"The Rhine Valley of the Americas." It's a well-deserved but little-known nickname for the Hudson Valley, a spectacular, 120-mile stretch of breathtaking, unspoiled scenery and carefully preserved history across the Hudson River between Albany and Nyc City's northern Westchester County. To people who realize it well, comparing the Hudson Valley to that romantic and storybook European river is no stretch.

There are plenty of reasons that the ten New York counties bordering the mighty Hudson, one of the oldest and many scenic counties inside the state, draw hundreds and hundreds of visitors annually-many who choose to allow it to be their house.

For many, it is the charm from the long, rich, and carefully preserved history seen nearly everywhere from the tiniest hamlet towards the valley's small cities. The pivotal roles that the Northern European settlers, who gave the region its distinctive character, played here as early as the Revolutionary War can be discovered mostly in magazines, on plaques, and at monuments. But the things they left out, the abundance of venerable and painstakingly crafted stone homes and businesses, the quaint "downtowns" still looking more suitable for horse and carriage than "horseless carriages," that old millworks and more-all are stately proof this is really a place where time stands still in the best sense. And also the centuries-old heritage of great importance and of those treasures is memorialized through the many National Historic sites and landmarks. All less than two hours, normally, north of recent York City.

The Hudson Valley can also be the place to find one of the most beautiful countryside and wilderness in every of recent York State. It becomes an area of serene and rugged mountains, of endless bubbling brooks, gurgling streams, and mighty waterfalls crisscrossing so much of the terrain that there sometimes seems to be a different one at every turn of the road or path. Huge swaths of land happen to be locked away through the state as "forever wild," assuring future generations the same welcome tranquility. Small family farms and sprawling apple orchards dot the landscape, often with roadside sticks out front in season.

It's no spot to be a inactive. Not with a number of the finest hiking found about the East Coast, and cycling that draws bikers from countless miles away, and snowshoeing, skiing, tubing, canoeing, mountain climbing... one region is even revered by thrill-seekers as "the hang-gliding capital of the East." Whether it can be achieved outside, there is a prime place to do it here. Beautifully.

Rural although not rustic. Country living that's never definately not an idea of high culture. Visit Hudson Valley Wine Country and you will find numerous winery tasting rooms to take a seat, fulfill the owners, and sample their award-winning wines. The renowned Culinary Institute of America, within the center region from the Valley, has trained most of the nation's great chefs, and never a few graduates have happily stayed "close by," bringing sophistication and creativity to some surprising array of unpretentious local restaurants, bistros, and cafes through the Valley.

Rare and precious, this combination of solitude, refinement, spectacular beauty, abundant culture, and straightforward accessibility. Perfectly logical it beckons to such a wide variety-weekend get-away travelers, tourists from every part around the globe, and lastly those invoved with New York City trying to relocate to one from the beautiful orange county ny homes for sale.