Best Place for a Summer House

Garrison and Cold Spring are probably your best bet. They are 70 minutes from Grand Central by train, and it's also an easy drive with several routes and very minimal traffic vs. the Hamptons. As you mentioned, they are surprising rural given its proximity to NYC. It's also a very family friendly environment with tons of outdoor activities all year around and a highly regarded performing arts community.

Sherman could be interesting if you are planning on being a full-time resident for tax purposes.

You may also consider Dutchess County, NY, and Litchfield, County, CT, both of which are about an hour further north, but very popular with NYC families.

love cold spring......

Thanks both. I have to admit the metro north option for cold srping/garrison is pretty appealing. Certainly, not an every day commute for me. But nice to have the option.

C0lumbia C0unty? You can take the Taconic right up.

Satsu: you seem to have neglected the most important part of your parameters: what is the maximum amount that you want to spend????

Ditmas Park.

500-600 ish

Millerton, NY. I also really like Warwick, but I'm not certain of the public transportation. Going off in another direction would New Hope/Lambertsville, again I think you are limited by public transportation. We have a car and have always used that for our getaways.

Pawling NY : about an hour and 20 minutes North of Manhattan driving and an hour and 30 minutes to Grand Central via Metro North which runs directly into town on the hour every hour. There are plenty of small boutique restaurants in town along with multiple pizzerias. There are a lot of people who commute daily to the city and a ton of transplants so don't feel surprised if you meet many more weekend getaway home owners and people from NYC then natives of Pawling. Notable people who live in Pawling are Barabara Corcoran, and James Earl Jones.

I like this listing - it could use some upgrading in the kitchen but besides that you can't beat the price. Me and my wife have been considering it.

http://www.coldwellbankermoves.com/property/details/3441788/MLS-3311349/57-Douglas-Dr-Pawling-NY-12564.aspx

Warwick is incredible. I had spent several weekends there in the past and if you have a place withing walking distance to the village, it's a great place for a second home. No train unless you get off in Tuxedo Park, no thanks, no cabs as I remember, just a bus that takes around 80-90 minutes. Driving would be better. Lots to do and very peaceful. Wonderful Federal and Victorian homes and with a good dining. Now I'm getting ideas. I think I will go back and investigate.

Not to hijack the thread, but if you do go to Warwick this is a must:http://www.wvwinery.com/

Northern Dutchess County is lovely but not that close -- upside is the weekend starts once you're on the Taconic, it's so beautiful, unlike the LIE, the world's longest parking lot. The train to Poughkeepsie is much cheaper than to Rhinecliff because it's MetroNorth, not Amtrak. But Poughkeepsie is a dump, Vassar notwithstanding. Closer to the Taconic, there are lovely towns and still even some farming. We're near Pine Plains, which is very friendly and has a locally-owned supermarket where I once overheard this question,"Is this Tom's corn or Bill's corn?" And there's a town beach on Stissing Lake. Tivoli has Bard and good cultural events.

aaaahh, the Taconic

aaaahh, the foot afflictions of Tom and Bill. --ah

Hey Alan, how are your tomatoes?

Hello! Off to a slow start (lingering cold weather, especially at night) ... and being strangled by the strawberries, which think they're trees. Blueberries are looking good.

Think we need a meetup. 'Burg? I'll host if you'll organize.

Lakeville/Salisbury, CT. 2 hour drive from Manhattan; Metro North is 15 miles to town; big lake with nice little beach; lots of hiking, skiing, fishing. We just bought here for a 4 season place and love it.

Yes, very nice area. Conservative.

I'll chime in with Ulster County where I've had a weekend place for over a dozen years. Very affordable housing stock where you can pick up very nice house with pool on lots of acreage in your price range. Vibe here is much more laid back than across the river in Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia counties. However we do have our share of celebrities if that's your thing. Public transportation is the Adirondack Trailways bus line out of Port Authority which is clean and reliable and gets you into New Paltz in about 1.5 hours.

All good choices above. I love Cold Sping. I'll throw in one more suggestion (that's not intuitive): North Stamford, CT.

thanks all. i'll look into these. pawling looks pretty interesting (but that taxes are not cheap). like north stamford ct also - at least what i could tell from the web.

That a great jeopardy answer.

"Pawling looks pretty interesting."

Alex the answer is "what is an oxymoron"

I agree the taxes aren't cheap but my wife and I are not looking to be completely cut off from the city. When you look at the taxes in Westchester and Putnam Counties, Pawling is actually about 30% lower.

I'm not looking for interesting renterjoey, I'm looking for some outdoors with peace and quiet as well as a nice area to bring family and friends up to. I want outdoors But I want to be a sprint away from the city(logistically speaking). I made it to Pawling in 50 minutes on Friday night(no traffic)...can't do a 2 hour drive. I also want easy access to the train in case I do three or four nights like satsu said...not interesting. If I wanted "Interesting" I wouldn't leave my UWS home...but then again, I'm trying to get away from my smug neighbors like yourself.

Wow L2S, you really do need to get away.

There's a great article on New Milford in the NYT. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/realestate/new-milford-conn-one-town-many-neighborhoods.html) I echo above thoughts about how great Sherman, CT is as well.

thanks land2sand. yes, i meant your kind of interesting. quiet, nice land, easy to get in and out of the city. appreciate all the suggestions. thanks everyone.

north stamford=not a real "getaway" from the city imo, in fact i feel that way about most of Fairfield and Westchester counties