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Get to know Germantown

Straight out of a Wes Anderson film, Germantown is a peaceful community so picture-perfect it almost seems art-directed. Largely undeveloped, the Columbia County town is situated just about 100 miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan and boasts an impressive amount of river frontage, affording its westernmost residents breathtaking water views with Catskills shadows in the distance. You’ll find gingerbread farmhouses, spacious estates, and a pint-sized village with but a single stop sign. There’s an eco-conscious laundry, a century-old market that serves as the go-to meeting place, and a farm-to-table tavern that draws many here for the first time. Outdoor activities run aplenty — there are miles of scenic roads to bike, and hiking the grounds of two nearby historic sites, Clermont or Olana, always hits the spot. Whether you’re looking to be a digitally detoxing weekender or full-time homesteader, one sunset might be all you need to decide and plant down roots.

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Living in the Hudson Valley

This cultured countryside needs little introduction. It’s been called New York’s Napa, the anti-Hamptons, or simply “upstate.” From rolling farm fields to mom-and-pop Main Streets, the region is blessed with easy highway access, train service via Metro-North and Amtrak, and even its own international airport, making it exceptionally attractive to New York City residents seeking a little more nature and a lot less bustle. Most of the area falls within a two-hour radius of Manhattan, making it practical for weekend or full-time residence. Straddling both sides of its namesake river (much is actually a tidal fjord), the Hudson Valley’s traditionally defined core consists of Putnam, Dutchess, and Columbia counties to its east and Ulster, Orange, and Greene to the west. Their mélange of art colonies, rustic-chic hamlets, and charming post-industrial cities — set to a landscape so breathtaking it inspired an eponymous 19th-century art movement — welcome infinite possibilities, from slow-paced small-town living to total off-the-grid seclusion. Bordering both the Berkshires and the Catskills, outdoor recreation runs aplenty, whether skiing in winter or climbing wilderness peaks in summer.