Hudson River Maritime Museum

When on the lighthouse tour, beautiful day, cool boat, and awesome lighthouse. You get to climb all the way to the top and the tour guides were nice and super hyped about boats and lighthouse as they should be.

A pleasant place to spend time even if you just walk along the waterfront to see the vessels that might be berthed there. There are nice walkways with several signs explaining the history of the area. Parking is metered but plentiful, and there are several eateries in the area.

Utterly fascinating throughout as a snapshot of multiple eras in the economic and social history of the Hudson Valley from the 16th century through to today.

Reserved our slip online, were sent a picture of where to tie up - very helpful. Super close walking distance to a variety of restaurants. Kingston by the water is quaint and pretty.

This is truly an amazing museum! It holds all the maritime history of the Kingston area and the Hudson River. We took a solar powered boat ride out to the Rondout Lighthouse. We even got to go into the Lighthouse and walk up to the top! Amazing! Now stewards of the artifacts of the steam era of boats from the last 100 years in the Hudson River. So many artifacts, boat signage, wheels from ships, tons of photos, and even a huge steel tug from 1898. Their biggest artifact! This museum is amazing, just go!

Great little maritime museum witnessi of I 7h an other era, when life along the Hudson river was busy with activities..

This was an absolutely amazing museum! It is a great way to introduce used to Maritime history and the critical and important role played in New York State history the exhibits are very well done at times a bit text-heavy so you may need to summarize for the poor readers in your group it is an undiscovered gem along the shore is the Hudson. Allow for about an hour to go explore. Parking can be challenging at times during high attendance events at the river

The Hudson River Maritime Museum displays a wonderful collection of maritime history in Kingston, NY. The maritime history it covers spans from the Native Americans to now. The museum is easy to find on the waterfront and also has cruises on a solar powered boat called Solaris. The museum has many marine craft of all kinds ranging from canoes, fishing vessels, sloops, iceboats,, parts of steamships, and even a full tugboat directly outside the museum. There are excellent displays presented, as well as models of many ships that made voyages on the Hudson. The exhibits about life in a lighthouse are also very good. In all, every part of Hudson River history is well presented. It is easy to spend over an hour here taking in all the different displays. The exhibit Hudson River iceboats may be the most interesting. Be sure to look around outside the museum as well, the tugboat must be seen. The museum’s gift shop offers many books about local history as well as museum merchandise. Most items in the giftshop are reasonably priced. If you want to go on the cruise you should book a ticket ahead of time. If just going to the museum it is easy to just walk in and buy a ticket. Definitely an overlooked museum and secret gem in Kingston.

We visited the Hudson River Maritime Museum on a rainy afternoon, so we were limited to viewing only their indoor exhibits. The facility was surprisingly large with a massive breadth of information, most of which was left for you to read (if you did not take the guided tour), though there was some video content as well. Some of the modeled recreations were rather old and not very detailed, but the authentic items on view were very interesting. Overall, it was a decent way to spend an hour or two, but I would not say that you would NEED to go out of your way to visit (at least from the indoor perspective).

A fun little place packed with details of the fascinating story of the majestic, historic, and prosperous Hudson River and environs. Right on the waterfront dock where some of it happened. For those interested in understanding the geographical, maritime, Native American, commercial, socio-economic, and cultural impact of this region it is well worth the visit!!!!

Looking for an indoor activity, my husband and I stopped in at this small gem of a museum. It's chock-a-block with the history of and artifacts of boats and ships on the Hudson. It's absolutely worth a stop.

Such a well-thought out and insightful museum. We went to see Peter Eagleton's Art Show of Working Ships. Amazing show and great exhibits!

This was a nice small museum. It was informative with lots of displays. We went into the gift shop to ask a question. The staff person was friendly and able to answer our question. She told us about the museum. Since it was 10 minutes til closing, she told us to walk through! The museum focuses on the Hudson River culture. It includes displays on the river from its early days as a working river up to the current with an exhibit on how climate change is affecting the river. The museum has several rooms with replicas of a boat hull, the river lighthouse, ferry seats and more. There are also boat tours available spring through October. There is a river trail that you can walk for miles, a wood boat workshop, and boats in the river. If you are in the Hudson Valley, I would highly recommend!

Relaxing, charming and interesting afternoon. 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.

I went on the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse tour. The boat to get to the lighthouse is named Solaris and is run 100% on solar energy. I must admit, I enjoyed the Solaris as much as I enjoyed the lighthouse. Our tour guide, was knowledgeable and I believe had just as much fun giving the tour as we had taking it. You must go to see the beautiful interior of the lighthouse who's elegance surprised me. We need to support our living American history and this is a wonderful way to support and explore it first hand. You won't be disappointed.

Stopped by on our way back downstate from a weekend trip to the Catskill-Hudson area. Significantly smaller museum than I'm used to -- living in New York City -- but nonetheless a museum filled with very interesting stuff. Check out the vintage menu from a turn of the century liner in the large room at the back -- what we wouldn't give for prices like that, the most expensive item being a premium cut of steak for a couple bucks! Sit and watch the video on the unusual sport of ice yachting. Kids will enjoy the brick-rubbing table in the back, I know I did. Unfortunately our visit was on a day when there were no trips out to the nearby lighthouse and there were no fish in the fish tank, but we had a good time. Don't forget to go outside (You'll find the back door near the recreation of a portion of Henry Hudson's boat... and the bathrooms) to see the boats on the river and the large tug boat sitting on dry land! Great view of the bridge out there as well.

We live in NYC, so by comparison this wasn't a large place. It was much more informative then I thought going in. My husband and I looked at each item and had hoped to see the lighthouse, but we apparently came on the wrong day. :( It had a lovely woman out front, who let us in when showed up 11A on the dot. (Their opening time.) There was a modest gift shop for tourists to go through. Having grown up so close to the ocean (Portland, ME) I have to admit my fav part was the tug boat outside. View up and down river, cold snap to the light wind, clear enough skies... heavenly.

Just finished the lantern boat tour on Solaris. Beautiful interesting way to spend an hour on a Friday night. Great spooky stories by a salty old light keeper ghost. Friendly captain and staff with cozy blankets provided. Five stars.

I didn't expect much for $3.50 but was very pleasantly surprised. A small little gem on the inlet of the Hudson with great information about the river, barges, fishing, and life on the Hudson in general. We spent about an hour here which surprised me as I didn't think I would enjoy it (the museum was my wife's idea). If you like tug boats, then this is the place to be! Definitely something you should add to your list. Spend an hour here, another 30 minutes in the shops in the area, and then have lunch with fresh oysters nearby. Who could want more.

We loved the Haunted History Solaris Boat Tour! We went 11/1/2020. Greg our guide was very sweet and told great spooky campy stories. It was very cold and rainy out and I didn't mind at all. We were offered blankets and hot tea to make us comfortable. We live locally and I have never been on the river at night. It was a great experience. Everyone wore masks, the Captain gave us a run down of their Covid protocols, and it was great way to be outside during Covid. Dress warm and enjoy the super quiet solar boat on the water at night..

We've made a few weekend trips up the Hudson from the south shore of Long Island to Kingston's waterfront. It's a great place to stay over. Well protected, and some fantastic restaurants right off the water. We normally stay at the Kingston City Dock but we decided to give the Hudson River Maritime Museum a try this trip and we're glad we did. Conner, the dockmaster, was super helpful and friendly. He went out of his way to make sure we were happy. Access to very clean bathrooms and showers. Electric worked perfectly, and much better water pressure than the city dock. Membership in the Museum and the included access to it were a real bonus. We had a great couple of nights here and will return again next season.

We actually went here because we had run out of things to do....little did we know this would be one of the most interesting stops of our trip. Nothing spectacular, but some very cool history and great exhibits. It's also conveniently situated right near some downtown and river-front restaurants. Would definitely recommend.

Much larger than one would suspect, and much more interesting. Think of it as a good history of the Hudson told from the perspective of the maritime activities. Certainly a hidden gem.