Things to do in Albany

Landmark · Downtown, above State Street

Rockefeller's marble government city — four agency towers, a reflecting pool, The Egg, and a 19th-century Capitol built over 32 years by three sets of architects who could not agree.

Local tip: Take the free tour of the Capitol for the Million Dollar Staircase, then go up the Corning Tower observation deck, also free, for the best view of the Hudson valley and the Helderbergs. The underground concourse holds one of the largest public modern art collections in the country and is how locals cross the Plaza in January.

Neighborhood · Center Square, west of downtown

An Olmsted-influenced 81-acre park ringed by brownstone rowhouses, with the city's best bar and restaurant street running along its eastern edge.

Local tip: Come in the second week of May for the Tulip Festival, which is Albany's Dutch inheritance taken entirely seriously — the beds are planted the previous autumn with bulbs from the Netherlands.

Nature · The Helderberg escarpment, 25 minutes west

Six miles of limestone cliff along the Indian Ladder Trail, with 400-million-year-old fossil beds in the rock face and the whole Hudson-Mohawk valley below.

Local tip: The Indian Ladder Trail runs beneath the overhanging cliff and behind two waterfalls; it closes from November to May for ice. Go on a clear autumn afternoon and you can see the Green Mountains and the Catskills at once.

Culture · Moored on the Hudson at Broadway

The last destroyer escort afloat in America, restored to her 1945 configuration and moored a five-minute walk from downtown.

Local tip: The volunteers who run her are the point — many are veterans, and the below-decks tour is far better than the ship's modest exterior suggests.

Culture · Washington Avenue, downtown

Founded in 1791, one of the oldest museums in the United States, holding the Hudson River School painters and a permanent Ancient Egypt collection including two mummies.

Local tip: The Hudson River School rooms are the reason to go: these landscapes were painted an hour up the river from here, and you can drive to the viewpoints afterwards.

Nature · Along the Hudson from the Corning Preserve, and west along the Mohawk

A paved rail-and-canal trail running from downtown Albany out along the Erie Canal corridor towards Schenectady, part of the state's Empire State Trail.

Local tip: Start at the Corning Preserve boat launch below the Plaza and ride north — within twenty minutes you are past the city and on the old canal towpath, and it connects into the Empire State Trail all the way to Buffalo if you have the legs.