Two river towns, a museum in a box factory, and a lake on a ridge
Hudson Valley, New York · 3 nights · May · Jun · Sep · Oct · up to 8
The valley is two hours up the Hudson from Manhattan on a train that runs beside the water the whole way, which is the correct way to arrive. Beacon and Hudson are the two towns worth sleeping in and they are an hour apart. Dia is in Beacon, in a former box-printing plant, daylight-lit and enormous. The Shawangunk ridge is the other half — white conglomerate cliffs above a chain of sky lakes — and Minnewaska shuts its gate when the car park fills, which on a fine weekend is early.
The ending
A lake the colour of tea sitting in a bowl of white rock on top of a ridge, with a carriage road running around the rim of it and a drop on the outside edge.
That is Lake Minnewaska Overlook, Minnewaska State Park Preserve. See how private it is and when it’s open.
Do
- Dia:Beacon Museum Visit
- Catskills Hiking — Kaaterskill Falls or Poet's Ledge
- Hudson Valley Wine Tour — Millbrook, Whitecliff, Hudson-Chatham
- Pottery Class — Hudson or Beacon
Eat
- The Maker Hotel Restaurant (Hudson)
- Terrapin Restaurant (Rhinebeck)
Stay
- The Maker Hotel (Hudson)
- Roundhouse Beacon
Beacon or Hudson?
Beacon if you are coming for Dia and the ridge, Hudson if you are coming for the shops and the food. Three nights does one properly and visits the other.
Will we get in to Minnewaska?
On a fine weekend, possibly not — the preserve closes when the lots reach capacity and says so in advance. A weekday morning is the whole answer.
The planner doesn’t build Hudson Valley, New York yet — we can name the places here but not yet enough of them around it to fill 3 nights without repeating. Read this one, then build your own somewhere we can.