Blog Day trips & escapes

2026-02-245 min readcheaphotels

A 95-mile loop south from Albany down Route 9G to Olana, back up 9W, with 5 house tours, 2 river viewpoints, and lunch in Hudson — leave at 8am, back by 7pm.

The route in one paragraph

South out of Albany on Route 9J along the east bank of the Hudson, cross at Rensselaer to pick up Route 9G, drive 40 miles south to Olana and Clermont, cross back at the Rip Van Winkle Bridge at Catskill, and return up Route 9W on the west bank through Coxsackie and Ravena. Total drive time without stops is about 2 hours 30 minutes. With five stops it's a nine-hour day and you’ll be tired by dinner.

You need a car. There is no train route that hits these mansions in sequence, and taxis or rideshares don’t reliably cover the rural stretches south of Rensselaer. Rentals from Albany International run $55-$85 for the day if you book a week out. Fill the tank in Albany; gas on the route is 20 cents higher a gallon.

9:00am — Clermont State Historic Site

Clermont is the Livingston family seat, 500 acres on the Hudson, and the least-visited of the mansions on this route because it's furthest south. That's the reason to come first. Grounds open at 8:30am, house tours start at 11am and run hourly until 4pm, $9. The 1730 house was burned by the British in 1777 and rebuilt; the sixth generation of Livingstons lived there until 1962.

Give the grounds 45 minutes before the tour. The river bluff view south to the Catskills is why the family stayed for 250 years. The formal gardens are best in June. If you’re doing the loop in a single day, skip the house tour here and take the tour at Olana instead — Clermont is about the property, Olana is about the interior.

11:00am — Olana

Ten miles north on 9G. Olana is Frederic Church's 1872 Persian-Moorish-eclectic house, and the interior is worth every dollar. $20 for the guided tour, book online — walk-ins get turned away on weekends. Tours are 45 minutes and the view from the veranda is the most photographed vista in the Hudson Valley for a reason.

Time the tour for 11am or 11:30, which puts you back in the parking lot by 12:30 and in Hudson for lunch by 1pm. The landscape trails on the property are free and open dawn to dusk; if you have an extra hour on the return trip, the Ridge Road loop is a 40-minute walk with three viewpoints Church painted from. In October the foliage on Olana's east slope is the best in the region.

1:00pm — Lunch in Hudson

Cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge — $2 toll eastbound only, so this direction is free — and drop into Hudson. Warren Street is 10 blocks of antique shops, galleries, and restaurants that have priced out most of the original town. For lunch, Grazin' does grass-fed burgers from their own farm for $18. Lil' Deb's Oasis is the more interesting room, tropical comfort food, $22 mains, closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

You’ve got 90 minutes here. Warren Street antiques run high — expect to pay Manhattan prices minus 15%. The good move is coffee at Talbott & Arding, a poke through Carrie Haddad Gallery, and back in the car by 2:30. If you skip lunch in Hudson and eat in Catskill instead, you save $15 a head and lose an hour of the day's best walking.

3:00pm — Thomas Cole National Historic Site

Cross back over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (this direction pays the $2), and Cedar Grove is a mile from the bridge landing in Catskill. Thomas Cole founded the Hudson River School here in 1836. $18, tours on the hour, 90 minutes for the full site including the New Studio and the main house. The Cole and Church studios have working artists in residence — genuinely, you can watch them paint.

This is the intellectually rich stop of the day. Olana is Church, Cedar Grove is his teacher, and seeing them the same day makes the connection clear. If time is tight, the New Studio alone with its rotating exhibitions is worth $18 and 45 minutes. Back on the road by 4:30 puts you in Albany by 6pm, with margin for a photo stop on the west bank.

5:00pm — The overlook at Catskill Creek

Route 9W runs north from Catskill through Coxsackie and Ravena. The best free viewpoint on this stretch is the pull-off at Four Mile Point Road in New Baltimore, mile 128, looking east across the Hudson to the Berkshire foothills. Ten minutes, no fee, and the shot at 5pm in fall is what people put on postcards.

If you have gas in the tank for one more stop, Coeymans Landing has a small park at the water with picnic tables and a boat ramp. It adds 20 minutes and is only worth it in summer when the marina is active. Otherwise push through to Albany. The 9W approach into the city from the south comes in through Bethlehem and Delmar and is prettier than the 787 approach from the east.

6:30pm — Where to sleep back in Albany

You want a hotel with easy parking after a day of driving. The Hilton Albany on Lodge Street has valet for $28 and rooms in the $155-$190 range — it's the best value for a driving trip because you drop the car once and don’t move it. The Renaissance on Broadway is nicer but valet-only and $32/night.

For dinner tonight, don’t fight for a table — the day was long enough. The Hollow Bar + Kitchen on North Pearl takes walk-ins until 10pm and the burger is $18. If you have the energy for one more effort, Cafe Capriccio on Grand Street does the best Italian in Albany, $30 mains, reservations essential. Sleep in tomorrow.

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