Start from 23 curated places around Kingston, NY, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Le Canard Enchaine
A long-running French bistro in a brick rowhouse in the Stockade District, widely regarded as the standard-bearer for classic French cooking north of the city. Duck confit, escargot, and a French onion soup that has won regional competitions — this is the room for a proper date night or a slow Sunday dinner.
Ship to Shore
An American bistro anchored on the Rondout waterfront since the late 1990s, with outdoor tables facing the marina and a menu that rotates with the seasons. Seafood is the throughline — grilled fish, clam dishes, fresh pasta — but the kitchen handles beef and vegetable plates with the same care.
Trails & outdoors
Onteora Lake Yellow Trail
A 3.2-mile loop around Onteora Lake in the Bluestone Wild Forest, the most-walked trail in the area and genuinely easy enough for children and non-hikers. The lake reflections through hemlock forest and the option to fish, kayak, or sit at the water's edge make it a reliable afternoon reset eight miles from Kingston.
Lemon Squeeze and Eagle Cliff
A 7.4-mile loop at Mohonk Preserve threading through the Lemon Squeeze — a narrow crack in the Shawangunk white conglomerate cliffs — then ascending Eagle Cliff for views spanning the Catskills, Wallkill Valley, and Hudson Highlands. The rock scramble through the squeeze is the defining feature: brief, low-risk, and memorably fun.
Things to do
Assembly Kingston
A 450-capacity music hall in the Stockade District, the largest indoor venue in Kingston proper, booking regional and national acts across folk, Americana, indie, and experimental music. The room is purpose-built for sound — good sightlines from the floor and balcony, and a production setup that outperforms the space's size.
Keegan Ales
Kingston's original craft brewery, in business since the early 2000s and still operating out of its original taproom on St. James Street. The Mother's Milk stout became a regional reference point and the full tap list runs consistently — live music several nights a week keeps the space feeling like a neighborhood bar rather than a destination brewery.
Landmarks & sights
Hudson River Maritime Museum
The foremost museum of Hudson River maritime history, anchored on the Rondout Creek waterfront with a boat-building school, rotating exhibits on river commerce and ecology, and the only solar-powered passenger vessel licensed for Hudson River tours. The Rondout Lighthouse boat tour, run seasonally from this dock, is one of the more memorable short excursions in the region.
Rondout Lighthouse
A 1913 lighthouse standing at the confluence of Rondout Creek and the Hudson River, accessible only by boat tour from the Hudson River Maritime Museum. The interior tour traces the lighthouse keepers who lived and worked here across two generations, and the views back toward the Kingston waterfront from the water are exceptional.