Courtesy of Stain Reis
This Rivertown’s working-class grit has given way to a progressive artistic spirit. The stroll-worthy main street is laden with antique stores (more than 50!), art galleries, on-trend restaurants, performance spaces, elegantly appointed B&Bs, and historic buildings.
9:30 a.m.
Tiny Bonfiglio & Bread is the ultimate weekend-retreat bakery/café (an urban yet country vibe, wonderful homemade breads) for carb-loading before a day of exploration along the city’s mile-long downtown. Two words: cinnamon buns.
10 a.m.
Window shop and gallery hop along Warren Street. Stop at Red Chair on Warren for 17th- to 19th-century Swedish, Belgian, and French pieces for your kitchen and dining room, or George Antiques for 19th- and 20th-century furniture and decorative items.
11:45 a.m.
Give your feet a rest — and admire the town’s myriad of architectural styles — at 7th Street Park, a modest green space dating back to the 1780s, crisscrossed by obsolete train tracks.
Noon
A husband-wife team with buzzy Manhattan kitchen pedigrees run Swoon Kitchenbar, a pasture-to-plate eatery with earthy pâtés, artisan cheeses, and a robust French-focused wine list (lunch weekends only).
1 p.m.
Docked at the base of Warren Street, hop aboard a Hudson Cruises charter at Riverfront Park and come to appreciate why there’s an artists’ school named after this body of water (May through Oct only).
3:30 p.m.
A 12-minute drive brings you to Olana Historic Site, where you can view the work of Frederic Edwin Church, a master of the aforementioned Hudson River School, and tour his Victorian/Middle Eastern-inspired villa set on 250 incredible acres.
5:30 p.m.
End with nose-to-tail dining at Fish & Game, a 2016 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef Northeast. Or, Club Helsinki Hudson offers regional American (mainly Creole, low-country Carolina) cuisine in an 1860s bus garage.
Winter Wonderland:
Visit on the first Saturday of December, when the Hudson Opera House’s annual Winter Walk transforms Warren Street into a holiday playground, with a musical parade, fireworks, jugglers, dancers, and horse-drawn carriages.
