Best NYC Getaways by Train

No car?  No problem. You can get away by train to the Hudson Valley for a day trip, a weekend or longer, and there’s a new FREE mobile app to help you plan what to see and do between NYC and Albany.

The Hudson Valley has something for everybody, including art-filled historic mansions, wine trails, farm-to-table restaurants, hiking and biking trails in summer, ski and snowboard trails in winter, even a castle and a lighthouse in the middle of the Hudson River. And, of course, the US Military Academy at West Point.

Take the train to Hudson Valley history, food and nature

There’s great American history in the Hudson Valley, which was settled in the 1600s by Dutch farmers, and French Huguenots established the very first vineyard in the New World, near New Paltz.

Dutch settlers included the Roosevelt family, who moved to Hyde Park, where Franklin Delano Roosevelt grew up (pictured here), and created the first Presidential Library.

George Washington trained Revolutionary War troops in what is now the parking lot of the Beekman Arms in  Rhinebeck, the oldest continually-operating inn in America, still welcoming guests.

There’s great food in the Hudson Valley.

The world-famous Culinary Institute of America, also in Hyde Park, has trained zillions of chefs, many of who decided to stay in the Hudson Valley and open restaurants serving fresh produce and meats from small local family farms.

There’s great outdoor activities in the Hudson Valley.

Kayak to a lighthouse in the river, walk across a former railroad bridge over the river, in Poughkeepsie, that’s been turned into a pedestrian walkway with 360 views, hike the designated Greenway trails at Storm King State Park, in Cornwall-on-Hudson.

There’s also plenty of culture in the form of music, art and theater in the Hudson Valley, including DIA, the contemporary art museum housed in a former Nabisco factory, and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, outdoors on the lawn of Boscobel, another historic mansion.

Or,  appreciate museum-quality artwork and sculptures collected by the Rockefellers on display at Kykuit, their Hudson Valley mansion in Tarrytown, pictured here.

And so much more, all accessible by train.

Travel the Hudson Valley by train with the help of the new FREE Hudson River Train Tour mobile app.

Part travel guide, part audio tour, the app tells you all about what you’ll see out of that train window, and more.

Hudson River Train Tour app includes

• A map marking site locations. Using location services, the app will tell you about the sites you’re approaching in real time.
• Search for places that fit into significant regional themes, such as Freedom & Dignity, Nature & Culture, and Corridor of Commerce.
• “Voices of the Hudson” audio series – listen to stories as you watch the world from the window.

The Hudson River Train Tour covers the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, from the NYC border to Albany.

I love the Hudson Valley.

I grew up vacationing here in the summer at one of the many hotels and resorts sprinkled throughout the Catskills.  I learned to ski here, and so did my kids, who also loved picking apples in the fall at one of the many Hudson Valley orchards.

Hudson River Train Tour app project partners

The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area would like to thank Empire State Development and I Love NY for providing a $100,000 Market NY Grant for this project. The grant was awarded in December 2016 and was matched by $50,000 in funding from the National Park Service.

Project partners include Amtrak, Dutchess Tourism, Hudson Valley Tourism, Metro-North Railroad, National Park Service Trails and Rails Program and Scenic Hudson.  The  Hudson River Maritime Museum provided content and photography, and the Sound & Story Project of the Hudson Valley developed the audio..

This is a sponsored post.