What We Love
Modern Art: Between the DM Weil Gallery near New Paltz, the Storm King Art Center near Cornwall-on-Hudson, and the Rockefeller collection at Kykuit, the Hudson Valley is a world-class showcase of contemporary art.
The Four Seasons: Autumn colors are incredible up and down the Hudson, especially when those chromatic trees are reflected in the river. Spring produces a billion blossoms, summer is all about lush riparian forest, and winter brings a romantic mantle of snow.
Best Known For
West Point: Established in 1802, the U.S. Military Academy is a feast for both the eye and the intellect, a gorgeous campus that includes Cadet Chapel and West Point Museum.
Hyde Park**:** Forever linked to FDR, this east bank burg lays claim to both the Franklin D. Roosevelt home and the separate FDR Presidential Library and Museum.
Best Ports
Poughkeepsie**:** Stroll the leafy grounds of Vassar College and an old railroad bridge turned hiking path called the Walkway Over the Hudson. The city is also the gateway to the nearby Vanderbilt Mansion and the FDR shrines in Hyde Park.
Sleepy Hollow**:** The legend of Washington Irving runs through the author's home and the local cemetery. But the town is also home to Kykuit, the Gilded Age mansion where three generations of Rockefellers stayed and played along the Hudson.
Kingston**:** The Old Dutch Church and the Hudson River Maritime Museum are the top attractions in a town that became New York's first state capital during the American Revolution.
Don't Say We Didn't Warn You
Albany Isn't a Quaint Capital City**:** Construction of the Empire State Plaza wiped out the city's old Italian and Jewish neighborhoods and transformed downtown into a concrete jungle.
