Things to Do in Cohoes

Meandering along the quiet waters 150 miles north of New York City, Hudson Cruises' captains navigate the picturesque artery of the northern Hudson River Valley, offering views of the rolling Catskills and, occasionally, the belly buttons of soaring bald eagles. Both private and public tours—including chartered dinner cruises, Hudson-Athens lighthouse tours, sunset tours, and Latin Dance Party cruises—traverse the waterway, with accommodations for up to 150 passengers on the New Orleans–style paddleboat. Tours take place May–October, seven days a week.

Adventure Racing enchants fun-seekers with a sprawling mini-metropolis of indoor and outdoor attractions. Drivers execute turns and passes around the indoor and outdoor go-kart tracks, which offer single karts for solo racers and tandem conveyances so adults can teach young passengers to flout traffic laws. Towering Star Wars figures lurk in the darkened passageways of a three-story laser-tag arena, where teams of up to 12 people test their marksmanship as they navigate between phosphorescent walls.

Inside Adventure Racing's indoor bumper-car arena, drivers steer circular vehicles on a constant collision course with their fellow vessels. The fun center's climbing wall tests the strength of grappling hands, and more technical tests of dexterity await at Adventure Racing's paintball shooting range, arcade, and knitting circle.:m]]

In 1936, Robert and Dorothy Leab drove their 13 head of cattle over Brodie Mountain and into Ioka Valley, where they broke ground on their new home. Despite the poor quality of the farm’s soil, their hard work gradually resulted in bountiful harvests. Decades later, the third generation of the Leab family still tills the land, planting assorted crops and opening the farm to visitors for year-round activities.

Each season brings new life to the farm, from the pastel buds and new shoots of spring to summer’s vibrant strawberries, which are grown on raised beds so visitors can pick their own pints. Kids frolic in Uncle Don’s Barnyard all summer, petting tame rabbits and llamas and whooshing down a 40-foot pipeline slide. Fall festival activities include hayrides and pumpkin picking, and during the winter, snow-covered Christmas trees can be carted home to add holiday cheer or provide a new project for the family’s pet beaver. Maple season stretches from February to April in the sugar house, occupied by 5,000 taps and two boilers. The farm churns out deep maple syrup that is served over pancakes and waffles in the Calf-A, a calf barn converted into a café. The farm’s cattle herds are pasture-raised during warm months, with their diet supplemented by the farm’s own corn, before becoming hormone-free, all natural beef.

At Player’s Park, gentle hills and dales peppered with greenery surround an 18-hole miniature-golf course, the park’s scaled-down version of the nine-hole par-3 course. The par-3 course, open during the day and into the evening, provides players with short-game practice, just as the mini-golf course provides putt-polishing opportunities for players shorter than a putter.

In addition to hosting rounds of golf, Player’s Park stays true to its name by inviting kids to play on a row of bounce-house inflatables. Families can also visit the ice-cream parlor, where they can play the quiet game as they chow down on ice cream or other quick bites such as burgers, hot dogs, and fries. Designed for sit-down dining, the eatery has an air-conditioned interior as well as an outdoor porch for those who prefer Mother Nature’s air conditioner—the flapping wings of a curious butterfly.

BubKat Bounce! fuels hours of airborne festivities with bright, neon bounce houses and whimsical treats. Their staffers deliver and set up three styles of inflatables that range from a simple castle with a drawbridge entryway to a bounce house outfitted with an interior slide, basketball hoop, and springy mortgage agreement. BubKat also assembles 10-person party packages complete with cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and candy, which they can customize with everything from monkeys and dinosaurs to princess wands.:m]]

Golf courses are designed to compound players’ mistakes. An errant tee shot winds up buried in the rough, on a side-hill lie, or shut out behind a tree—where golfers may not be able to take a full swing, let alone concentrate on how to correct their mechanics. In golf, the driving range is the only safe haven. Saratoga Springs Golf Range’s all-grass hitting bays provide a smooth, flat surface that lets golfers concentrate on improving their swings and grants amnesty for past swing transgressions in the form of range balls and a course notary who expunges all mulligans from players’ official records.

Saratoga Springs Golf Range helps swings enter into a harmonious relationship with their sticks through custom club fitting, loft and lie adjustments, and regripping services. The range’s club technicians also offer various repair services for snapped club shafts and emotionally distraught drivers.