Hudson River Maritime Museum in Poughkeepsie

We went on the first of the lantern rides of the season and had a great time. The stories of the river life from the past that Greg told were captivating and entertaining.We had nice views of the lighthouse and also got to see a few bald eagles on our trip. If the ride had been a little longer we wouldnt have complained.

Really enjoyed our visit! There is so much to explore and read about in the museum. We spent several hours in the museum. I highly recommend doing the Rondout Lighthouse tour also. We rode the Solaris, their solar powered vessel, out to the lighthouse and then toured the lighthouse including the observation deck. Really good informative tour and we saw a bald eagle out fishing as an added bonus!

Nice museum, lots of cool models

Took a trip on the Clearwater with the high school class. Seine fishing, raising the sails plus educational stations. A great 3 hours.

The solar powered boat was very cool and the staff was friendly and knowledgeable. I did the lighthouse boat tour but they offer many other boat tours as well. Museum is small-ish but has excellent displays.

Its a small, informative museum worth your time. It has many Maritime artifacts and life on the river back in time. This area of Kingston is a fun visit and has some good restaurants!

Beautiful place with lots of historical information!I sat on a bench from a train station from the early 1900 and I wondered how many ladies with their backs straight up and with their hats, gloves and their parasol sat on it soany years ago!!What a wonderful place to visit!!

I love the boat ride! We go often! Just wish the would go other places. Very relaxing and beautiful.

The captain was so friendly and the rest of the crew was very informative

It was wonderful. I got to see some of my grandfathers stories and skulls.

I bought tickets to go on the Solara electric boat to the light house it was very educational and a very quiet and enjoyable experience. The crew was top notch and very welcoming.

My daughter first job she loved every moment 💕

Very Nice cruise the hour and half trip went by so quick, great scenery, friendly crew, interesting narration, lots of room to walk around and stretch and switch sides

Take the museums solar powered electric boat to the Rondout lighthouse for a great guided tour.

I love this wonderful gem of a museum. Ive taken my kids here many times and participated in various educational programs that are always fun and informative. So much local history, presented so well, with hands-on and dress-up options that are fun for the little ones. We love boat tours, like the Half Moon, the Niña, Maiden, Apollonia or the light house tours.

We held a family reunion at the boat building school classroom. It was perfect. And Liz was extremely helpful.

What an amazing museum. You can see a lot of models here, lean the history of the Hudson.

Don’t miss this! What a lovely place. My husband and I reserved a spot at the museum’s dock for our 40 foot trawler. The museum has much about the last 400 years of the Hudson River area, as well as a section about the indigenous peoples prior to that time, and the history of the making of the three canals leading from the Hudson River, the Erie, the Champlain, and the now defunct Delaware and Hudson Canal.This is not only a museum. They have a wooden boat school and a sailing school. As a visitor you can also pay to take a lighthouse excursion on the fully electric boat, Solaris.I promise, you’ll be glad you visited.

Worth the $9 admission. I didnt expect much but they had a lot of content across a variety of topics. Some interactive exhibits, I will go back. If I wasnt on a time crunch I would have spent more time! A lot of value for a small price. Thanks so much!

We love coming here. They offer fun boats rides to the lighthouse. Five stars all the way!

Cute small museum that tells the story of the region. We got a membership and our little kid in to the sail school. Looking forward to it!

A really nice museum. I never took the light house tour, but hopefully Ill have the time on the next visit. This museum has a advantage to visit, that a lot of other places may not. Its location down on Kingstons water front is a nice place in itself to walk around after visiting.

What a fantastic trip aboard the museum’s Solaris! The crew and volunteers were so fun and knowledgeable, and the ride peaceful and quiet thanks to the boat’s solar-powered motor. We’ll definitely come back as soon as we can!

Very interesting. Went on the tour of the lighthouse, just beautiful.

Excellent food, local craft beer, friendly staff and a perfect place to stop in to for a meal before driving back home from Ithica!

Fantastic museum and the boat tours are outstanding. It’s absolutely worth every penny and time to do a tour. The crew is awesome and the day we got was out of this world. The museum exhibits are so informative and worth it.

My wife Laurie & I & friends Dave & Suzanne all met in The Rondout at The Hudson River Maritime Museum to take a moonlight cruise on The Solaris. We were welcomed on board by The Skipper & crew. Everyone seemed to have brought wine & snacks. We were all talking & catching up ,& met new friends & shared our wine & snacks. We so enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful evening scenery. Feeling the quietness of our boat, "The Solaris", she is powered by huge batteries that are located beneath in the hull. You can hear all of the natural sounds around you because there is no engine noise. All of the sights on the way were explained to us & all the wildlife is an added pleasure 🙏. We would love to meet you when we come on our next evening cruise. ❤

Just about the safest learning center in the state. Always exceeds expectations - I think the survived the covid crisis with super leadership & staff motivation. Dont miss watching the work being done at the Wooden boat school, low key but positive in all areas.

A very interesting museum on Rondout Creek the Hudson River. Fascinating information, well worth the stop

I absoluptly love coming here. The town has an abundance of historical stories just waiting to be heard. There are wonderful people who will love to just talk about the history of the town; and if you love that, than this is your place. It is a beautiful town with so much to offer. They have sailing, sailing classes, boating, boatmaking, river tours, kayaking, canoing, etc. The have restaurants, museums, trolleys, activities, and so much more. It is without question, one of my favorite places to visit.

A very nice museum on an inlet from the Hudson River. Lots of history about a wide variety of subjects involving the history of the Hudson River. Quite a bit about canals and steamboats of the 1800s.The grounds are open to explore, but the main attraction is the 1 to 2 hour boat rides on the Hudson. Unfortunately I was unable to go (they fill up quickly, so reserve online), but I see no reason why they wouldnt be delightful.

Relaxing, charming and interesting. We took the Rondout Lighthouse tour offered through the Hudson River Maritime Museum and loved it.The boat trip is relatively short, calm and quiet. The Solaris is a solar powered boat, so that was cool to experience. If you want to see more of the Hudson river itself the museum offers many different boat tours of varying lengths.Most of our time on this tour was spent at and INSIDE the lighthouse. We highly recommend it.Our tour guide Greg was very knowledgable and you get to spend some time exploring the interior of the living quarters as well as ascending a steep set of stairs up to, and out ONTO, the lighthouse tower itself. Greg had many stories to tell which made the place come to life.As an aside, the waterfront area of Kingston is extremely pleasant, with a nice waterfront walking path and several wonderful restaurants of varying price range. There is free municipal parking only a few yards away from the Maritime Museum and plenty of metered parking.All in all, a wonderful relaxing afternoon. We will be back.

This place was amazing it was $9 to enter and look at all the interesting exhibits most of the exhibits are from real steamboats that operated in the Hudson River . There is handmade models and interactive displays. I highly recommend this to anyone with kids and enthusiasts. Friendly and knowledgeable staff. There is a gift shop upon entering and there is parking in front of the museum and municipal parking as well.

Nice museum with a great deal of local Hudson River historical information and NY Canal system details . Well worth a visit.

We took Dual Light House Tour on Solaris!! Amazing and outstanding service and beautiful River. Thank you so very much to the awesomest crew and Captain Jack for being such awesome caring and kind people. It is beyond beautiful and so educational, Solaris is solar powered boat, no smell of gas and no loud noises. So relaxing and scenic and thanks to Captain for stopping at one of LightHouses to allow us take photos of 360degrees panoramic view. It was such an outstanding trip and I can’t wait to come back and check out their sunset and Live music tours. You can tell how passionate people and dedicated people work at this place. Thank you so very much!

Gem of a museum shares a variety of experiences and historical artifacts, objects, photographs, models, stories of the many people, explorers, Iroquois, etc..In addition, many displays shows a fascinating picture of the distant to not so distant maritime past of the rich Hudson River region. The photographs attached to this review is a small sampling of the offering behind the outside walls of the Hudson River Maritime Museum. Recommended

Great maritime museum with many displays and rich heritage of the Hudson River. I had a great time. Highly recommend it .

A must visit when youre strolling through the Kingston waterfront. The museum features a throughout exhibit on the past, present and future of the river, including conservation and restoration efforts to get the river back to its former glory. I was blown away by all the boat both on the water and on land. Visit the gift shop and also go on river boat ride! There are many kinds.

Mainly came for the electric boat trip (Solariswhich was fantastic.Will have to return for the nighttime trip. The museum was great too. I always think I know everything about the Hudson but theres always something new. In this case ice boating and steam engines.

Cool place to visit. Lots to look at and read about. Lots of information about different issues that have surrounded the history of the Hudson River area and the items they have on display are very interesting to look at. Would love to go on a cruise tour next time we visit as they were booked while we were there.

Wonderful historic museum on the Kingston waterfront with the history of boats and ferry lines that went up and down the Hudson and the construction of the Erie Canal and an amazing collection of model boats and boat restorations outside and displays about cleaning up the river and the involvement of Riverkeeper and the Clearwater sloop and concerts to raise money to protect the river and environmental awareness.

My 3 years old boy did enjoy staying.

Nice little museum. There is a lot of information in a small space. In the canal room there are some interactive things for kids and fun exhibits. In each room there is a lot of information to take in. This museum can easily be done in an hour.Right next to the museum is a ferry that you can take rides (they are 2 hours so we did not take a tour as that is way too long with kids).

Excellent small museum with a variety of exhibits related to life on the Hudson river. Many ship models, photos and boats to view. Good info on the Erie canal and industry along the river.

Wonderful museum with many informative displays about the Hudson River valley, ships, steam engines and canals. There is even a display of the studio of a famous model boat builder and many of his models. A walk along the Rondout waterfront afterwards is recommended.

Hudson River Maritime is a gem of history, commerce, culture, geography and engineering! Lovely gift shop (the volunteer cashier is a colorful character!and impressive scale models throughout the museum. Activities for kids, and video loops about several exhibits. Clean bathroom on-site, and metered parking in front.

One needs more than one day to absorb all exhibits here. There is material on shipbuilding, commerce, geography, anthropology and history. Some interactive exhibits for the kids. Parking in front by meter (operates by coins of Whoosh app). Clean unisex single-occupant bathroom. Fascinating gift shop, with a memorable volunteer poster at check-in/check-out.

Great museum with a ton of historic boat models, dioramas and more with amazingly detailed info about the local maritime history. Try and take a tour of the Rondout Lighthouse if you can too - its a great quick tour around the lighthouse (taken there by small boatwith many rich stories, and you can see some amazing views. Our tour guide (unfortunately cant remember his name nowwas excellent, very knowledgeable of the history and had a good sense of humor. Highly recommended.

Wonderful afternoon. My 8yr granddaughter had as blast. Interacti e enough to entertain young and old alike.

Very small museum with lots to read. Great for school trips or kids who love boats and ships. They also have really big bathrooms that can be used to change babys diaper. I loved that part.