Great time and place to unwind. Beautiful art pieces they have in the collection . The natural…read morelighting made everything ten times better. Letting us walk self guide through the house is a great touch .

The Hyde Collection is a hidden gem and well worth the trip North to Glens Falls…read more On a cold winters day, I ventured here as it's known to be styled after the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. The Hyde couple's home houses 5,000 or so pieces of art that you can enjoy within their beautiful living space. I felt privileged to be able to tour the Hyde family's Italian Renaissance style villa built in 1912. Here you'll find works from renowned artists such as Botticelli, Degas, Renoir and Rembrandt just to name a few. The original furniture and tapestries acquired are from the sixteenth century Renaissance. There are also late eighteenth century Neoclassical French seating furniture and marquetry desks for your viewing pleasure. It was a wonderful way to pass the afternoon. The Hyde is also known to share temporary collections with the community. The basement level has an added teaching auditorium as well as classroom space where programs are held for those interested in the fine arts. Lastly use your phone to scan the QR code available in most rooms for a self guided informational tour. I also recommend that you take the visitor guide and map to help you along. The front desk admission can also give you insight on how to navigate your time here. A must see in my opinion and you cannot overlook the library room with their vast collection of original books that are sure to have you in awe.

What a great way to spend the afternoon! I went with my wife and Australian shepherd and we had a…read moreblast! This place is dog friendly which you rarely find in these types of places. The castle was so cool and has so many unique and rare antiques. The tour guides were so knowledgeable about the history, building techniques, and all of the antiques and art work in the castle. The castle has a beautiful marble deck outside over looking the green mountains and it was a perfect way to end out the tour. I would highly recommend stopping by if you're in the area!

Wilson's Castle is worth a visit. It's currently going through renovations which it needs. I will…read morehave to visit when the renovations are finished. Smaller than it looks. It is kinda spooky and is located in beautiful Vermont. I visited in October, went through a short tour and we were free to explore on our own. I would recommend

The staff here were pleasant, kind and helpful. We came for a Saturday night light show in the…read moreplanetarium. About 45 minutes long, a good time you can't beat it. A few jokes from the ticket-taker as well. Tip: try and grab the seats toward the back, to keep your neck more comfortable. We arrived ~15 minutes before start time and were able to peruse around the different displays and interactive exhibits. A place for all ages. This was a nice indoor activity to get out of the house and not be in the frigid cold.

Visited the planetarium to see James Hood's "Beautifica" on date night, the event itself was a…read morewonderful visual meditative experience! The building itself could definitely use some updating (the bathroom is kind of falling apart). The staff were super friendly! True to brand we showed up late and the show had already started, but staff were kind enough to sneak us into our seats without disrupting everyone else's experience. I look forward to going back here to see the rest of the museum!

This place is incredible and extremely child friendly! The volunteers who run the operation are…read morebeyond spectacular and are extremely helpful. I have two under three who were extremely excited for the entirety of this museum. It was a perfect day. We ended up buying a membership and very much look forward to our returns in the future! Be sure to check out their virtual airplane ride it's actually really fun and was one of the highlights for my little guys!

Somewhere hidden inside the Empire State Aerosciences Museum is a great museum trying to get out of…read morethe shell of a tired old one. The collection here isn't the issue per se. The outdoor air park has an enormous number of post-War jet planes and one helicopter, and while they're peeling in the sun and the displays need quite a bit of freshening up, it's an impressive collection of real aircraft, some of which you can peer into the cockpit. They have mostly American, one British, and several Soviet-era aircraft, almost all war planes and mostly fighters. The interior exhibits look like a hodge podge of things amateur enthusiasts have collected over the years, made, and shoved together into a vaguely coherent timeline from the dawn of flight to the early rocket age. It's not good. There are many individually interesting things but they're just too random, and many are quite old, dated, and some broken. Some of it looks like your Grandpa's model plane project after it's been sitting in the attic for 25 years. There is NO sense of curation here, as the displays, interpretation, and artifacts are random; again, it shows the marks of many volunteers and enthusiastic amateurs but without the guidance of professional curation. The collection is divided up into two buildings, one of which is the old GE hangar (a lovely building, somewhat ruined by having had a building within a building constructed on one side) with dusty interior exhibits in the minibuilding and some very random real plane exhibits alongside a bunch of obvious works-in-progress restorations that looks very much like an aviation junk yard. The second building leads out to the airpark, which is fenced in and can only be reached through the second building. What really would make a great museum is if they cut out about 90% of the artifacts, and focused on the local stories -- not even New York aviation as a whole, but starting with the story of the original use of the place, as the GE Aviation Testing Center in 1946, and working their way up to much, much more on the story of the 109th Airlift Wing at the adjacent Stratton Air National Guard base. If the collection focused on that -- even if it meant jettisoning the air park -- there could be a really cool and much more coherent story with both local interest and international importance. There are so many odd and undercurated GE-related historical museums and exhibits around here -- from the Edison in downtown, to MiSci, to the Schenectady County Historical Museum, to this place -- that are scattered about and thus tell an incoherent story about GE's presence in town -- one kind of wishes in the abstract GE would sponsor some kind of master museum just about the history of the place (like the Heinz Center in Pittsburgh, PA) and cleaved off the science museum part. An example of what I consider to be the kind of problem a place like this continues to have: they are currently trying to get money together to get a half-sized model of the SST. What? Whatever for? It's not like it's a real SST, and a half-sized model is just another maintenance headache that I doubt very much will be either a big attraction or key to understanding the story of aviation in New York. Yeah, the SST took off from a New York airport. I'm sure that's the hook. But it's not really the kind of direction this place needs to head. For now, this is a little sad and depressing but for the ardent history buff there's still things to dig out of it, and if you have an aviation-enthused youngster (but not one not already interested, I don't think) they will enjoy it. The front desk staff are pleasant and the small shop, while having not a whole lot of unique local-interest items, is reasonably priced for souvenirs. (I have suggested to them they at least add some models of the C-130s used by the 109th.) No food or drink (an outside cafe with a viewing area to watch the planes take off, with interpretive plaques, would be a big money maker) and extremely rudimentary bathroom facilities (in the second buliding).

Amazing place, having been the home of our 30th President, the place where he was born, established…read morehis business, the place where he took the Oath of Office, and the place where he and several generations of his family have found their resting place. Perhaps it is a view of a time when our people looked at the Presidency with respect. And with the incumbent of the Oval Office viewing his office as a Public service and not as a personal source of enrichment at the expense of our people. No gilded bathrooms, no creepy ballrooms, no disrespect to our nation. Coolidge was perhaps not our greatest president but very much a a part of our history The estate is more a village than a presidential residence, considering the Coolidge family both lived and worked in the hamlet. Excellent and friendly visitor center.

It is very evocative of 19th century life on a rural farm; I wouldn't last a week as a yeoman. I…read moreespecially enjoyed the "indoor outhouse" that our prior president used. Wonder how he would feel about the gold plated ones our current occupant of the White House uses. Admission is cheap cheap cheap by NY standards and there is one weekend at the beginning of the season that is free in all VT state parks and most attractions.

If you find yourself in Vermont, and in particular Proctor, VT you can stumble upon the Vermont…read moreMarble Museum. The museum is up on the second floor but for those that need it they do have an elevator as well. As you would expect you get there and are immediately surrounded by the different types of Marble. There is a nominal cost to get in and you will find a fairly large display that should please many a museum geek. You will find some hand carved work, lots of pictures of where and how marble is used and several self running history of marble and such videos you can watch. Of interest to us was both the section on marble faces of many of the nations presidents along with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and how not only it was built but how they moved it. For the shopper out there they also had a rather large store that had many different items such as trivets, rolling pins, desk accessories, jewelry and more.

Pretty dull, even for a museum about marble. Spent lots of floor space on bad example of using…read moremarble in the kitchen and bathroom, lot of space of photo of monuments they supplied marble to. Then just had photo of actual marble mining. There really isn't much need for the physical museum itself. It is most photo that can be online and examples of home decorating, The staff is nice, the museum is just a nothing.

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon with out-of-town guests then to meander through a vast…read morespace with a very cool lineup of cars on display? I've been living in Saratoga County for so many years, and there are still countless treasures right in my backyard. The automobile Museum is certainly one of those treasures. I happened to visit during the Corvette show....and while I don't know much about cars (beyond basic driving skills), it was extremely cool. The entry fee was $20. I would definitely check it out again in the future.

Pontiac: The Dawn of Muscle…read more The Pontiac GTO is currently featured at a local automobile museum in Saratoga, NY. The first new car my husband ever owned was a 1970 GTO, so this exhibit interests us. It runs from November 5 - April 26, 2025, and the museum is open Wednesday to Sunday. Members: FREE Adults: $20.00 Children 11-18: $15.00 Children 10 & Under: FREE Students 17+ (with ID): $15.00 Senior Adults 65+: $15.00 Veterans/Active Military: $15.00 Special Guided Tours are available, and they are free with admission to the Museum on Wednesdays at 2pm. Showcasing 16 landmark Pontiacs, the museum explores the power and style that turned Pontiac into a legend. On exhibit-- * The Original GTO: The 1964 Pontiac Tempest GTO that defined the muscle car genre. * The Monkeemobile: A 1966 Pontiac GTO customized for The Monkees TV show, considered one of the most recognizable and beloved custom cars. * Firebirds and Trans Ams * GTO Judges- multiple examples This Museum is well curated and appeals to car lovers of all ages.