Authentic Experiences: The Home of Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow, NY
Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, and Irvington, in the Hudson Valley under an hour from Manhattan by train or car, offer extraordinary options for a short escape, retreats, or small business meetings.Click here to subscribe to RRN weekly, and here for an RRN media kit.
In response to the growing demand for authentic experiences in motivational events, group and individual incentive travel, and gifting, RRN is relaunching a new section on authentic experiences in conjunction with its sister publication ShortEscapes.net, sponsored by Pulse Experiential Travel. It was suspended shortly after its relaunch when the pandemic arrived.
The Highlights: Stunning Hudson River views, colonial footpaths in legend-filled forests, the remains of a large riverside estate.
Places to Visit: An 17th-Century farmstead; Kykuit, home of the Rockefellers; the Old Dutch Church and old graveyard where Washington Irving is buried.
Meetings and Event Options: Notable properties for a more authentic experience are the Castle and Spa and Tarrytown House Estate in Tarrytown. Hotels in nearby Tarrytown and other Westchester towns and cities provide many options. Historic homes and estates along the Hudson River can also be rented for unique, memorable events.
We can only imagine the rigors faced by the early Europeans who first settled the Hudson River Valley. After the stress of a long ocean voyage and the prospect of setting up a new life, they encountered a vast, virgin wilderness with strangely clothed inhabitants. The new world undoubtedly played on the minds of these travelers, whose first explanation for the strange phenomena they encountered often included some aspect of the supernatural.
During the American revolution, this was a no-man's land between Americans to the north and the British holding New York City. The notorious spy John Andre was captured in Sleepy Hollow in a spot prominently marked by a statue along Broadway.
As 19th-Century author Washington Irving tells us in his books, the early Dutch settlers who settled the Hudson River lands you travel on during this getaway had particularly vivid imaginations, especially if you have a taste for the macabre. Irving passed through the Hudson River Valley in his youth and fell in love with its charms. Years later, while living in London, he wrote his famous The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, borrowing, it is said, from stories he heard while visiting a friend on an estate near Kinderhook in the Hudson Valley. One literary historian, however, has attributed much of Irving’s legends to German tales the author read while living in London.
In either case, the visitor to Sleepy Hollow should have little trouble imagining the valley in Irving’s time, because the land covered in Rockefeller State Park still maintains its quiet, rural character and has some of the same footpaths that were in use during Irving’s time. Click here for a particularly impressive walk on Alltrails.com with Hudson River valley views along with the towers of Manhattan on clear days. Here is a list of the top 10 walking trails.
Click here for more information.
Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services
Celebrating our 15th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:
1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:
ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009; click here for a media kit.
RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996; click here for a EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards insights and how-to information since 2020.
2. Learning: Purpose Leadership and Stakeholder
Management Academy to enhance future equity value and performance for your organization.3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.
4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.
5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.
6. Public speaking and meeting facilitation on stakeholder management. The world’s leading speakers on all aspects of stakeholder management across the enterprise.
