Eight days in the Magnificent Hudson Valley
"The Hudson
is this nation's Rhine...the mighty river, complete
with our own humble castles, legends and ancient associations..."
-- James Fenimore Cooper
Schedule
for Fall 2008:
October 12 to 19
Additional
cruises by special arrangement
Statue of Liberty, from the
deck of the windjammer Richard Robbins
Here is our
expected itinerary, remembering that the itinerary is
subject to change, as new opportunities arise, according
to weather conditions, and according to availability
of sites:
Sunday: Our week begins
when you check in to our river-bank hotel. We first
meet
as a group after supper, to get acquainted, to talk
about the trip and to see slides of some of our
upcoming
visits.
Monday morning
we begin with a harbor cruise on the 1902 wooden
hulled windjammer,
the Richard
Robbins. Our bus takes us to
Tarrytown where lunch will be served at the Philipsburg
Manor Visitor Center.
Following lunch we visit the most imposing of all
of
the Hudson Valley Mansions, Kykuit, the family seat
of the Rockefeller family.
When we check into the
nearby Marriott Hotel you will be pleased to find your
luggage is already in your room. A buffet supper is
served to our group, after which folksinger Linda
Russell will present the Hudson River in song
and story.
Tuesday is our West
Point day. First thing in the morning we board the
historic wooden vessel, The Commander for
a cruise across Haverstraw Bay and into The Hudson
Highlands, This is the only water level gap in the
Appalachian
Mountain chain. The beauty of this gap is comparable
to the Romantic Rhine.
"Million Dollar View"
of the Hudson from West Point Academy
Our boat will dock
at the United States
Military Academy pier at West Point where we will be met by our now familiar bus and driver.
We will have lunch at the legendary Thayer Hotel,
on
the grounds of the Academy, after which we will take
a guided tour of The Academy. Finally we will bus
to
our Poughkeepsie hotel where dinner will be served,
followed by a free evening.
Since
2006, by popular request:
We will spend four nights in the Poughkeepsie
Grand. That Means four nights
without repacking!
 Wednesday morning we visit the 1804 estate, Boscobel (see photo
below). This is one of the country's most beautiful
homes. Inside it is a museum of Federal Period furniture.
The view from here, looking into the Highlands, is unsurpassed.
We then rejoin The Commander at West Point for
a cruise through the Northern half of the Highlands.
Picnic lunch will be on board ship. In the afternoon
twe will visit George Washington's Headquarters in
Newburgh.
Washington spent the final sixteen months of the Revolution
here in Newburgh, longer than any other place where
he stayed during the course of that war. Dinner will
be at The Torches, a waterfront restaurant in Newburgh.
Thursday is a very full
program, the highlight of which is a close acquaintance
with the most important and famous of "the riverside
aristocracy", Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lunch
will be in Poughkeepsie at the world famous Culinary
Institute of America. (The C.I.A.) and if time permits,
before our afternoon tour of Franklin Roosevelt's home
at nearby Hyde Park we will visit Vassar College to
look at the collection of Hudson River Paintings. Following
our tour of Hyde Park we will go to Wilderstein for
supper where we will feel ourselves to be the guests
of Roosevelt's cousin Daisy Suckely (another of the
riverside aristocratic families). After touring her
house we will have wine and cheese on the veranda before
enjoying suppper in the coach house.
Following supper
Karl will read selections from the book Closest
Companion which is a collection of Daisy's diary
entries and of letters which she and FDR exchanged.
When Daisy died, living alone in the deteriorating mansion,
she was 99 years old. Only with the discovery of these
letters (in a trunk under her bed) was it known what
a close companionship they had had.
Mohonk Mountain
House
Friday is
largely a day of relaxation and rehabilitation. The
agenda calls for
an all day visit to the Mohonk
Mountain House (pictured
above). Mohonk is the last of the great mountain
destination
hotels. In the early 1900's no European's visit to
America was complete without a cruise up The Hudson
and a stay
at one of these mountain-top palaces. After a full
day of savoring the pleasures of Mohonk we will take
a twilight
cruise on the motor yacht, The Teal, from Kingston
to Poughkeepsie.
We then return to our hotel for supper.
Saturday morning
The Teal will carry us from Kingston , north, to
the city of Catskill. The gracious wall of The Catskill
Mountains will dominate the scenery on the port side
of our boat all morning. In the afternoon we will
visit the New
York State Capitol building in Albany.
For our final night we check into
the Crowne Plaza
Hotel in Albany,New York, the head
of the navigable Hudson River.
On Sunday morning
we will stop at the Albany visitor Center where
you will
view an introductory film explaining, among other things,
why this area was once the heart of the American
industrial
revolution.Our last adventure is a cruise through the
final section of the navigable Hudson River, as
seen
by Henry Hudson himself. (This is as far North as Henry
Hudson came in 1609.)
Congratulations! By
this time
you will have spent a week on the country's most important
river getting to know her as few people ever do!
We
will pass through Federal Lock number one, entering
the gateway to the Erie Canal aboard the Dutch
Apple.
Then we turn around and cruise back to Albany. After
a lunch on board ship our bus turns back tto New
Jersey
and to New York City. Some of you will choose to
remain in the Albany area or to fly home out of the
Albany
airport.
The all-inclusive price
for this once-in-a-lifetime trip is:
- 2008
tours - $2750 (add $475
if traveling singly).
Call to Enroll
by credit card. Deposit is $300
per person
Cruises are limited
to 35 people, a nice sized group. so please call
us now
to reserve your place.
Call 1-800-836-2128
NOTE:
What follows is part of a letter which
I customarily send out in response to inquiries:
Come, Cruise on the Magnificent Hudson!
This year, on our “boat and bus” tours of
The Hudson River Valley, you will see why Congress named
us among the first of the Nation’s American Heritage
Rivers! You will learn why possession of the Hudson
Valley was the most important of General Washington’s
war aims and why it kept him here in the Hudson Valley
longer than anywhere else during the Revolutionary War.
You will experience the natural beauty which gave rise
to “The Hudson River School of Painting”,
America’s special contribution to the art world.
As we pass through the Hudson Highlands you will grasp
the valley’s unique position as the only sea-level
passage through the Appalachian Mountains. You will
see why this made possible the Erie Canal. Then, once
the Erie Canal opened the way West, our Valley became
the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution
and the town at the River’s mouth, New York City,
became a world leader.
These are just a few of the highlights which lead our
travelers to exclaim, again and again “I HAD ABSOLUTELY
NO IDEA THAT THERE WAS SO MUCH HISTORY HERE. THERE’S
SO MUCH TO SEE AND TO DO!”
The list of our best known treasures goes on and on.
We’ll visit Sleepy Hollow country, made famous
by Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod
Crane. We’ll tour the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point. Our visit to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s
home in Hyde Park will bring back childhood memories
for many. River Valley Tours, Inc. has been offering
week long Hudson Tours for the past nine years. Each
year the program is refined and polished as we find
new ways to share our bounty.
It is a “B and B” tour (Boat and Bus). Each
day we experience the river by boat, then our bus takes
us to visit the most interesting of the riverside sites.
When we arrive at our hotel most nights we find that
our luggage is already waiting in our rooms! Essentially
the tour is my attempt to present the history of my
home region as a coherent story and then to communicate
it to my guests. The story has three strands which can
be kept in mind as we progress up the river:
First, we are recapitulating Henry Hudson’s journey
of Autumn, 1609. He was looking for a sea passage through
to the Pacific Ocean. Was his quest reasonable? When
did he begin to suspect he wasn’t going to make
it? How much of what we will see looked the same when
Henry Hudson passed this way?
Secondly, We will develop a visceral sense of Washington’s
struggle to hold on to The River, or at least to deny
its waters to the British. We will clearly understand
why loss of The River would have meant loss of the Revolution.
Finally, we will look at the economic and cultural
river. We will come to understand the progression which
visited so many of our Hudson riverfront towns; how
commerce left the river and how economic wealth moved
up the river banks to where the roads and then the highways
were built, how the river declined, and then how a new
sensibillity of conservation and reverence for beauty
developed, and how this new ethic of preservation and
conservation is now bringing prosperity back to the
river.
I hope that you will join us
Cancellation policy is as follows: If you
withdraw from the trip at least 45 days before tour
date, $100 of your $275 deposit will be retained, but
will be applicable to any future trip with RVT. Within
45 days of the trip there will be no refund unless your
place is subsequently filled, In which case $100 will
be retained and credited to any future trip..Disclaimer:
Tour Operator acts only as an agent for the various
independent suppliers that provide accommodations, transportation,
meals, sightsseing and other services connected with
this tour. Such services are subject to the terms and
conditions of those suppliers. Tour Operator accepts
no liability for any injury, damage, loss, accident,
or delay which may be caused by the negligence, defect
or default of any company or person in performing these
services. Responsiility is not accepted for losses,
injury, damages or expenses of any kind due to sickness,
weather, strikes, wars, terrorist acts or acts of nature.
Tour Operator is not responsible for baggage or personal
effects of travellers. Travellers may purchase travel
insurance to cover losses of luggage or personal effects."
Tour operator will make every effort to adhere
to printed itinerary, but he reserves the right to make
any changes which he deems necessary .
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