The Hudson River Maritime Museum is a maritime museum dedicated to the Hudson River. It is located at 50 Rondout Landing at the foot of Broadway in Kingston, New York, United States, along Rondout Creek in the city's old waterfront, just east of the John T. Loughran Bridge.
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My wife, our then 6-year-old son, and I visited the Hudson River Maritime Museum and took a boat ride on Solaris—their solar-powered boat—last summer, on 07/21/24. The museum isn't very big, but it can be a good place for kids. We purchased the tickets online in advance, which included a visit to the museum after the boat ride.
There wasn’t much of a wait for the boat, and it wasn't at full capacity—only about 13 or 14 people in total. We were the only non-white family. Apart from my son, there were two other children: one girl around his age and another a couple of years older.
The crew consisted of three older gentlemen. Before the ride started, they let the kids sit in the captain’s seat and take photos. My son was very excited. During the ride, one of the gentlemen served as the guide and explained a lot about the history of the town and the lighthouse. However, I noticed that most of his commentary was directed at the girls, their mother, and the other white passengers.
After a short ride, we arrived at the lighthouse and went inside. The top level houses the light itself, and just below are the living quarters of the former lighthouse keepers. The guide told the girls and their mom to go up to the top first, saying, “Let the kids go and explore first.” I assumed he was letting people in batches due to limited space. But once the girls and their mom returned, he invited everyone else to go up together. That meant the first group essentially got a private family tour, while the rest of us went as a group. He could have included us in the first group too, especially since we had a young child—probably the youngest in the entire group—but he didn’t.
Later, back at the dock, the guide invited the kids to stay with him for a tour inside the museum. My son was excited and tried to join them. But the gentleman completely ignored him and took only the two girls. My son felt so bad and asked us, “Why is he always taking those girls only?” The girls’ mom heard this and kindly told him to join them, but I advised him not to, as I knew the guide would likely continue to ignore him. To comfort him, I told him the man was probably their grandfather, which is why he was only taking them around. My son wasn’t convinced and was clearly unhappy about the experience. He brought it up for a long time afterward.
It’s unfortunate how a potentially memorable and educational experience for a child can be spoiled by one person’s knowing or unknowing behavior. I wouldn’t visit again, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who...
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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...
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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...
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