Antiques Everywhere: Hudson Valley, a popular upstate escape for New Yorkers, is brimming with vintage furniture stores. In the market for mid-century modern? Try Collage 20th Century Classics. Traditional Americana? Battle Brown. A little bit of everything, from folk art and vintage Persian rugs to modernist leather sling chairs? The Shop. For more casual browsing, however, mosey south to Millerton, a window-shopping haven in Dutchess County. There, Montage Antiques offers an eclectic mix of one-of-a-kind papier-mâché sculptures and pine farm tables. Cottage and Camp also specializes in unusual, if not more refined, curios, such as a framed collection of Shaker product labels and Victorian wicker sofas. And for those looking to extend their antique run, take a lap around the stalls of the historic Millerton Antiques Center.
Block Printing: Les Indiennes, the cult homeware boutique on Hudson’s main strip, offers a wide-ranging selection of linens, pillows, caftans and wallpaper. The shop’s biggest treasures, though, are its shelves stacked with rare textiles and block-printed fabrics, including kalamkari wall coverings, a traditional style of hand-painted clothes from India.
Craft Services While there is no shortage of woodworkers in the tree-lined towns upstate, a few are breaking new ground. In Germantown, the furniture studio run by designer Michael Robbins is home to black-walnut daybeds, cerused-oak desks, and elegant barrel chairs. Blackcreek Mercantile & Trading Co offers Shaker-style trestle tables, cutting boards and other sculptural works by the Kingston-based woodworker Joshua Vogel. And Gardenheir, the cult garden shop in Windham, sells willow "garden harvester" baskets and other handcrafted creations by Deborah Needleman, the Manhattan magazine editor turned Garrison-based artisan weaver.
Diverse Distilleries: Tenmile Distillery, New York’s only single malt whiskey producer, brews its spirits from local barley on a 75-acre farm in Wassaic. Sip cocktails — besides whiskey, Tenmile produces smooth vodkas and citrusy gins — in the distillery’s renovated dairy barn between bites of smoked trout toast and flatbread topped with whipped farm cheese from Westerley Canteen, a roving airstream often parked on the property.
Epicurean Delights: “If Chleo was in Brooklyn, you’d have to wait hours for a table,” says one city transplant, who is a regular at this popular wine bar in uptown Kingston. Pair bistro classics — chicken done over an open-fire grill, lamb cavatelli — with a sparkling pét-nat or glass of orange wine. Casa Susanna, the restaurant at Camptown, a new 50-room hotel in Leeds, offers modern Mexican cuisine like blue oyster mushroom sopes and smoked goat birria. The owners of Fortunes Ice Cream, a sunny ice-cream parlor in Tivoli, met decades ago as students at nearby Bard College. Today, the shop is a local favorite for its cerebral and creative flavors like labneh sour cherry, earl gray lavender shortbread and halva honeycomb.
Farm-to-Tavern: Chef Clare de Boer already had her oven gloves full as the co-chef behind two Manhattan restaurants: the SoHo neighborhood favorite, King, and the splashier Jupiter in Rockefeller Center. Now, with Stissing House in Pine Plains, she’s added one of the oldest taverns in America to her plate. Elegant and candle-lit, the cozy restaurant serves country classics, such as rabbit and tarragon pie with pea mash and wood-smoked beets. Don’t skip the blood orange and Campari jelly for dessert.
Garden Variety: The Quiet Botanist is a laboratory for all things floral: wildflower bouquets, plant-based chocolates, flower-pressing workshops, you name it. In Orange County, Cultivate Apothecary makes their own brand of wild-crafted beauty by growing the essential ingredients for their serums, tinctures and exfoliating masks at Stonegate Farm in Newburgh. You can visit the apothecary in season, or pick up their line of products at the Thistle, an Auberge spa at Wildflower Farms.
Hudson Hideaway:: Located at the western reaches of Warren Street, the proverbial Main Street of the picturesque 18th-century whaling port, The Maker Hotel is an opulent, 11-room respite nestled among the antique and design stores, restaurants and galleries of downtown Hudson. The hotel harmoniously blends details from a variety of over-the-top design eras, like Victorian industrial, the Belle Epoque, and Art Deco. While other hotels in the area cater to younger, more budget-conscious travelers, The Maker sets itself apart by offering a luxe, more personalized experience to its guests.
