The 8 Best Day Trips from Albany, Ranked
Country road in the Hudson Valley outside Albany
Eight day trips within two hours of Albany, ordered by which ones actually deliver on the drive.
Under an hour
1. Saratoga Springs (45 min). Broadway shopping, the Saratoga Race Course in summer, the spa parks year-round. The obvious winner. 2. Troy (15 min). The Saturday farmers' market is one of the best in the Northeast, and downtown's cast-iron architecture is unmatched in the region. 3. Schenectady (25 min). Proctors Theatre, the Stockade Historic District, and better restaurants than its reputation suggests. 4. The Berkshires — Williamstown or North Adams (55 min). Mass MoCA is worth the drive alone.
Under two hours
5. Cooperstown (75 min). The Baseball Hall of Fame, plus Otsego Lake if you have time. 6. Woodstock and Kingston (90 min). Skip the town of Woodstock's kitsch and head straight to Kingston's Rondout waterfront. 7. Lake George (55 min but feels farther). Steamboat cruises May through October, dead in winter. 8. The Catskills — Hunter or Windham (75 min). Skiing December through March, otherwise thin. Not ranked: Manhattan is 2.5 hours minimum with traffic, which pushes it out of day-trip range.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Troy, answered with this month’s numbers.
Saratoga Springs via Amtrak from Albany-Rensselaer (25 minutes), or Troy via CDTA bus 22 (30 minutes). Everything else effectively requires driving.
Hunter Mountain for skiing, or Mass MoCA in North Adams — the massive indoor galleries make it a better cold-weather bet than anywhere outdoors.
