Not a city person? Fair enough! Personally, I enjoy cities, but sometimes it’s really nice to get out of there and breathe! NYC is… Perhaps the city of all cities. It is indeed magical, but please know that there is so much to do outside of it. New York is amazing and fascinating. Allow me to show you a few things to do~
- Visit a winery or an orchard to get your drink on! There are a good number of places in New York to do this, naturally. I’m more familiar with upstate, so I can recommend you Millbrook Vineyards & Winery and Angry Orchard. It’s so cool to see how we get from fruit to bottle, and it’s even cooler to taste the drink that was made in that exact place!
- Visit an orchard or farm during picking season, and… Take your pick? (Was that funny? Did anyone get that?) Apple picking is fascinating to me because when you’re with a group of people, everyone has input on the right way to pick an apple. Climb the tree as high as you can go? Pluck one lingering near your head? Eat it there? Save it? How full of a bag is too full of a bag? Seriously, try going with people from different areas of the northeast and just… Enjoy the show.
- Take a look at our future Chefs of America at the CIA (The Culinary Institute of America). They run their own restaurant + bakery here, so it’s a cool place to try out. I really like their desserts and their truffle fries if you’re wondering what to get~! Their campus is also SO cool to check out and walk around. It’s quite beautiful, honestly. Maybe take a peek?
- History buffs, visit the FDR Presidential Library & Museum. It’s a good place to learn a thing or two and a beautiful place to walk around.
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Hop from town to town, bakery and cafe to museum and landmark. Support local! New Paltz, Catskill, Beacon, Rhinebeck, and Hyde Park are a few of my recommendations~
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Find a viewing spot of the river during fall. The view will speak for itself. You’ll just have to see what I mean!
My last piece of advice: Just give everywhere you go a chance. You never know when you’ll stumble across something amazing! That’s what I learned while exploring upstate New York, and I hope you learn that too~