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Take the Train to Tarrytown, New York
Escape route: Board a Metro North express train at Grand Central for the 36-minute ride to Tarrytown, on the Hudson River's eastern shore, opposite Nyack. Once there, get around town via taxi (lined up at the station or available by phone: Tarrytown Taxi, 914-631-8700; or United Taxi, 914-631-2920).
Make a day of it: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, urban refugees with deep pockets built grand country retreats in and around Tarrytown, some of which are now open to the public. Pay a visit to Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate—a six-story mansion surrounded by mature trees, rolling lawns, manicured gardens that showcase Nelson A. Rockefeller's remarkable collection of 20th-century sculpture, and stunning water views—and Manhattan will feel a hundred miles away, instead of just 30. Nearby, Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, an idyllic hilltop farm, is dedicated to sustainable agriculture and locally grown food. Grab a snack in the café before a stroll around the gardens, greenhouses, and—if you don't mind being introduced to your dinner—the chicken and pig enclosures or the sheep pasture (pictured).
Perfect ending: Sample the fruits of the farm-to-table ethos with the Farmer's Feast at Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant—five or eight courses of stunningly flavorful local produce that could turn committed carnivores into veggie lovers (and vice versa). If your belly is too full of fresh goose-egg linguine, Berkshire pork shoulder, freshly plucked micro greens, and first-of-the-season strawberries to trek back to the city, spend the night at the Castle on the Hudson, a medieval-style former private home dating to 1897 that is now a 31-room hotel.—Lynn Suhrie
Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate
Visitor Center: 381 N. Broadway, Sleepy Hollow
Tel: 914 631 8200 (Monday through Friday); 914 631 3992 (weekends)
Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture
630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills
Tel: 914 366 6200
Blue Hill at Stone Barns
630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills
Tel: 914 366 9600
Castle on the Hudson
400 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown
Tel: 800 616 4487
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