The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, is on every true American baseball fan’s checklist. Celebrating many top players, including greats such as Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken Jr., and Babe Ruth, the museum displays exhibits, artifacts, and photos, and tells the stories that shaped American baseball.
New York City’s Museum of Interesting Things is as weird and wonderful as its name suggests. Curated by Denny Daniel, who has a passion for historical memorabilia, the collection spans the 19th to 21st centuries and features everything from antique toys to quirky household inventions. Visits to the museum, which is housed in Daniel’s Greenwich Village apartment, are by appointment only, but the traveling museum also performs regular Secret Speakeasy events.
Built in 1851 for artist and inventor Samuel Morse as a summer home, Locust Grove Estate overlooks the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York. Today, the estate is a museum that primarily offers a snapshot of a place and time, with an extensive collection and expansive grounds.
At the heart of NYC’s Civic Center neighborhood is Foley Square, a historic quadrangle flanked by the New York Supreme Court and the Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse. But this square hasn’t always been known for ensuring justice is done; it was once a freshwater swamp home to The Bridewell, a detention center infamous for its appalling conditions, and the notorious Five Points neighborhood.
Located at the site of the historic Woodstock concert, the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is a nonprofit organization working to make the arts more accessible to a wider public. The sprawling cultural center encompasses a campground, an outdoor pavilion and music venue, a café open for breakfast and lunch, and a museum dedicated to preserving the legacy of the original Woodstock festival.
Jefferson Market Library looks like a castle, was originally a courthouse, and is now a public library. This 19th-century architectural gem in Greenwich Village was saved by local residents from demolition in the 1960s, and now it’s popular with the laptop crowd. The Venetian Gothic structure is complete with regal spires and turrets, soaring stained glass windows, and an old firewatcher’s tower.
The Rochester house where noted suffragette Susan B. Anthony spent the last 40 years of her life, and where she was arrested in 1872 for voting, is both a national landmark and museum. The well-preserved home and site houses exhibits and artifacts related to her life and work and offers informative tours and interpretive programs.
Overlooking the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, Mount Gulian Historic Estate once served as the Revolutionary War headquarters of General Friedrich von Steuben. It was also home to generations of the Verplanck family, who built the house in the 1730s; the original house burned down in 1931 and was reconstructed in 1975.
Called The Little Shubert Theatre when it opened in 2002, Stage 42 is notable for being the first Off-Broadway theater owned by the century-old Shubert Organization, and their first venue to open in New York City since 1928. The theater hosts contemporary productions with big names, and past hits include the comedy Under My Skin and the Harry Potter parody Potted Potter.
Learn Chautauqua County history and heritage at the Fenton History Center, a museum and research center run by the local history society. Inside an Italian villa-style mansion, find preserved period rooms and exhibits on topics ranging from local genealogy and the underground railroad to American actress Lucille Ball, born in Jamestown.
Slime takes center stage at the Sloomoo Institute NYC, the first of a growing number of destinations designed to encourage sensory play. This adult-friendly experience for kids lets you experiment with everything from colorful slime to kinetic sand within a 12,000 foot (3600 meter) entertainment space.
With a history dating back to 1863, Saratoga Race Course is the oldest horse racing track in the US. Located in Saratoga Springs, New York, Saratoga Race Course is one of the premier institutions for thoroughbred racing and a popular destination during its summer racing season.
Few people think of farming when they think of the Big Apple, but Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farming and green roofing business, is trying to change that. Started in 2010, it now produces upwards of 80,000 pounds (36,300 kilograms) of organic produce yearly—grown in sustainable rooftop gardens atop two Brooklyn buildings. While the spaces primarily operate as working farms, they’re also open for tours and private events.
A favorite winter escape for New Yorkers and close enough for a day trip, Hunter Mountain is the second tallest peak in the Catskills and home to a popular ski resort. Nearly 70 trails weave down from the 3,200-foot (975-meter summit, with terrain for everyone from beginners to expert-level skiers and snowboarders.
A kid-friendly New York City attraction, the Everett Children's Adventure Garden is an ideal place for young visitors to find educational activities, outdoor exploration, and hands-on science projects. With more than 12 acres (4.9 hectares) to visit—whether dashing through mazes or exploring plants at Habitat Hub—kids have plenty of fun.
Zoom Flume Water Park is the ultimate destination for a busy day in the summer sun. Shoot down a winding waterslide, take a dip in the wave pool, and float down the 600-foot (182-meter) Wild River. Then, refuel with a riverside picnic before doing it all again.
Not far from Brooklyn’s well-known brownstones, gourmet restaurants, and cool-kid bars lies this multicultural, non-denominational megachurch. Located a few blocks from Fort Greene Park in downtown Brooklyn, this church offers Sunday worship services and nighttime prayer meetings for the borough’s diverse community. For the uninitiated, the highlight is typically the music of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, a 300-voice Gospel choir with Grammys—among other awards—under its belt.
America’s first presidential library, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, chronicles the life and presidency of the country’s longest serving president. Planned and designed by FDR himself, it holds his official papers, books, memorabilia, and personal effects, as well as the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt.
With its benches and tables, rows of trees, and open-air artworks like Mark di Suvero’s towering red Joie de Vivre sculpture, Zuccotti Park has been catering to New Yorkers since the late 1960s. Office workers often take their lunch break here, but the space is most famous as the setting of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, when activist encampments took over the park.
Learn about the French and Indian War with a visit to the Fort William Henry Museum. This historic battle site and fort is now a busy museum that offers visitors the chance to see wartime relics, attend live military arms demonstrations, and enjoy daily talks, programs, and tours.
Overlooking the Hudson River, the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site is the birthplace, lifelong home, and final resting place of the 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR. The site comprises the two-story, Federal-style Springwood estate, numerous historic outbuildings, and the presidential library and museum.
Adirondack Park possesses an untamed natural beauty that sprawls across its expanse, which is distilled into an accessible space at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. As you explore the site’s 80 acres (32 hectares), you'll encounter a living science museum with indoor and outdoor exhibits, trails, and information about the area’s ecology.
Riverside Church offers a slice of 13th-century France standing tall in the Manhattan skyline. Modeled after a massive Gothic cathedral in the French town of Chartres, this 1930 church has a nearly 400-foot bell tower—the tallest in the US—along with impressive stained glass windows and an ornate pulpit that has been graced by speakers including Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Egg appears to float above downtown Albany’s Empire State Plaza. A unique egg-like concrete bowl that sits beside a reflecting pool, it’s one of the city’s premier performing arts venues, comprising of two theaters. Here, you can see a variety of performances, including concerts, dance, film, musical theater, and more.
The Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in upstate New York offers insight into US political history. Learn more about Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady to the 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt, by touring the sprawling grounds and buildings. The grounds are accessible year-round. To tour Val-Kill Cottage, take a park ranger-led tour.
With more than five floors of themed galleries including games, multimedia displays, and interactive exhibitions, Brooklyn’s Jewish Children’s Museum is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the United States. Here, children can learn about biblical stories, discover Jewish traditions and customs, and explore Jewish history through interactive exhibitions. Children of all faiths are welcome to learn, play, and take part in special activities like cooking classes at this hands-on museum.
A vestige of the Gilded Age, the Phelps Mansion Museum—former home of a wealthy Binghamton resident—is a testament to another era. Filled with art and preserved with original detailing such as marble floors and period furnishings, the stately mansion offers history buffs and design enthusiasts a trip back in time.
Considered an icon of Gilded Age design and decadence, the Staatsburgh State Historic Site is one of the grandest historical estates located in New York’s Hudson River Valley. Formerly owned by financier and politician Ogden Mills and his wife, Ruth Livingston Mills, the sprawling mansion is known for its Beaux-Arts architecture and its well-preserved, lavishly decorated interiors.
Housed within the historic Roberson Mansion—a grand, Italian Renaissance-style landmark built by turn-of-the-century industrialist Alonzo Roberson, Jr.—Binghamton, New York’s Roberson Museum and Science Center is today one of the region’s highlight museums. Home to temporary and permanent exhibitions on history, art, and science, it is mainly celebrated for its sizeable digital planetarium, which hosts regular celestial shows.
Encompassing eight counties, Central New York offers a real diversity of destinations, though it’s dominated by farmland and small towns. Enjoy tastings at rural wineries and breweries, explore quaint main streets, and take advantage of the region’s scenic landscapes by following hiking trails along rocky gorges and tranquil lakefronts.
