A Mediterranean-style villa in Westchester offers afternoon teas and musical evenings in lovely environs.

149 Girdle Ridge Road

914 232-1252

Horticulturists and Philistines will delight in the Bronx Botanical Gardens well worth the trip and the time.

200th Street & Southern Blvd. @ Fordham Road

(718) 817-8700

If your time in the city would be better enjoyed by a view from afar, get away for a day of adventure and fun. Ski and snowboard trips depart New York City to local slopes including Hunter, Windham, and Mountain Creek. Check the link for dates and details.

(917) 692-5222

Bear Mountain is open 365 days a year from dawn to dusk, offering great hiking trails (first section of the Appalachian Trail built), swimming and boating in summer and ice skating in the fall, and a zoo with indigenous animals. There is a lodge, a motel, a restaurant, and camping.

Bear Mountain Complex @ Seven Lakes Drive & Palisades Parkway

(845) 786-2701

Upcoming Events at Dia:Beacon: Dia:Beacon Gallery Talk Steven Evans on Sol LeWitt Saturday, October 25, 2008, 1pm St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble Reel Music Sunday, November 23, 2008, 2pm

3 Beekman Street

(845) 440-0100

Thirteen miles of preserved parkland offer biking, running, hiking, and walking paths with spectacular views of New York--just minutes from it. Accessible by car or cycle from the top of the island by crossing the George Washington Bridge to the Eastern shore of northern New Jersey. The Palisades Parkway, a forty-two mile scenic route north from Manhattan, offers a lovely drive through this park that Lawrence Rockefeller preserved as a way to introduce the concept of land conversation in America, to another wonderful hiking spot, Bear Mountain.

Palisades Interstate Parkway @ Exit 72

(201) 768-1360

In the tony town in Litchfield County, Connecticut is a Relais & Chateau, Mobil 5 Star, and AAA 5 Diamond inn and spa worthy of the neighbors.

118 Woodbury Road @ Route 47

(860) 868-9466

Sixty miles from the city are sixty miles of towpath that run continuously from Easton to Bristol, Pennsylvania. A soft running surface shaded by trees, absent of cars, and offering spectular views of and breezes off the Delaware River, this is the ideal spot for a long training run or lazy days of biking, hiking, or boating. Runners will notice that the trails run in both PA and NJ. By planning your path, you can run a circuitous route of varying distance by crossing these bridges from NJ to PA and back. Sadly, this area has severely flooded three times in the last 2 years, and washed away the canals, roads and homes in the process. Though still wonderful, do not expect the map to replicate road conditions.

8 Bridge Street @ Delaware River

(609) 397-2949

The recently renovated Liberty Science Center has reopened.

222 Jersey City Blvd.

(201) 200-1000