Touring Westchester this week, any suggestions! (New York, White Plains: hotels, buying a house, neighborhood)

[Asil65]

Hello all,
My family will be heading to NY this Wednesday to tour towns and look at schools. I know, what a crazy time to do this. We are planning to look at the Katonah area, Yorktown Heights and Ridgefield CT. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions about restaurants,sites we should see and so forth. We will be based in Tarrytown at the beggining of the trip but will also need to find a hotel for a couple of days towards the end. Would it be worth it for us to take a train into Manhattan? Will we be allowed to park at a station? Any suggestions?

[havoc315]

Most Westchester train stations have some daily parking, but it can be hard to get. On weekends, most of the lots are free and empty. So you should definitely take the train into the city over the weekend, so see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Plaza.

If you do look in the Croton area, make sure to stop by the parks alongside the river. There is a wonderful neighborhood playground too (Morningside), but your kids may have outgrown playgrounds. I note you generally haven't mentioned Somers, but it's an area with very good schools, and you can get good value for your money with lower taxes than most of Westchester.

In terms of restaurants and sites....
Remind me, how old are the kids? And what types of restaurants do you like?

A bit north of Tarrytown, you can stop by Stone Barns. It's a wonderful agricultural center, that also houses what might be the best and most acclaimed restaurant in Westchester. If you don't want to stretch your budget for dinner in the restaurant (it is expensive, and kids might not appreciate the food), they have a wonderful cafe that is open for lunch, where you can pick up amazing seasonal sandwiches and soups.

If it's your thing, you can visit one or more of the historic Westchester estates (the Rockefeller estate, Van Cortlandt Manor, etc) Not necessarily a December activity, but you may enjoy it.
Visiting info:
Historic Hudson Valley - Home

You may want to visit White Plains, just to see Westchester's taste of urbanism. Nothing extremely exciting, but if you want to get a taste for the center of movie theaters, shopping, restaurants. If malls are your thing, cross the bridge and go to the Palisades Mall in West Nyack (though you may not want to spend your limited time crossing bridges!)

Be sure to stroll through the actual central village of Katonah, a very charming district.

You say you need a hotel for the end of your trip... where? Tarrytown is fairly central, and probably would be serviceable for your entire trip to the region.

Anyway, if you give me a bit more details of your family's tastes, I can provide some restaurant recommendations.

[manyroads]

Where did you need to find a hotel at the end of your trip? If it's in the Ridgefield, CT area, there aren't any chain hotels in that area or the surrounding towns. You'll probably have to look in Danbury, CT. Just off the top of my head, I know they have a Hilton Garden Inn, Sheraton and Motel 6 there.
I'm not a regular train commuter, so I don't know what parking is like at the stations during the week for people without permits. On the weekend, it shouldn't be a problem. If you're thinking about going to Manhattan to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, etc, taking the train in is a much better option than driving. Driving in Manhattan is December is CRAZY; there's just way too much traffic and gridlock.

[Asil65]

Thank you both for the tips. I am trying to talk up the pizza and bagels. These are two things that my kids love.We will probably not do anything fancy for meals. I think we will definitely take the train into the city on the weekend. We are staying at the Sheraton in Tarrytown. We need to cover two days at the end of our trip so we might just see if we can stay there at corporate rates. Worth a shot. I was excited about Katonah but called two elementary schools to ask about setting up tours and was treated rudely by both of the receptionists. Still have not gotten phone calls back either. It has made me question the area. What gives with these people? I am seriously thinking about writing a letter to the BOE.I am not sure if we are going to look at Croton now either. The middle and elementary schools are not rated as well as in the other towns.

[havoc315]

No shortage of good bagels and pizza all over the county.
I will say about Croton middle and elementary schools -- You need to be careful of the ratings sites that are simply looking at standardized pass rates. If one school, in one given year, had 84% of their 3rd graders pass a standardized test, it doesn't make it better than another school where only 79% of 3rd graders passed the standardized tests.
Most educators and familes I know, rank Croton as one of the best school districts in the county. It depends on what you're looking for of course. WHile some people would rank Katonah over Croton, many believe that Croton's overall experience is superior.
Looking at the objective test scores, greatschools.net ranks Croton's elementary school and middle school at 8 and 9 respectively, which I believe is identical to the rankings for Yorktown and similar to the Katonah rankings (they have multiple schools, ranking 8-10).
For a person with any preference for a smaller community and smaller schools, Croton would be on the top of the list. For a person looking in Northern Westchester, with a preference for larger schools, Katonah would be on top of the list.

Now, pizza and bagels. We have picky bagel customers in Westchester, meaning every town has at least one very good bagel shop.
As to pizza, there is no trouble finding good New York style pizza throughout Westchester, especially around Mamaroneck and White Plains. Personally, I think the best pizza is in Rockland County, at a hole in the wall called the Nanuet Hotel, but that's probably out of your way. In Westchester, there are no pizza places that really jump out at me.

For family dining in general, you may want to try Route 22 in Armonk. Affordable, family friendly, and about 15 minutes from Katonah.

[Asil65]

Bummer about the pizza. It has to be better than what we have in Va. I remembered that the high school in Croton was ranked pretty high by the psk12 site. I would still like to look at the town. My dh really likes the fact that he could take the train to Tarrytown.

[havoc315]

Train from Croton to Tarrytown? I guess technically it could be done, but I have never really heard of anyone doing it. By the time you drive from your house to the Croton train station, park the car, walk to the train platform, wait for the train, take the train to Tarrytown, get off the train, and then somehow get from the Tarrytown station to his office... You could have driven in less time (should be no more than a 20 minute drive).

As you noted, the main problem with Croton, is that if you are buying a house in the outer parts with a lot of land, taxes can get pretty bad.

The pizza will be good in most Westchester pizzerias. You shouldn't find any trouble finding very good pizza... Just no place really stands out to me as being extra noteworthy, in the parts of Westchester you will be visiting.

[dma1250]

Asil65,


If you're visiting the area, I'd of course suggest walking through the towns and driving around as many areas as possible. I'd also suggest trying to look at the following spots:

• Croton Gorge Park (Croton)
• Turkey Mountain Nature Preserve (Yorktown)
• North County Trailway (Yorktown)
• Teatown Lake Reservation (Yorktown/Ossining)
• Muscoot Farm (Somers)
• Katonah main street
• Ward Pound Ridge Reserve (Katonah)

There are many other great places to visit, but those are the must-see ones (personally). I'd also take a trip to Peekskill and look around the Artist's District, go to the Peekskill Coffee House, and then go down to the Riverfront Green.

There are nice restaurants all over. You should go to chowhoud.com and look at the Tristate Region forum--you'll find lots of info on area restaurants. For my personal picks: In Yorktown I'd go to the sushi place or The Bistro; In Katonah the Katonah Restaurant; In Mt Kisco there are lots of choices, and excellent pizza, but my favorites are the Temptation Tea House and Thai Angels. In Croton go to Unami or Justin Thyme.


Per usual I disagree with Havoc on the schools. Based on my own conversations with parents, teachers, reasearchers, and my own review of the curricula etc, I'd say as far as Primary and Elementary schools go Yorktown (especially the southern half of the district) is the best of the three. But for High School I'd say Croton or Katonah are superior (but not by much). But I'll just agree to disagree with him.

I do agree with Havoc that driving to Tarrytown is faster than taking the train. From Yorktown Heights it is only a 20 minute drive.

[Asil65]

Thank you so much dma and havoc. We are visiting Brookside, Increase Miller and Farmingville in Ridgefield. I think the realtor is planning to show us Croton too. The tough part aboutthe schools there is that we will have one in Middle school and one in elementary school. So I did not arrange to see a school there. I am going to look at that house near you Dma that lists in the low 600's. We are going to see about 3 homes in each town. I copied all of your emails and will bring them with me. Looking forward to a good bagel and Christmas light in the city. Thank,Asil

[rubygreta]

Where will you be working? Ridgefield is convenient to nowhere.