9 Hudson Valley Hotels You Can Reach by Train

The Hudson Valley is the rare American weekend destination you can reach without a car. Metro-North's Hudson Line runs north from Grand Central along the east bank, frequently within a few metres of the water, and stops at Cold Spring, Beacon, Rhinecliff and Hudson. The Amtrak service continues to Albany on the same track.

That matters more than it sounds. A very large share of the valley's visitors come from New York City for two or three nights, and the towns that grew up around the stations — Beacon, Cold Spring, Hudson, Kingston — have reorganised themselves around people arriving on foot with a bag.

Where American painting started

In 1825 Thomas Cole, an English-born painter, took a steamboat up this river, sketched the Catskills and sold three canvases in a New York shop window. The Hudson River School that followed him was the first identifiably American art movement, and it was about this landscape specifically.

Cole's house at Catskill and Frederic Church's at Olana face each other across the river, both open as museums, and Church built Olana as a Persian-influenced fantasy positioned so that every window frames a composition he had already painted.

Dia Beacon, further south, is the counterweight: a former Nabisco box-printing factory of about 300,000 square feet, converted in 2003 to show large-scale minimal and conceptual art in daylight through the original sawtooth roof. Richard Serra, Walter De Maria, Agnes Martin, on a scale no city museum can offer.

The valley

The west bank and the Catskills are wilder, with the mountains, the Ashokan Reservoir and the old Borscht Belt towns.

The east bank, on the rail line, has the estates — Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Mills — and the towns.

The Shawangunk Ridge, near New Paltz, is a quartz conglomerate escarpment that is among the best trad climbing in the eastern United States.

Hudson, at the northern end, is a single long main street of antique shops, galleries and restaurants in a town that was a whaling port founded by Nantucket families moving inland after the Revolution.

The nine below are grouped that way.

The Shawangunks and New Paltz

The ridge, ninety minutes from the city.

Mohonk Mountain House occupies a Victorian castle on a glacial lake below the ridge, built in 1869 and run by the same Quaker family ever since, with 85 miles of trails, wooden gazebos along the cliff paths and no televisions. It is unlike anything else in America.

Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection sits on a 140-acre farm at Gardiner below the ridge with a spa, cabins and fields, opened recently and the most polished property in the valley.

The east bank and the rail towns

On the line from Grand Central.

Troutbeck occupies a 1762 property at Amenia on 250 acres with a walled garden, a heated outdoor pool and a library, and a history as a gathering place for writers.

The Maker Hotel sits on Hudson's Warren Street in a group of 1800s buildings with a bar, a rooftop and a deliberate 1920s club aesthetic.

Hotel Kinsley occupies a converted building in Kingston's Stockade district with a courtyard, a good restaurant and the Rondout waterfront nearby.

The Roundhouse sits above a waterfall in Beacon in a converted mill building, a ten-minute walk from Dia and the train.

The Catskills

The west bank and the mountains.

Scribner's Catskill Lodge occupies a 1960s motor lodge at Hunter, reworked with a fireplace lounge and mountain views, at the best value in the region.

Hasbrouck House sits at Stone Ridge in a 1757 stone house with a pool, a garden and a kitchen worth the drive.

Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa occupies a riverside estate at Milton with gardens running to the Hudson, a spa and a small room count.

What we have left off

The house rentals across the Catskills are excluded, and for weekenders from the city they are the dominant option. They are houses rather than hotels.

What to do

Take the train and leave the car. Beacon, Cold Spring, Hudson and Rhinecliff are all walkable from their stations.

Go to Dia Beacon and allow three hours. The scale is the point and rushing it defeats the exercise.

See Olana and the Thomas Cole house on the same day, on opposite banks, and understand that the view from Olana is itself a composed work.

Walk Breakneck Ridge at Cold Spring if you are fit — a steep scramble straight off the train platform with the river below — or the Mohonk carriage roads if you are not.

Eat and drink. The valley has become a serious food region, with farms supplying New York restaurants and a cider and distilling scene that has grown quickly.

Practical notes

Metro-North runs from Grand Central; the trip to Beacon is about ninety minutes and to Hudson about two hours on Amtrak. Albany and Stewart airports serve the northern and southern ends.

October is peak for leaf colour and rooms book far ahead. Spring and early summer are green and quieter. Winter is cold, and the Catskills have skiing at Hunter and Windham.

Weekend rates run substantially above midweek across the valley.

Can you do it without a car?

Yes, on the Hudson Line from Grand Central. Beacon, Cold Spring, Hudson and Rhinecliff are all walkable from their stations.

What is Dia Beacon?

A former box-printing factory of about 300,000 square feet showing large-scale minimal art in daylight. Allow three hours.

Catskills or the river towns?

River towns for art, food and the train. The Catskills for mountains and quiet, with a car.

How many nights?

Three. Two is the standard weekend and a third lets you cross the river.

If you only book one