Take a Car-Free Family Day Trip to Hyde Park

This summer, families who want to travel upstate will not need a car to make the most of this day trip to Historic Hyde Park.

When considering a family day trip, you may think that you need a car to travel. Fortunately, for those in the New York City area, we have reliable public transportation by means of Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak. 

From May 1 through October 31, visitors who take a Metro-North train to Poughkeepsie will be able to access a free shuttle bus called Roosevelt Ride to tour Historic Hyde Park sites.

Board the 8:46am Metro-North train at Grand Central Station and arrive at the Poughkeepsie station at 10:36am with views of the Hudson River on the way. The Roosevelt Ride shuttle bus, courtesy of the National Park Service, will be waiting outside of the station.
 

Historic Hyde Park is home of 32nd President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Roosevelt Ride takes visitors to tour his home, the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Top Cottage (FDR's personal retreat), Val-Kill Cottage (Eleanor Roosevelt’s home), and the Vanderbilt Mansion. It is also the FDR Presidential Library’s 75th anniversary on June 30, and there will be events throughout that weekend to celebrate the birthday of the very first presidential library.
 

While en route to the Henry Wallace Visitors Center to purchase tickets for the day’s excursions, visitors can ask the shuttle bus driver to make stops at the Culinary Institute of the America or Walkway Over the Hudson at some point during the day. The Culinary Institute of America offers four restaurants and a pastry bakery for patrons to dine in, with everything prepared by culinary students. The Walkway Over the Hudson boasts views that rival those of Manhattan’s High Line, connecting Poughkeepsie to Highland as the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world over the Hudson River. 

New this year to the historic Roosevelt sites is the restoration of the Roosevelt Home Garden. Roosevelt cultivated a vegetable garden on his property while living in Hyde Park, but it could not be maintained once he passed away and was transformed into a visitor parking lot for people to pay respects to the late president. From the efforts of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Conservancy and sustainable food activist Alice Waters, the garden is undergoing soil improvement and the first crops will be planted this season. The inaugural harvest is slated for this fall. Crops include Crosby Egyptian beets, Thomas Laxton peas, Paris white cos lettuce, and Boston marrow squash.

Admission to the Historic Hyde Park sites is $28 and free for children younger than 15, plus Metro-North fare. For more information, visit the Historic Hyde Park website or call 845-229-5320.
 

RELATED: Meet the Roosevelts at Historic Hyde Park

See Our Day Trips Ebook For More Ideas

Main photo: Eleanor Roosevelt lived in Val-Kill Cottage from 1936 through her death in 1962.