I’m visiting Westchester Co. for about a week and taking my wife and toddler son along. We’ll have several days off together to go visit things. A couple of days we’ll spend in NYC, which we have visited many times before. I’m looking for advice on what to do. I’ve looked at all the travel sites and such, but I’m hoping for personal recommendations based on your own experiences. We are more of the museum type than the party type. Our toddler won’t always be with us, but he is remarkably well behaved and interested in adult things.
Hmm. I can’t think of a single museum in Westchester worth seeing. But just north of Westchester is Bear Mt. State Park. They have a zoo, fabulous hiking trails, and even a gorgeous ride. You go also go visit the Waterfront Park in Peekskill, among many others in the county. There’s also Rye Playland, Tarrytown and the surrounding area where the Washington Irving stories were set, and some museum there my kids liked going to that I can’t remember at all at the moment. Once you get north of White Plains there’s a lot of beautiful countryside that can be seen from almost any main road.
Not far from that, in Greenwich, CT is the Bruce Museum.
There’s a free public sculpture garden at Pepsico’s world headquarters in Purchase NY.
Across the street, on the campus of SUNY Purchase, is the Neuberger Museum, which I think is well worth seeing (sorry, TriPolar). It’s at least worth investigating.
Lots of preserved historic homes. I haven’t been in a long time, but had many nice outings to - wait, I was going to link to Philipsburg Manor but found this site that covers Historic Hudson Valley.
If you want an outdoor beach (lake) day and maybe to rent a row boat Fahnestock State park is lovely. It is not in Westchester, but is a very easy drive up the Taconic Parkway.
If you like hot dogs, or quirky architecture Walter’s Hot Dogs (known among my circle as “Walter’s Pagoda”) is worth a visit, but don’t wait to go until you’re already hungry. There are typically lines.
So Rye Playland is worth it? I am considering it, but you never know if these places turn out to be dingy tourist traps or not. If it is nice it is a good fit for our toddler - he loves to ride the little narrow gauge trains.
We are also definitely going to do an historic home site. I’m just not sure which one. Kykuit, Lyndhurst, and Phillipsburg all look good, but there are others as well. St Pauls at Mt. Vernon?
I’ve been to Kykuit and it was very interesting. I think that the tour also stopped off at Union Church which was worth the stop. I don’t think that tourists can just drive to Kykuit, you have to get a bus just north of Sleepy Hollow at the visitor center.
Rye Playland goes through cycles. My most recent experiences, were all good as far as the park being clean and the rides working, but I should share that I haven’t been in five years. My mom retired and moved away from the area so our summer trip doesn’t take us near there anymore.
The last couple of times we went the concessions were Burger King and Pizza Hut Express, which is kind of icky but not the worst kind of icky.
Also, we only ever went in the daytime, on weekdays.
There’s the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary and another cemetary in Valhalla, if you want to look at graves of famous people. If you go an hour or so north, you can visit the US Military Academy; the tour is worthwhile. Also FDR’s house and a Vanderbilt mansion are in Hyde Park (also north of Westchester County). And I think the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park has restaurants that offer high-end dining for not so much (since the chefs are students).
If you want to see about as old a European-derived house and landscape as you will see in the US, Philipsburg Manor – a Dutch home and sawmill from around 1640, I think – in Sleepy Hollow (formerly North Tarrrytown) is worth a visit. Tarrytown’s Main Street has some good restaurants, or better yet try the one right on the Hudson River, which is three miles wide there.
If you want to get a jog or a long walk in, the Rockefeller Park – until recently, the family’s primary home property – is lovely, bucolic forests and fields, criscrossed by wide dirt paths, about a mile inland from Tarrytown. We took our toddler there a couple days ago, and he loved it – didn’t want to leave. It’s also the site of Stone Barns, a recently built (expensive) restaurant and small farm that serves to educate kids about organic produce and the like. While you’re there, take a look at the little church nearby, which has windows by Chagall and Matisse.
They have a on walled garden in Yonkers just south of St Johns Hospital on Broadway based on a ancient design which is nice and free to visit.
Someone mentioned Fahnstock, which is one county above, nearby there is a Buddhist monastery open to the public that has interesting grounds/temple and they serve vegan lunch at 12-1 for a small price ($5 or $6). Introducing CYM Archives - BAUS
The Bronx is what Westchester County sits on top of - you have the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Gardens right across the street from one another and both are great for kids.
I grew up in Westchester. I would definitely second many of the suggestions made so far. This may be a little out of your way, but I would add Museum Village as well if you have time.
