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.

Since reading The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly I became obsessed with visiting the…read moreBellamy-Ferriday House. My mom and I went to Connecticut in the middle of October during COVID. Because of COVID, we had to purchase the tickets a week before we were to tour the house. Pros though, the tour groups are a lot smaller than pre-COVID times, which is fantastic. We were with two other women who were a lot of fun and from Connecticut. It made the tour all the more better. Peg, the executive director, started the tour in the kitchen of the Bellamy-Ferriday House. We heard about a whole lot of history, including some Hamilton history thrown in the mix. Muffy then took us through the rest of the house telling us that Caroline had passed away on the chaise in the library. The library was my favorite room. I wish there was a little more talk on the Ravensbruck women who were brought to the house. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside of the house. Also, because of COVID a con was we couldn't see the second floor of the house, which didn't really make sense. The tour group was extremely small and they cited that we couldn't go upstairs as a group to see Caroline Ferriday's room, etc. I wish they would have allowed each "family" that came together to take a quick look around upstairs and then come back downstairs. Gary took us around the grounds of the house and his part of the tour was my favorite. He was funny and personable and just a genuinely good guy. And he looked like Richard Gere. The tour was about 2 hours long. I'm sure if the group was bigger it wouldn't have lasted that long. I love an in-depth tour. This was one of my most favorite tours I have taken. The tour guides were fantastic and knowledgeable and the subject matter was of great interest to me. Fun fact: Gary told us that the Bellamy-Ferriday House has the largest rose book collection with over 1,000 books. Also, the grounds have an elm tree that happened to escape the devastating beetle attacks that most elm succumb to. There is on-site parking and a cute gift shop that sells The Lilac Girls and other trinkets. If you are into history and WWII history, definitely check this place out. The grounds are wonderful and the tour is fabulous and it is given by great people. I hope to one day get to this site when the lilacs are in full bloom.

I knew nothing about this home or the owners before coming. We only came because my mom wanted to…read morevisit after reading Lilac Girls. I'm glad we tagged along. Learning a piece of American history that is not covered anywhere. I also very much appreciate our guide and how the information was presented. Not only does he cover information about the home and who the owners were but there is dedicated attention on uncomfortable conversations like the Holocaust and the terrible things that happened. Caroline Ferriday was a remarkable woman and more people should learn about her and then other remarkable women in her family. This will make more sense once you take the tour or read the book Lilac Girls. We were only able to see the first level because the second story was undergoing wall paper restoration.

A Hudson Valley wine tour to celebrate a friend's landmark birthday was perfect! Hudson Valley…read moreBucket list did an outstanding job coordinating the day from transport and an itinerary of beautiful wineries to a magazine photo worthy picnic lunch orchestrated by an on-site host. Our group of 12 were treated like special guests everywhere we went and we were wowed by the friendly, welcoming reception at each stop and the delicious wines we were able to taste. HVBL made planning this event easy and the day memorable

Becky was the best and the day couldn't have been planned any better! Best time ever !read more

A beautiful hidden gem right in the center of the city!…read more from History, cultural events, art exhibits, music recital, house tours, special costumed tours, Holiday events, Master Gardens and even really cool oddities like the Frog Circus!! Wistariahurst has it all!! Come and visit a gem in your own backyard!!

A gem! Beautiful historic home with guided tours filled with great background on the Skinner…read morefamily, the history of Holyoke industry and interior design, plus a special section on the lives and duties of household staff. Admission $7 for adults, $5 seniors. The adjoining garden and gift shop / museum (free) are also lovely.

The city's first cemetery and next to the city's first church that was built in 1636, the earliest…read moresurviving gravestone dates to 1648 for Timothy Stanley who died that year. Not very well organized or linear and that's because the custom of those days was that burials were placed randomly. Gravediggers would use metal rods to locate a vacant spot as needed. When available space began to be an issue, bodies were stacked atop one another. In the process, grave markers became misplaced or destroyed. The burying ground became a crowded site of decay, with over 6,000 corpses in the cemetery. As early as 1712, a church meeting house was built on top of several grave sites. This was seen as an honor for those buried beneath, as the custom in England was to bury honored personalities within churches. By the 1890s, several structures had been built upon what was meant to be burial plots. Coffins were unearthed, bones were dug up. Some were reburied. Others were not so lucky and were carted off to the dump. In general, the cemetery was not actively used for burials and became neglected. Gold Street was but a mere 16-foot-wide alleyway lined in a slum. Efforts were made in the late 19th and 20th centuries to clean up the area, widen Gold Street, install an iron fence around the perimeter of the cemetery and generally keep the area maintained. The cemetery is open to the public for walking but gravestone rubbing is absolutely prohibited and this is noted on the rules posted at the entrances. There is a display with brochures that explains the gravestone art of the days, the history of the cemetery and a route for a self-guided tour of the cemetery. [Review 15171 overall, 673 of 2021, number 25 in Connecticut.]

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

I don't know of any other lock museums but this is definitely a great one. Mostly it exists…read morebecause of the history of lock manufacturers in the area. It must be a labor of love to keep this place open and running. I have been three times. The docents showing you around are very knowledgable and passionate about the topic. There are a wide variety of items on display; door locks, padlocks, safes, handcuffs, keys, etc. If you have zero interest in locks, you might only want to look around for 15 minutes or so before you get bored. Lock nerds will want to spend a couple of hours here.

A small group of friends and I participated in the museum's version of an escape room…read more Upon entry, we were given a short tour of the first floor of the museum and then brought to the second floor where the game actually takes place. It is definitely a different experience compared to other escape rooms that I have gone to. First, the museum volunteer stays in the same area while the game is going on. Second, we typically tend to trash the game area while pulling apart rooms trying to find clues. Since this is a working museum with priceless artifacts, you are certainly not given the chance to tear the rooms apart. I am overall impressed by my experience at the Lock Museum of America. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of difficulty especially since all of the puzzles/clues contained within the game are completely created by the local high school's STEM classes. We were also informed the money earned by people playing the game goes back into making improvements to the museum.

A warm, English-Tudor style cottage built in the 1920s on the top of a meadow surrounded by…read moregardens. Fields filled with birds, butterflies and dragonflies. I wish I could describe it better... I'm not going to, because I'm tired. I guess you can always just look at the photos. Unless you decide to actually go and experience it for yourself. Either way...

Since moving to CT, we discovered a great program that gives a little incentive for visiting a…read morenumber of CT state parks, the DEEP Sky's The Limit Program. In 2017, Topsmead was among the parks listed, so we decided to go give it a visit. Winter was not the best time to visit, and it's hard to give it a really good/fair rating. The main farmhouse area was closed for the season, and the weather wasn't really great for hiking. It would be a great spot for cross country skiing in the winter, though. The outstanding negative at the time of our visit were the state of the toilets. They're pit toilets, which is fine, but they were not dug at all deeply, and if not for the freezing weather, I can imagine it would be rather unpleasantly fragrant. We'll definitely be visiting again and reevaluating at some point.

My boyfriend and I were in Kaaterskill Falls for our annual hike at the Rail Trail, when we…read morediscovered Saugerties Lighthouse. I don't even know how to be honest. But we like to drive around getting lost a lot, which is how we discover most places. The entrance is a little hidden, small parking lot. The trail is full of greenery. There is a mixture of bridges and dirt paths. Also we noticed little figurines hidden along the way. They are very cute! The views on the way to the lighthouse were as stunning as of the lighthouse alone. At some point you have to walk over the water - so it is wise to look at the tide schedule so you don't get wet or trapped. The lighthouse is dipped in history that you can read on their website (saugertieslighthouse.com). It is truly an incredible little place. I read there are tour and you can even stay there overnight! We definitely want to do either one or both in the near future. It was definitely an amazing find, which we will incorporate into our annual visits. Breathtaking location. The volunteers are doing a great job maintaining it. Definitely made for a memorable visit.

This place is really cool! There aren't any other lighthouses that I know of in the immediate area…read moreof the Hudson Valley that is accessible on foot (without a boat). During the week the lighthouse deck is open so you can walk to the back deck to enjoy this place up close but on the weekends the deck is closed to guests that might be staying the night. You can actually lodge at the lighthouse which is even cooler than just visiting the outside. The walk to the base of the lighthouse is an easy walk but don't arrive too late because the tide could be really high making the walk likely very muddy or very wet to pass. Parking area is super small so arrive early to ensure parking or you'll have to wait in your car for a spot to open up. I wouldn't advise parking on the grass of the adjacent coast guard property since there are signs that say come back if there is no parking likely implying "If you park here you will be towed" but signs don't explicitly say that so beware if you park outside lot.

"Nights in white satin Never reaching the end…read moreLetters I've written Never meaning to send" (Moody Blues) The White Memorial Conservation Center is truly an embarrassment of riches. Our visit started with a stop at their Nature Museum, which was spectacular. The building is jam-packed with exhibits of the area wildlife in the form of dozens of taxidermied animals. So expect to see things like bears, mountain lions, birds, foxes, fish, geese, deer, butterflies, snakes, etc. Children will be enthralled by them, if not a little scared by the snakes, and pointy toothed fishes. Much of the museum is dedicated to children, with their "Children's Corner" of a live beehive, a very cool digital microscope, a big display on "The Art of Taxidermy," and a fluorescent rock cave where black light turns some ordinary looking rocks into an acid trip-like experience. But the museum is just the tip of the iceberg because surrounding it is a massive system of 40 miles of trails that crisscross the property. We hiked on their most popular trail, known as the Little Pond or Boardwalk Trail. Yes, it's a real boardwalk that stretched well over a mile over the swampy wetlands in a loop around the pond. Fair warning- the boardwalk at times is pretty narrow and there are no guardrails at all. So as long as you watch your step you'll see and hear a lot - songbirds, bullfrogs, gorgeous water views, and a huge beaver dam are some of the highlights. The scenery is breathtaking. What a wonderful place to visit. We sure had an outstanding time here.

I came here to visit family and was told this was a popular place to walk or explore. There was a…read morecenter building here but I didn't get a chance to go in so only experience the walking path they had. Overall, it was a very nice walk. I came on a day where the temperature was a bit chilled but the sun was out (thankfully no bugs bothered me and not hot at all). There was this little wooden path you walk on to avoid possible mud or uneven paths so was cool for me. There were very beautiful colors out for the season and the water looked cool (wouldn't swim in it though). Was able to see a few birds and even a snake too but no where near me thankfully. There were a few folks around but wasn't overcrowded at all. It was a fun place to explore and would come back for sure. Hopefully get a chance to check out the center as I'm sure has information about the area.