You don’t should journey far to benefit from the fall foliage and make the most of all that the crisp pumpkin season has to supply. About an hour’s drive or a Metro North prepare hop from New York Metropolis, the topographically various cities and villages of Westchester County will preserve your fall weekend or midweek escape calendar booked and busy.
Anchor your journey to the area with a keep at The Opus Westchester (https://www.theopuswestchester.com/), centrally situated close to the bustling strip of outlets and eating places in downtown White Plains, N.Y. The luxurious lodge boasts artfully embellished widespread areas and suites, high-end eating choices (together with Purple Horse by David Burke), an indoor swimming pool, and the property’s crown jewel—the Opus Spa, the place visitors and guests bask in pampering facials and muscle-melting massages and physique remedies.
Seasonal highlights
Go apple- and pumpkin-picking, pattern ciders and maple syrup, and convey dwelling contemporary produce and pies on the 13 farms and orchards dotted alongside the Westchester Farm Path (https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/things-to-do/open air/farms/), together with Stuart’s Farm and Wilkens Fruit and Fir Farm.
Discover the plush grounds and gardens and catch a efficiency on the Caramoor Middle for Music and the Arts (https://caramoor.org/) in Katonah, N.Y. On Sunday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m., Caramoor celebrates the Mexican vacation Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Lifeless, with a free, family-friendly afternoon of music and dance. Waiting for the vacation season, reserve a seat for the favored afternoon tea collection.
Take a social media post-worthy journey to Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., for the Nice Jack O’Lantern Blaze (https://hudsonvalley.org/occasions/blaze/), a Halloween season spotlight that includes greater than 7,000 hand-carved, illuminated pumpkins with synchronized lighting and an unique soundtrack set in opposition to the eerie backdrop of Van Cortlandt Manor’s 18th-century buildings and riverside panorama. This 12 months, added options embody the twirling pumpkin Ferris wheel and a circus sideshow. Buy advance tickets on-line.
Whereas in Croton-on-Hudson, go to the picturesque Croton Gorge Park (https://parks.westchestergov.com/croton-gorge-park), a 97-acre property on the base of the Croton Dam with spectacular views of the dam and spillway. This widespread spot for fishing, picnicking, and mountaineering is open year-round.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hole” lives on within the quaint village of Sleepy Hole, N.Y. To listen to Washington Irving’s story of the Headless Horseman in an appropriately spooky setting, join one of many guided, day- or night-time Sleepy Hole Cemetery Excursions (https://visitsleepyhollow.com/plan/sleepy-hollow-cemetery-tours/). By way of November 12, take a tour of Irving’s dwelling on Sunnyside Lane in close by Irvington, N.Y.
African American Tradition Highlights
Take a meditative stroll alongside the Hudson River waterfront in Yonkers, N.Y., to view a public artwork mission known as the Enslaved Africans Rain Backyard (http://enslavedafricansraingarden.org/). This city heritage backyard close to Philipse Manor Corridor is the imaginative and prescient of artist and Yonkers native Vinnie Bagwell and consists of 5 giant bronze sculptures depicting freed enslaved folks.
Bragwell additionally created a bronze statue of legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, who spent her childhood in Yonkers. Entitled “The First Woman of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald,” the statue stands subsequent to the Metro-North prepare station in Yonkers.Dig into delicious modern Southern delicacies and Caribbean flavors at Alvin & Buddies in New Rochelle, N.Y. Proprietor Alvin Clayton’s downtown staple is understood for its stay jazz and colourful unique paintings. On the restaurant’s web site, the Trinidad native says, “All through my travels, I’d at all times dreamed of in the future having my very own restaurant; a spot to name my very own. I wished it to really feel as if I used to be having associates over for a go to, simply as my grandparents had entertained their associates after I was a baby.”
