The Winter Lights show is AMAZING! So creative, great use of all the uniqueness of the property…read more Very well organized. You park in the center of the town of Stockbridge MA which looks straight out of a Christmas romance hallmark movie. Even the town information booth (where you get the shuttle buses- which are school buses) over to Naumkeag House (less than 5 minute ride) looks like the cutest information booth you've ever seen. The buses are heated so after walking around outdoors you're happy to be on the warm bus ride back to the centers of the town. The light show has many nooks and crannies and surprises around every corner. I've been to much larger holiday light shows, and despite the size of this one being a bit smaller than some, it is spectacular and unique in so many ways. The property has a Chinese garden, a beautiful greenhouse (like straight out of frosty the snowman), a beautiful fountain, very large rows of giant evergreen shrubs, and incredible trees (like an arboretum). There are two "snack shacks" where you can get desserts, hot cocoa, hot cider, and even some nice add-ins like peppermint schnapps, bourbon, rum. Walking around looking at beautiful Christmas lights with a spiked hot beverage is magical. One of the snack shacks also has a fire pit with benches all around to sit and warm up by. Perhaps my favorite part...I went with several teens & young adults who don't always appreciate me taking tons of photos...but here...there were SO MANY PHOTO OPS that they didn't mind, and even started asking me to take more photos of them! Fair warning- this property has quite a few steps, so if mobility is a challenge, probably not the best place...even wheel chair accessible would be tough...especially with the school bus shuttles to/from town. Best to call ahead and see what accommodations can be made for accessibility. I hope to come back every year for the winter lights show. A very festive and beautiful thing to do with friends and family around the holidays.

Another really underrated museum and estate in the Berkshires, the gardens and grounds are amazing…read more You have a wonderful view of the valley below and the house has a lot of stately charm. The tour guide we had was fantastic and is probably one of the best ones I've had for a museum tour. He was informative but kept it light. I didn't feel like he was flooding the zone with information to flex. There's some Asian/Chinese flavor in the home and the surrounding gardens, as the Choates had a keen interest in Asia. There's significant walking up and down, so keep that in mind, and not a ton of parking. This summer cottage is worth a visit, especially if you're interested in estates during the Gilded Age.

Great museum where 2-3 hours is all you'll need to see everything and enjoy a great time. Suggest a…read moretour with tour guide for another 10 dollars. Easy parking too.

This was a must see for my wife and I. A very informative museum on this talented man's life. We…read morepaid for a tour to have his art explained to us, it was very informative and well worth the price. They do not do a very good job of promoting the tour, so ask. There are walking trails around the museum grounds. The gift shop is very nice and has great quality items to buy.

I was researching things to do in the Berkshires while my classmates and I were vacationing. This…read morepeaked our interest as we're all tech-fascinated people, and my husband was an animation major. It's a free museum visit, but because it's privately run, you have to call them and make special arrangements for them to come and open the museum. The pros: you get a private tour, and hours aren't limited to your usual 9-5. The cons: since it's only run by 2 people, you're really at their mercy when you show up and they may or may not be on there way there still. Admittedly it's nothing fancy, but if you're legitimately into animation, it's a really fun casual tour. They go very old school on some animation techniques. They have a gift shop with some animation trinkets you can buy. For extra money if you have time, you can also create your own animation with them. We opted out of that one. If you're in the area anyway, it's a great place to stop by. Otherwise, I wouldn't go out of your way to travel to the area just for this.

Remember carnival sideshows and the relentless shilling that happens out in front of the midway…read moretent? This is what it feels like to visit AniMagic. The handbill reads, "50% off Make Your Own Animation in our Hands-On Studio," and "$20 workshop includes 2-hr training, materials, and your creation on take-home video (reg. $40). Good for dates! Absolutely not. What we received for $40 instead of a 2-hour, make-your-own-animation workshop was: - a 10-minute tour of all the overpriced optical illusion toys in the dusty gift shop - a 10 minute "free" tour of their "museum," a small room full of sight gags and posters, and an expanding sphere that drops out of nowhere, just barely missing your head. We weren't allowed to linger over the really interesting things - a family tree of all the animators and animation studios in the Berkshires, the actual crab puppets from a food commercial, a technical Oscar - and were instead hustled (pun intended) from one thing to another, with a long, incomprehensible spiel accompanying our visits with long-outdated computer equipment, trompe l'oeil toys, and a mechanical Donald Duck on a high wire. I feared for my eyes during the entire visit. - a bait-and-switch video (really! on VHS!) of claymation (plasticine stop-motion animation), claimed to have been created by the guy's workshop students (we'll get to that in a minute). - 20 minutes of doing exactly what this guy impatiently told us to do, followed by being hustled (again, pun intended) out the front door. In that twenty minute (not two hour!) workshop, we were treated to a machine-gun-fire rapidity of commands by a person who had absolutely no intention of allowing us to make our own animation. We were told to sit at a table in a back workshop and were nonconsensually videotaped as he told us exactly what to do with the plasticine. When the camera was off, he was barking orders at us to make simple stick figures, which were NOTHING like the melting snowmen, dancing flowers, and amazing animals of the teaser video. I felt like I was promised a visit with a unicorn, but when I pulled back the oilcloth tent flap, I was treated to a brief glimpse of a dog with a tree branch secured precariously to its forehead with a necktie. As dreams of a romantic afternoon evaporated in the exact way that my forehead sweat didn't, I noticed his sign, printed in ALL CAPS, which read "THIS IS NOT BURGER KING. YOU DO IT *MY* WAY." No joke, if you have to make a sign to explain to people that they will adhere directly to your totalitarian clay regime, you probably shouldn't be in the business of working with small humans. Any humans. We've both made movies before, and - in the case of my beloved, who's taught classes in animation - brought some measure of competent experience to the table. I had hoped to learn something further about new technology's role in stop-motion animation, and have time to build my character, the backbone of any subject-based creative endeavor. Instead, I was given two minutes to cut legs out of a tube and shove a head onto a trunk with exacting precision, what this guy called "surgery." He had his spiel down pat. When I tried to ask if I could make something else, he said "NO." When I asked if I could make my figure an animal, he said "NO!" He sighed, and growled, and grimaced, and flat-out took our pieces away several times and just built them his damn self. It was as if we weren't there, because every time he noticed we had any selfhood, he seemed supremely annoyed at our very existence. Show's over, folks, keep on moving. The best part of this celluloid turd was when we went back into the main room and were told how to press computer buttons on a 1998 iMac running iMovie 2.0, which apparently required a complex call-and-response system to actuate still photos from a twenty-year-old, 0.5 megapixel webcam in the shape of a giant eye. I prayed that this eye would bear witness to our ordeal. Instead, we were told that we were making different movies (not one, as we at least expected to do), and were told what the movies would be about. We were not allowed to touch the figures more than twice apiece, because we were Doin' It Wrong, so he positioned the figures and told us when to take the pictures and basically used us to fulfill a role he had long before decided needed to be filled with deformed, ugly clay monstrosities. I imagined that a clay horse would run through the set and rescue my poor puppet, or, at the very least, trample it into the earth so it could avoid suffering further. He wouldn't let us do any post-production, forcing us instead to watch as he looped "our" terrible movies, added copyright-infringing music, and tasteless audio effects. We didn't even get a copy - we had to hunt on YouTube for it! When we were led out with a Bye Now after 40 minutes, we knew we'd been had. It's so unfortunate, too, because these people are so very talented (Irena is WAY more talented than he is). Run!!

This is a fantastic stop in the Berkshires. It is free to walk around the estate grounds/gardens…read more You can also purchase drinks and snacks on their terrace. We had a lovely and peaceful time sipping tea while overlooking the beautiful gardens. Everyone working here was so kind and helpful. We peaked into the mansion while using the restrooms and it looked to have great exhibits!

I really enjoyed the 90 minutes I spent here. Not only was the tour guide engaging and very…read moreknowledge, but I genuinely appreciated learning about Edith. Prior to the visit, I never heard of Edith Wharton, but I developed so much respect for her after attending this tour. The house and grounds are also both gorgeous. Highly recommend!

What a hidden gem off the Taconic parkway! I would enever have guessed this was here unless I…read moresearched for things to do while going on a weekend roadtrip. This place is open pretty much 365 and if the welcome center is closed, you can still walk around the grounds. Wonderful, funky, weird, unsettling, thought-provoking sculptures strewn over a large parcel of land and it's free too. We went in late Dec so it was cold, muddy and a few of the cool interactive pieces were closed.. whomp whomp. Also be aware of the dog 'landmines' as it seems a lot of owners do not bother to pick up. Will be back in the spring!

Awesome sculpture walk! About 50 pieces scattered in the fields and woods on the property. Get a…read moremap at the visitor's center and start your hunt! Wear comfortable shoes- it can be muddy in shaded areas. And wear a hat on a sunny day to keep the sun and flies off of you. Afterwards, rest in the cafe with a cold drink and discuss your favorite pieces. Great day trip for sculpture lovers!

Well worth visiting including the on-site museum. I would say think about the historical context as…read moreto when this was being built.

This is an interesting outdoor place to come and visit. Words cannot describe the gentlemen…read morespending 40 years to complete this. You have to come and see for yourself the hours of shaping stones with hand tools to be an outdoor art piece that is beautiful to see, walk around to enjoy. There are park benches around where you can sit and enjoy a snack and take in all the different levels of this outdoor artwork. The entry to the park includes a road that you have to share with in/out traffic. Drive slowly and turn out if needed to let the other traffic pass. Be patient and you will enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Cost: $11 online. In person is $1 extra Tip: 1) Purchase tickets online. As we were leaving there was a sign that said park at full capacity and only those with pre-purchased tickets were allowed into the park. 2) Main parking lot can get full fast. It wasn't until after we parked and went to the ticketing office there was a sign for overflow parking. 3) I did not see a bathroom anywhere, so plan accordingly.

Probably the most interesting art museum in Mass. If you're in the Boston area, it is a bit of a…read moredrive--we turned it into a weekend getaway, and it was worth it. The museum is massive, with tons of exhibits. You'll find a mix of contemporary art, immersive installations, plus regular live performances. We spent hours exploring/wandering. Some exhibits lean abstract or experimental, so it helps to go in with an open mind, but that's part of the appeal. Overall, it's a must-visit, and I hope to come back to catch their dusk/dawn exhibit, which seems to be a staple.

My mom and I were members for a year. I do wish there were more new and frequently changing…read moreexhibits. We have always enjoyed our time there but prefer to go a bit less often so we don't keep seeing the same things. The buildings are so cool but it is large and a little confusing to navigate. As with any art, there's been certain exhibits we've loved and others that weren't as interesting to us. It would be cool to have some more info about what the building used to be and how it used to look. I think the price could be prohibitive for a lot of people or for families. I am not knowledgeable about contemporary art but I like browsing here. We have done one of the free tours before as well. There are some times exhibits and those require advance booking online (the cost in included). This means many times, there were no slots available during the days and times we'd planned to visit. That felt like some people were getting "more for their money" and like we'd missed out. There was a roller coaster that ran once per hour and so I think members got first choice of spots so there was no availability for months (we never did get to experience the ride). There are a few James Turrell experiences that also require pre-registration. This makes it impossible to see them if you do a spontaneous visit.

It is a charming house. The property has beautiful gardens and the hiking trails are easy and some…read moreaccessible and some are flat. Nice wide open spaces

Sometimes Yelp is missing something ..and clearly it is a review of this amazing and I mean amazing…read morestep back into history museum. how it has no reviews actually surprised me so I will attempt to offer you a decent one first of all it is near the town of Great Barrington (listed as one of the THE best small towns in America) with greatness nothing comes cheap admission is $10 (6/19/15) but you get your own personal guide let me back track a bit follow the signs off Main Rd in Monterey to find it when you think is not there just keep going down the unpaved road and there it is in all its colonial era glory you park a bit away and walk up the hill to the majestic front imagine its 1770 and how isolated this house was we rang the bell and were warmly greeted by our tour guide Joe yes this is how it works you are taken on a tour of the home Joe knows everything about this house and I mean everything now about the house it has been restored to its 1700s glory just go visit and you will see what I mean touch history the doors are original touch history the fireplaces walk up the stairs to the bedrooms you will learn about the recent history how it was lovingly restored you will learn about the preacher and his family that once lived there i just love history and if you do you will love this place too ps there is no gift shop PTL a real experience no junk for sale just history here

This is really a gem of a museum, and it shares a property line with Tanglewood. So when you…read morearrive, you park the car and then walk about 1/3 of a mile to the entrance to the house which is on the right. To the left is a building that plays a 20 minute video where you can learn about Suzie Frelinghusen and her husband George Morris who were modern artists in the 1930s and onward. After George's death, the Suzie created a non-profit for the house so that after her death, it would be preserved. This means that the house has the original carpeting and many things that are just as they were originally. In fact, the floor in their library is made of leather, so everyone has to wear booties so as not to damage them. Seeing this house is really like taking a trip back in time, and you get to see a glimpse of their art and how these two lived. Also, in order to see the house, there are tours at the top of each hour. My friend and I were the only two people on the tour, so except an intimate experience. I don't think that it ever gets crowded. Be sure to check out their book collection as well. It was very difficult for me to resist the urge to reach out and open up some of the books! Also, in Suzie's bedroom, she painted herself an extraordinary fresco on the wall. While most of her art is modern, the paintings in her bedroom show her impeccable skill as a landscape oil painter as well.

"We're dying to be invaded Waiting for the UFOs Waiting for…read morethe UFOs We are waiting for the UFOs We know that they're there" (Graham Parker) Did a series of UFO's appear in the skies over Sheffield, Massachusetts in 1969? Did over 250 people see a disc-shaped white orb bigger than a football field hover in the sky over Sheffield's covered bridge? Did the Reed family have their car engulfed in light as they were pulled into the UFO? Did the family take a polygraph test found to be 99.1% truthful? Could this have been one of the most-seen UFO incidents in history? The Great Barrington Historical Society, Massachusetts governor, and Massachusetts historians seem to agree that all this happened, and there is a park in Sheffield commemorating that event. The Thom Reed - UFO Monument Park was founded in 2015 on the banks of the Housatonic River by the town of Sheffield where Thom Reed's off-world incident was said to have occurred. A sign reads "On behalf of the citizens of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am pleased to confer upon you this Governor's citation in recognition of the off-world incident on September 1, 1969, which engaged the Reed family, which has been established. Your dedicated service to this incident was factually upheld, founded, and deemed historically significant and true by means of Massachusetts historians. The records highlighting the historic event are now officially part of the Great Barrington, MA Historical Society's collection and your recent induction into Massachusetts history." There are benches scattered along the park waterfront, and many have sponsorship plaques from the media sources (Netflix, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Discovery Science, International UFO Museum in Roswell) that have publicized the story on TV shows like Ancient Aliens and Unsolved Mysteries. What say you?

Don't bother - The Place Doesn't Exist...As least not at the address shown here…read more Made the final left - almost ran into a tractor on a dirt road. Call Mars...