A National Historic Landmark, the street includes seven colonial stone houses from as early as 1705, some of the oldest in the United States. The 10-acre area includes a Visitors' Center, a reconstructed 1717 Huguenot church, exhibit and program spaces, archeological sites, and a burial ground that dates to the very first settlers of the region. Guided walking tours begin at the Visitors' Center office in the 1705 DuBois Fort, between Broadhead Avenue and North Front Street.

This church was built in 1853 to replace the 1801 stone church a few doors up the street. The parsonage is next door in the 1790 Crispell House. On the second Saturday of July, the church organizes a Stone House Day celebration, when neighbors open their centuries-old stone houses to the public.

Franklin D. Roosevelt frequently used this 1914 train station, which was designed by the same architects who designed New York's Grand Central Terminal. Today, it houses an extensive collection of railroad paraphernalia and has running displays of model trains all manned by knowledgeable enthusiasts.

A unique contribution to garden design in America, Innisfree is based on Chinese-garden design and draws inspiration from ages-old Chinese paintings. The term cup garden is used to describe the concept; it refers to the way spaces frame, or "cup," features, such as striking rock formations or small pools. Cliffs, low hills, waterfalls, streams, and picnic spots surround the 40-acre lake at the center of the garden. A path takes you through Innisfree.

The museum's changing exhibitions span a wide range of cultures, mediums, historical periods, and social issues. It's not uncommon to see a show about banjos or puzzles followed by a more traditional art exhibit—a review of Latin American works or a retrospective of Richard Diebenkorn's prints, for example. Guided tours start at 2:30 Tuesday through Sunday.

This working microbrewery offers free tours and tastings. (Stout fans should try Mother's Milk.) It also holds quarterly rock concerts, either in the brewery itself or in the parking lot, and functions as a gallery and performance space.

The stone house, parts of which date from the 1720s, serves as the home of the Saugerties Historical Society and a museum. Inside you can see original architectural details, including wide-plank floors and fireplace mantels. The front lawn is the site of summertime concerts, periodic colonial reenactments, and other special events.

The centerpiece of this 1,569-acre park, Lake Taghkanic has two sandy beaches, picnic areas, boat rentals, playgrounds, restrooms, and trails for hiking. You may camp here from early May through October, choosing between tent or trailer sites or rustic cabins (with bathrooms and hot and cold water). Kids enjoy climbing the water tower. Cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, ice-skating, and ice fishing are options in winter.

This brick-tastic experience has seven “lands”–Brick Street, Bricktopia, LEGO NINJAGO World, LEGO Castle, LEGO City, LEGO Pirates, and Miniland–LEGO fans can explore. Special features include the unique-to-this-resort (a.k.a only one in the world), LEGO Factory Adventure Ride, which puts guests in the middle of a LEGO factory by shrinking them down to digital miniversions of themselves so they can experience how bricks are created, and the park’s Miniland, which has original brick creations of landmarks from all five New York City boroughs and around the Empire State as well as the resort’s hometown of Goshen. Another cool feature is the musical fountain, Stepping Tones, which plays music and spurts water as various sensors are activated; this is the only place you can see the fountain besides LEGOLAND Billund in Denmark.

Fan favorites include the Build & Test center where future LEGO Master Model Builders can flex their skills by building anything they can think of–cars, boats, skyscrapers–and then test them out. LEGO NINJAGO World has LEGO NINJAGO The Ride where participants train at the Monastery with Master Wu. LEGO Castle has LEGOLAND’s signature Dragon and Dragon’s Apprentice roller coasters (for those under five), as well as the Tower Climb Tournament. LEGO City has the Driving School and the Coast Guard and Fire Academies as well as the Palace Theater where guests can see LEGO Movies in 4D and the Water Playground (reservations only). LEGO Pirates is where you’ll find the popular rides Splash Battle and Anchors Away! Brick Street has the appropriate-for-all-ages Brick Party Carousel, which instead of the traditional horses, has a motorcycle and a tiger to name a few, as well as the Big Shop, the largest LEGO retail space in North America. 

After Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, bought this circa-1830 house, he remodeled it into a Tuscan-style villa. It still contains the possessions and keepsakes of the family that lived here after him. The Morse Gallery, inside the visitor center, has exhibits of telegraph equipment and paintings by Morse. The grounds include gardens and hiking trails.

Josiah Hasbrouck—a lieutenant in the American Revolution and U.S. congressman during the presidential terms of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe—built the 1814 Federal-style mansion, which has an impressive three-story central hall. The house and its original furniture and paintings remained in the family until Hasbrouck's great-great-granddaughter opened it to the public in 1959. Tours are available by appointment.

The 1737 restored Dutch farmhouse is especially noted for its collection of Hudson Valley paintings. The grounds include the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse that was actually used until the 1940s. It takes its name from the character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. Irving, who tutored at Lindenwald, purportedly modeled the character after a schoolmaster who taught in the area.

Noted architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed this magnificent marble mansion overlooking the Hudson River. Built in 1838, Lyndhurst is widely considered the premier Gothic Revival home in the United States. You may tour the mansion's elaborate interior and stroll the 67 landscaped acres, which include a conservatory and a rose garden. The estate also includes a turn-of-the-20th-century bowling alley and an original child's playhouse. Kids can walk outside the perimeter of the playhouse and admire it, but are not allowed to enter it. During summer weekends, visitors can pay $5 to roam around the grounds, and then apply that fee to the guided tour price if they wish to learn more about the house.