Nicest town in NY state? (New York, Warwick: houses, live in, restaurants)

[LilyCat]

If you were looking for the nicest medium/small sized town in New York state, preferably within an hour max from NY city, where would you go?

[I'minformed2]

I Don't believe you'll find the "nicest town in New York State" within an hour of NYC...the nicest towns IMO are north of that border

[LilyCat]

hmm, I see. I figured it would be quite utopic right after I posted this lol

[Logan11]

My favorite NY State town is Cooperstown, but that is more like 3.5 to 4 hours from NYC It doesn't get much more idyllic than that....

Within an hour ...hmmm Goshen (Orange County) has a lovely unchanged village center. It feels like an old New England town or Upstate NY town though it is surrounded by encroaching suburbia now certainly. There are actually still some farms around there....

From what I recall Warwick is nice also...

If you have some bucks Cold Spring is really nice, but I imagine it doesn't come cheap. Neighboring Garrison is nice also.

[averagenyjoe]

I agree you would have to be over an hour from the city but if cost isnt a factor and you dont have to be upstate, then most definatly it would have to be Port Jervis. or Milford. Just perfect little villages.

[straightshooter]

Originally Posted by Logan11

My favorite NY State town is Cooperstown, but that is more like 3.5 to 4 hours from NYC It doesn't get much more idyllic than that....

Within an hour ...hmmm Goshen (Orange County) has a lovely unchanged village center. It feels like an old New England town or Upstate NY town though it is surrounded by encroaching suburbia now certainly. There are actually still some farms around there....

From what I recall Warwick is nice also...

If you have some bucks Cold Spring is really nice, but I imagine it doesn't come cheap. Neighboring Garrison is nice also.

i could not agree more. as soon as i saw the thread topic, i thought 'cooperstown.' cooperstown is awesome. you would think that the baseball hall of fame would have turned it into a tourist-ridden, trinket shop. but, it isn't at all. there are some really cool bars and restaurants there, and watching the pick-up games that happen everyday on doubleday field during the summer is a lot of fun. if you walk down the hill, the lake is just beautiful there. if i ever move out of the city, cooperstown is definitely one of my choices.

[honeychrome]

'An hour from Manhattan' is almost meaningless if you're talking about driving a car! Heck, at times it can take an hour just to drive from the east side of the island to the west side!

Its interesting- a friend from France was visiting recently and commented that whenever he asked Americans how far away something was they almost always expressed it in time, whereas a European would express it in distance.

I agree with other posters- you're going to have to go farther out to find what you want, I think. Also think about looking into NJ and even PA (though that's getting to 2 hours out).

[averagenyjoe]

Cooperstown is indeed one of the finest villages anywhere in Upstate. Everything nice ever said about Cooperstown is true to the max. Only one problem, in my own estimation, which may run along the same lines as why you want to be within an hour from the city. After you drink up all that Cooperstown has to offer, you could go for a second round, and a third round and still love it, but if you want to keep that idealism while yet being able to take a jog over the hill to anything and everything else that NYC has to offer, it just isnt a "little milk run". I couldnt live in Cooperstown myself because it does have that "remote" feeling. There is not much else around it for many, many miles. And would be a good full day trip or more to spend a little time in a place of significant size.

I have an Aunt who lives in Warwick and is a great place but mostly alot of very rich houses popping up and a very minimal downtown that is not really consistantly usable. Port Jervis area is SUCH a nice "hometown" little area.

[Sgoldie]

I like Kingston because it's along the Hudson and does have some cute little shops, delis, and an historic inn which is one of the oldest in the country. It's in the middle of the old Dutch settlements.

[rug city]

Although I usually don't associate many Westchester towns as the traditional standalone towns north of NY- I'd put a few in the w/in 1 hour of NYC category: Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Bronxville. They are all pretty untouchable now and old money towns, but they've preserved their village settings impeccably and the first 2 I mentioned sit nicely on the historic Hudson. I also like Tarrytown.

Beyond the 1 hour I agree w/Cooperstown & of course would add Saratoga (no better place to be in Summer- hands down). Maybe throw in Skaneateles, though that's a bit too far West for my taste.

Anything on Long Island is out for me- can't stand the place.