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Morning light over wooded hills and a broad reach of the Hudson River near Rhinebeck

Sample journey · 7–9 days

New York and up the Hudson: city, art and mountains

Manhattan, Brooklyn, Beacon, Storm King, Hudson & the Catskills

Photo: Clay Banks / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

Many people see New York in a few intense days and leave exhausted. This journey offers a different rhythm: three days in the city, each given to one side of it – Manhattan's neighbourhoods, the great museums and Brooklyn – then the train north along the Hudson, where in an hour and a half the view turns from towers to rocky riverbanks and forest.

The Hudson Valley is where America's first school of painting was born, and today art lives here in a former biscuit-box factory and in a park where sculptures stand among meadows and hills. Further on come the town of Hudson with its antique shops and farm-to-table cooking, the painter Frederic Church's house above the river, and the Catskill Mountains with their waterfalls and lakes. The journey suits a first trip to the USA and couples who are curious about both the city and what lies beyond it: there is very little driving, and the stays range from a small hotel in Manhattan to a farmhouse.

The route

The journey

  1. New York: Manhattan
  2. New York: museums & Brooklyn
  3. Beacon
  4. Storm King
  5. Hudson & Olana
  6. The Catskills
  7. New York
  1. People walking along the High Line path between buildings in Manhattan

    01Days 1–2 · Manhattan

    The city on foot

    Three nights in a small hotel from which much is within walking distance. The first evening, a short walk and an early night. On the second day, Manhattan's south-west: the High Line, a park on a former elevated freight railway, winds between the buildings of Chelsea above the streets, with gardens, benches and sudden views of the Hudson. From its southern end, the West Village with its red-brick houses, tree-shaded lanes and cafés where locals read the papers, then Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park, where someone is always playing. In the afternoon, the Lower East Side, where the Tenement Museum shows how immigrant families lived when they reached New York. Dinner wherever you like: in a city where every neighbourhood has its own cooking, it's hard not to find something good.

  2. The towers of Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge seen from the rocky shore of Brooklyn Bridge Park

    02Days 3–4 · Museums & Brooklyn

    From the Met to the Brooklyn Bridge

    The third morning: Central Park while it's still quiet, then the Metropolitan Museum, where it's better to choose two or three galleries than to try to see everything. In the afternoon, the Museum of Modern Art or the smaller Frick Collection, depending on what speaks to you. Tickets for the most popular exhibitions are worth booking ahead, so we arrange them before you travel. In the evening, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset and dinner in Brooklyn. The fourth morning is open: the free ferry to Staten Island past the Statue of Liberty, the waterfront of Brooklyn Bridge Park, or another hour in a favourite neighbourhood. After lunch, the train from Grand Central along the Hudson; the best views are on the left. On the way the river widens, and beyond Peekskill the hills begin to rise straight out of the water.

  3. Autumn trees reflected in a still pond at Storm King Art Center

    03Days 4–5 · Beacon & Storm King

    Art in a factory and in the fields

    One night in Beacon or nearby Cold Spring, small river towns with old brick main streets. Dia:Beacon fills a former box-printing factory: vast, daylit galleries hold art from the 1960s onwards that needs space – Richard Serra's steel sculptures, Agnes Martin's canvases, works made of light. The museum doesn't open every day, so we fit the dates around it. The next morning, a car and about half an hour across the river to Storm King Art Center: some two hundred hectares of meadow and hill where large sculptures stand under the open sky, and Maya Lin's Wave Field rolls like a swell in the earth. It's best explored on foot or by bike, and entry times must be booked in advance. In the afternoon, about an hour north to Hudson.

  4. The towered, patterned house at Olana on its hilltop above tall grass, near Hudson

    04Days 5–7 · Hudson & Olana

    The painters' river

    Two nights in Hudson or on a farm nearby. The town's Warren Street is one of the most interesting in the valley: nineteenth-century houses, antique shops, galleries and restaurants whose menus change weekly with what the surrounding farms bring in. The next morning, Olana, a Persian-inspired house on a hilltop built by the Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church. Its windows frame views of the river and the Catskills exactly as he painted them; house tours are small, so we book them. In the afternoon, orchards, a cider house or a farmers' market, or, if you like, the Walkway Over the Hudson at Poughkeepsie, a footbridge high above the river. In autumn, roughly early to mid-October, the valley turns red and gold, though the timing varies from year to year and the weekends then fill up.

  5. Evening sun over North-South Lake and the wooded hills of the Catskills

    05Days 7–9 · The Catskills

    Waterfalls, lakes and slow mornings

    About forty minutes west across the river lie the Catskill Mountains and two final nights in a house in the woods or on a farm. In the village of Catskill, Thomas Cole's home, where the Hudson River School began, is worth a stop, then the road climbs into the mountains through Kaaterskill Clove. Kaaterskill Falls drop in two tiers from nearly 80 m; the trail to the viewpoint is short but steep, and nearby North-South Lake suits a kayak or a gentle walk. On the second day, Woodstock with its galleries and music history, a hike towards Overlook Mountain, or simply reading on a porch. On the last day, about two and a half hours to a New York airport; with an evening flight, there's time for one more morning walk in the woods.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    The High Line & the West Village

    A park on an old elevated railway, and the tree-shaded streets below it.

  2. 02

    Dia:Beacon

    Daylit factory halls given over to art that needs space and time.

  3. 03

    Storm King

    Sculpture among meadows and hills, on foot or by bike.

  4. 04

    Olana & the Catskills

    A painter's house with the view he painted, and the waterfalls that inspired a whole school of painting.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • A shorter version

    In seven days, keep three nights in New York and four in the valley, staying in one place between Hudson and the Catskills.

  • With children

    In the city, the Natural History Museum and the Central Park boats; in the valley, pick-your-own farms and short trails to the waterfalls.

  • By season

    In autumn, coloured forests and cider season; in late spring, orchards in blossom and quieter trails; in winter, frozen waterfalls, fireplaces and the city calm before the holidays.

  • With New England

    From Hudson the Berkshires are less than an hour away, so the journey continues naturally through the Massachusetts hills to Boston.

Practical considerations

  • The best time is late spring and autumn (roughly May–June and September–October). Summer in New York is often hot and humid, and valley stays on October weekends are booked early.
  • In the city we walk and take the subway; to the valley we take the train and collect a car in Beacon. Transfers are short, usually under an hour.
  • Some museums and parks don't open every day, and the most popular need timed entry booked ahead; we check opening days and ticketing before you travel.
  • Kaaterskill Falls and other trails are slippery after rain; we keep to marked paths and follow the parks' guidance.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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