I’m going to be in the Newburgh area (up the Hudson from NYC) this summer for 6 weeks for a school project.
What’s it like? Do I need to be concerned about the neighborhood?
Where should I stay? I’ve found a couple of vacation rental type places, but I’ve never had to plan such an extended stay before. One of my theories for housing involves renting an RV. Are there places to RV camp around? My internet searches are dry. Does anyone have experience with subleasing?
Thanks!
Parts of Newburgh are pretty bad - crack houses and such. Other parts are of the strip mall variety. There are some good restaurants, and it’s centrally located. Interstates 84 and 87 both run through Newburgh.
I don’t know about RV camping, but I’m sure there’s something like that in the area.
Your typical old-growth, medium-sized industrial NYS city: a burnt-out core, but some life at the edges. Not as benighted as Troy (which has been on its ass for so long it still has all its marvelous old buildings), but probably not as vibrant as Poughkeepsie.
So sleeping in my van is probably not a good idea?
No, I sure wouldn’t. The old main street is pretty nasty; there are some nice condos and a cute little waterfront strip on the river.
There’s Newburgh proper and Newburgh town, most of which is decent. You might want to look a little to the west to find a place to camp–Wallkill, Walden, etc.
Maybe you can sublet in the SUNY campus around New Paltz?
If you’re serious about the RV thing, I can ask my neighbors – they RV’ed for a decade and know the Hudson Valley pretty well. I live near New Paltz. There’s a lot of campsites hereabouts, not sure about RV hookups. As a college town, New Paltz may be the place to start for a summer sublet rather than a vacation rental. Not sure how far you’re willing to drive to live in a somewhat nicer place than Newburgh.
Where are you from? Newburgh seems like a standard Northeastern city to me, but before here I lived in Harlem and Jersey City. If you’re from rural Wyoming, it might be a little bizarre.
What town do you need to be in exactly? There are sublets on the Hudson Valley page of Craigslist.
Well…Resnicks’ Mattress Outlet’s have their factory there, so…cheap beds! Also, there’s Johnny D’s, a pretty kick-ass diner.
Thanks for the info, everyone.
I’ve been cruising around craigslist. Will make sure I check the Hudson Valley page instead of the main NYC page.
The RV idea was mostly because I thought it might be more cost effective (turns out that isn’t entirely true) and it would give me more flexibility. I’m having a hard time finding someone who is willing to give me an apartment for more than one month, but less than two.
New Paltz is probably the way to go, if it is a college town. Will keep the husband from going insane sitting around the apartment.
How’s the commute in that corner of the world? Should I invest in a toll easy pass thing? A trip to D.C. last summer was the first time we had been east of the Mississippi. We were amazed by the number of tolls y’all put up with on your roads. What do you do if you get caught at a toll with no cash? In California, they notate your car’s license plate and turn you around and it’s this big production that holds everything up.
I think one of the flaws in the RV plan is that RV campsites don’t let you stay for 2 months, so you’d have to keep moving.
EZPass: If you were going into New York City on a regular basis, even just in the evenings, I’d say yes, it can save a ton of time. The toll plazas on the NYS Thruway around Newburgh and New Paltz are not crowded, though, and there’s rarely traffic anywhere up here, so it’s probably not worth it.
If your husband is going to have a lot of free time during the day, New Paltz is probably going to be more interesting that Newburgh. There’s also Beacon, across the river, which has a nice museum (Dia:Beacon) and a pretty quick train ride to Grand Central. Don’t know much about the town itself, though.
I can’t stay out of this thread, even though I’ve been really good about not posting. But I grew up in that area.
Newburgh is a pretty boring, run-down place. We used to jest about it even when I lived around there. I lived in Wappingers Falls, btw.
Poughkeepsie has built up a bit and is not bad. There are some nice museums - FDR house and others - as well as the theatre, the name of which escapes me at the moment.
New Paltz is a nice little town but it is predominantly a college town. In the summer it shuts down. I went to college there for two years so I know! However the main street is utterly charming, full of nice little shops. It’s a bit of ultra-liberalism in conservative NY, and so it’s got incense shops and silly costume jewelry right next to yummy pizza shops.
Beacon also has a museum or two. Hyde Park has the Culinary Institute. Fishkill has a couple of great Indian stores and Hopewell Junction has a pretty good library.
I really recommend you hit the Galleria and the other mall, Southtowns is it? Route 9 is pack full of things to shop.
Also the library in Poughkeepsie is marvelous.
Can’t tell you much more about the RV, but if you are going to be making regular trips to NYC, absolutely get the EZ-Pass. And don’t forget, Albany is just another hour and 40 minutes north of you!
Feel free to e-mail me at elenia25 @ gmail.com if you want to ask any more questions.
That’s damning with faint praise if I ever heard it!
Laughing Lagomorph, who went to High School in Poughkeepsie and is glad to be far away.
I can’t think of many places in the Hudson Valley that would be nicer to spend a summer than New Paltz, although you’ll be in NYC-bound traffic going to Newburgh. I don’t how bad that would be that far north. You’ll need an e-zpass for the thruway (I-87) or pay tolls at the booth. Google maps tells me 21 miles to Newburgh, which shouldn’t be too bad. I imagine you’ll just have to pay two months rent and live with it.
If you or your husband’s into rock climbing or bicycling or just tramping around the woods you’ll be in heaven. There’s the Shawanagunks just west of New Paltz and the Catskills begin on the other side of the Rondout Valley on the far side of the 'Gunks although it’s a drive to get to any hiking. I think hiking in the Catskills is sort of an acquired taste, but that’s MO.
If you’re looking closer in to Newburgh keep in mind there’s a large airport nearby (Stewart) so you probably want to avoid being too close.
South of Newburgh is where the Appalachian chain runs through SW to NE across the Hudson and that area is quite beautiful.
Really? Didn’t know that before. I guess it keeps them from having tenants, as opposed to visitors.
The search in New Paltz continues…
There’s essentially none on that part of the Thruway, and the average speed seems to be around 85. The only traffic I ever see there is during the summer: Friday afternoons headed north and Sunday afternoons headed south.