Whether you’re seeking a quiet weekend away from the city or an extended getaway to the country, this upstate New York region’s verdant wealth is sure to please. Less than 100 miles from New York City, the area stretches along the Hudson River to Albany, the state capital. It’s known for its vineyards, orchards and farms, including sustainable-food champion Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Its mountain scenery and the blue-black Catskills evoked the landscapes that inspired 19th-century Hudson River School painters. Other attractions include Storm King Art Center sculpture park and Dia:Beacon, a museum in a former factory that shows large-scale work by major 20th- and 21st-century artists.
In the 17th century, Dutch colonists began to settle the area and build homes and villages around its pristine streams and rolling hills. Early maps and sailing journals portrayed the region as inhospitable, with wild animals, poisonous snakes, treacherous waters and dense forests that made crossing the river a difficult and dangerous affair.
As tuberculosis and other diseases swept through crowded New York, the area developed another persona as a health retreat. City folk flocked to the mountains, fresh air and evergreen forests to cure their ailments. Wealthy industrialists also began purchasing land and building magnificent weekend retreats. Many of these properties remain today, including the Vanderbilt Mansion and Rockefeller estates, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home at Val-Kill in Hyde Park and Boscobel in Cold Spring, as well as the gothic Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown.
This neck of the woods was also a draw for American artists and writers, who were drawn to its natural beauty and the power of its landscape to inspire their work. The landscape was captured in paintings and poetry by the likes of Claude Monet, Thomas Cole and William Wordsworth. And the Hudson River School painting movement took off here, further boosting the region’s popularity.
In recent decades, the area has seen a resurgence in popularity as people seek out its tranquility and beauty. It’s now the place to snag antiques, visit wineries and indulge in locally grown cuisine. A booming arts scene features galleries and studios ranging from high-end to DIY. And a variety of restaurants—some Michelin-starred and others Bib Gourmand–make it easy to eat well while enjoying the area’s verdant riches.
New Paltz’s 6,500-student population and its ties to the State University of New York give it a mellow, hippyish vibe. In nearby Poughkeepsie, a former mill town and railroad hub, the college-town atmosphere carries on in a more refined way at boutiques such as Mood, which merges a vintage Ralph Lauren aesthetic with artisanal craft and honors the Fifteen Percent Pledge. New Paltz is also the gateway to the Shawangunk Ridge, a scenic area that’s part of the Hudson Valley National Heritage Area. Here you can hike to see waterfalls, explore the oldest surviving Dutch house in the area, the Bronck House, and walk along the wooded Woodland Trail that runs through its lush foliage.