Visit Rhinebeck & Red Hook
Staff | May 2, 2017 | Comment
People visit the Rhinebeck area for a day, return to for a weekend, and then begin to fantasize about spending a month or a lifetime here. Access is easy via Amtrak, which drops you off five minutes from Rhinebeck’s center. You’ll find yourself in the heart of a region that blends laid-back welcome with five-star everything.
Most every weekend, you’ll find something going on at the nearby Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Check the fairgrounds calendar and choose between fine machinery, livestock, crafts, food, wine, and more. The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a living museum of aviation’s golden age; you can watch an airshow and take a biplane ride. At nearby Bard College, the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts showcases opera, ballet, theater, and film; in its seasonal Spiegeltent, there’s cabaret and jazz.
A summer weekend could be happily spent wandering the villages of Rhinebeck, Red Hook, and Tivoli sampling coffee shops, prowling boutiques and galleries, and dining on fine cuisine. Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook represents some of the finest contemporary equine artists. The Rhinebeck Antique Emporium is the largest venue of its kind in the Hudson Valley; the Rhinebeck Sunday Farmers’ Market is an opportunity to browse exotica like fresh pheasant, quail eggs, and fine smoked meats while enjoying live music and chef’s demonstrations. Fine art, art supplies, gifts, jewelry, apparel, specialty kitchen equipment, and more stock the shelves of dozens of carefully curated and passionately well-run shops in the town. When it’s time to dine, the hard part is making up your mind. Top-notch sushi at Osaka, scratch-made Indian fare at Cinnamon, prime rib at Foster’s Coach House, dock-fresh seafood prepared with a European flair at Le Petit Bistro, and neo-Italian at Gigi’s Trattoria are but a few examples of the culinary choices here—where you’re smack in the middle of the Valley’s acclaimed farm-to-table revolution. There are also great treats to take home, like artisanal handcrafted chocolates from Oliver Kita and one-of-a-kind jewelry from around the world at Hummingbird Jewelers.
Explore the outdoors with a hike through Ferncliff Forest or along the enchanted shores of neighboring Tivoli Bays. You’ll be immersed in history—the Village of Rhinebeck is full of quaint Dutch architecture and set within a unique historic district made up of riverfront estates. Take a tour of Wilderstein, a 19th-century Queen Anne Victorian with grounds done by renowned landscape architect Calvert Vaux and an interior filled with three generations’ worth of memorabilia.
Above: Downtown Rhinebeck