I Love New York Blog

Visitors from all over the world are drawn to the 9/11 Memorial Museum to pay their respects and learn about the fateful attacks of September 11, 2001. Winter is an ideal time to take an educational break from the chill and visit this hallowed location.

One of the aims of the Wild Center, located in Tupper Lake, the crossroads of the Adirondack Park, is to help its visitors discover the story of the Adirondacks. What better way to do that than to build a winter weekend trip around a visit to this unique indoor-outdoor natural history museum while taking in the sights and activities of the region, including Lake Placid, home to the 1980 Winter Olympics?…

Garden City is home to Long Island’s air and space museum, the Cradle of Aviation, named in honor of the cluster of local airfields where many historic flights occurred in the 1920s. You can easily make this dynamic museum the centerpiece of a winter weekend excursion to Garden City, only an hour outside of New York City, which has several cultural attractions and fun diversions for the whole family.

Travel to Schenectady for a weekend rich in history, art, and fun. It is here where Thomas Edison founded the General Electric Company, where New York State named its first historic district, and it’s home to Proctors Theatre, a former vaudeville house where countless famous artists have performed.

Newburgh is one of the best destinations for motorcycle enthusiasts. Besides being able to cruise along the scenic Route 9W from New York City to get there, easy riders can also get their gear fix at the Motorcyclepedia Museum and the Orange County Choppers headquarters. Speaking of headquarters, on the history side of things, the city served as HQ to the Continental Army during the American Revolution and offers many historical attractions and sites to help make up a unique winter weekend itinerary for motorcycle lovers and history buffs alike.

Head north to the St. Lawrence River, which forms the watery border between New York State and Canada, to take in the breathtaking scenery of the Thousand Islands region—such as the nearly 2,000 islands, the bright blue bays of Lake Ontario, sparkling rivers and hundreds of miles of picturesque coastline—and visit the lasting tribute to the cowboys, soldiers, and Native Americans of the Old West at the Frederic Remington Art Museum. There are countless things to see and enjoy in the neighboring towns of Watertown, Ogdensburg, and Canton.

The small Hudson Valley town of Beacon has blossomed into an art lover’s paradise and a popular weekend getaway thanks to the Dia Art Foundation converting a Nabisco box printing factory on the banks of the Hudson into Dia:Beacon in 2003. Now more than 75,000 visitors a year flock to this contemporary and modern art museum and the town in which it resides. While a trip up to Beacon is easily doable in a day from New York City, there’s so much more to enjoy, so why not plan your visit over a weekend?…

Lovers of comedy should make it a point to visit Jamestown, home of the newly built National Comedy Center, the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, and Desilu Studios. In this small town, there are plenty of attractions and historic sites to keep visitors busy and entertained for a weekend.

Want to see one of the world's finest collections of modern and contemporary art and get sprayed by waterfalls all in one day? Take a weekend trip to Buffalo, which was named one of the world's top 52 spots to visit in 2018 by The New York Times. Niagara Falls' dramatic cascades are spectacular in any season and Buffalo’s night scene is just as vibrant as its art. As a perfect complement to seeing this natural wonder, you can take in some of the best that Buffalo has to offer, from world-class art and architecture to entertainment and food—even if you’ve only got a weekend.