Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley follows the river of the same name from the outskirts of New York City to Albany, the state capital, for about 240 km. Colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, it later became the location chosen by New York’s wealthiest families for their country estates, with mansions perched on hills overlooking the water. In the 19th century, it inspired the first school of landscape painting in the United States, the Hudson River School.

Tarrytown and neighboring Sleepy Hollow, about 40 km from Manhattan, are the home of Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. There you’ll find the writer’s house, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where he is buried, a colonial farm with a mill, and the Gothic mansion Lyndhurst, once owned by railroad magnate Jay Gould.

Farther north, the river flows between the mountains of the Hudson Highlands. Beacon, a former factory town on the east bank, has become an art hub with the Dia Beacon museum, installed in a biscuit-box factory, and across the river is Storm King Art Center, a park of large-scale sculptures. Mount Beacon above the town offers views of the valley.

In Hyde Park are FDR’s birthplace and burial site, with the country’s first presidential library, and Frederick Vanderbilt’s mansion. Just south, in Poughkeepsie, the rails of an 1889 bridge have been converted into a pedestrian path 65 meters above the water.

This destination brings together 1 city: Tarrytown.