My husband and I are planning a little getaway for our anniversary in early November. We are looking at going to a show in Port Chester and catching the MI game at Rutgers, so we are looking to stay somewhere in the middle. We will have a car.
The last time we were in the Hudson Valley, we stayed in Saugerties and loved it.
We saw a couple of Airbnbs in Irvington and Piermont, but we aren’t familiar with these areas or really anywhere in the lower Hudson Valley.
Any suggestions? An area with nice views, good restaurants, possible hiking?
This is my backyard. Though Saugerties is nice, its no where in between Rutgers and the Capitol Theater in Port Chester which is why I think you are bringing up the other options.
Irvington and Tarrytown are two nice “river towns” on the East side / Westchester side of the Hudson. If you come over the “Mario Cuomo Bridge” on the West side of the Hudson you are in Rockland and Piermont and Nyack are also two nice River towns. There used to be shopping and restaurants in those areas, now its 99% restaurants and bars, most local shops have closed. And a lot of the restaurants are new too. If you want views, look for something in one of those towns that boosts Hudson River Views.
For hiking, Bear Mountain State Park and the greater Harriman State Park are very close - some parts of the part could be as little as 25-30 minutes away, some maybe an hour way to the northern end of the parks. Great hiking, 100’s of miles, dozens of intersecting trails, maps can be found online. There are other hiking areas but not as vast. Everything from a simple 2 mile hike to accessing the Appalachian Trail and shelter systems and you can make a multi night overnight trip too.
West Point could be a nice day trip especially in the fall. CIA up in Hyde Park - been ages so not sure if its still there or the quality of it. Restaurants I’ll defer - I now live in Bergen County, so though not far away, lots of restaurants have changed in the last few years and Bergen has a lot of BYOB so I don’t go out and eat as much in NY. Westchester certainly has a better overall dining scene than Rockland, but Nyack and Piermont (both in Rockland) each have 1-2 restaurants that are good and lots of “basic” restaurants too. Blue Stone isn’t far especially if staying in Tarrytown/Irvington.
There is also a very nice theater in Tarrytown - Tarrytown Music Hall, so you can see if there are any performances.
If you find 1-2 AirBnB’s I’d be glad to share my two cents. I worked in Tarrytown for 10+ years prior to the pandemic so somewhat familiar with the area.
Thanks for your response. My husband ended up booking an airbnb in Nyack.
I forgot that I have a colleague/friend that lives there, so we are going to meet up with her one evening.
I looked at the calendar for Tarrytown Music Hall, and there are some great shows happening there, just not when we will be in the area. The show we are going to at Capitol (The Last Waltz) is at Tarrytown end of November.
I believe we will be staying Thurs- Monday, so we’ll have time to checkout the different towns. We have explored the more well known - Kingston, Rhinebeck and walked across the Poughkeepsie bridge, but I believe that’s as far south as we’ve gone.
If you’re into historic houses, Kykuit is close to Nyack, about 15 minutes away by car. It’s a pretty splendid place, the Rockefeller’s estate. Lyndhurst, the Jay Gould house, and Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s home, are in Tarrytown, too, and well worth the visit.
About an hour north of Nyack are the Hudson Valley’s two premier art destinations, Storm King Art Center and Dia Beacon. Storm King is a massive outdoor sculpture park, and Dia is a massive museum of mostly minimalist art installed in an old printing plant. Both are top-notch, horizon-changing art experiences.