A Fun Fall Day Trip to Fishkill Farms via Beacon from NYC Without a Car

No car? Not a problem for us! This is how we traveled to Fishkill Farms, by the way of Beacon, from New York City using public transportation. Sometimes you need to get out of the city for the *fall aesthetic* and some apple picking, cider doughnuts surrounded by dreamy fall foliage.

Getting up to the Hudson Valley towns couldn’t be easier from New York City. There are plenty of apple picking orchards and farms with fall activities like pumpkin patches and cider within minutes of different Metro-North stops along the Hudson. Fishkill Farms is just one of the largest farms with almost every festive fall things to do in one place. Keep reading to see exactly how we got up there and all the activities we got up to!

How to Get to Beacon From NYC

Beacon, New York can be easily reached from New York City by the MTA’s Metro-North railroad trains. Start at Grand Central (42nd Street) station and take the Hudson Line (green) towards Poughkeepsie. Get off at the Beacon station and you’ve arrived right outside of town! The train ride is about 1.5 hours from NYC. Be sure to sit on the left side of the car, facing the train’s moving direction, to get views of the Hudson River and the colorful fall foliage.

You can easily plan your trip with the MTA’s TrainTime app or refer to the upcoming schedule on the website, HERE. I highly recommend the TrainTime app to schedule your day and purchase your train tickets to Beacon station before boarding. Once you’re on board, you just need to show the QR code to the conductor when they come by.

Plan to arrive at Grand Central station early, especially on the weekends, to secure seating. The weekend crowd heading up the Hudson Valley is huge during peak fall foliage time. This is the same train that brings New Yorkers going to Cold Spring, so expect a packed ride. Beacon is the stop after Cold Spring, or two stops, during the weekends, since Breakneck Ridge stop is available weekends only.

We went on a Saturday morning in October and the train was so packed that people had to stand the entire ride up. All the seats were taken up and everyone was just standing on top of each other like we were on the subway back in NYC. Thankfully, I arrived at Grand Central about 30 minutes before the train departure and was one the early groups to snag seats when boarding first started. Ticketing doesn’t include seat assignments, so it is first-come-first-serve. Plan ahead!

On the bright side, upon arriving into Beacon, the fall foliage was really showing off, that even the train station parking lot had the prettiest tree colors. If you plan to explore town, it is another 10-15 minute walk to Main Street for all the shops and restaurants. We had booked an apple picking reservation and spent the whole day at Fishkill Farms. So upon arrival to the Beacon station, we headed straight there, instead.

Getting to Fishkill Farms from Beacon Train Station

The next step of our journey will require an Uber ride. Fishkill Farms is only a 15 minute ride from the Beacon train station. My biggest advice for this is to schedule the Uber ride ahead of your arrival. This way your ride will be waiting for you as soon as you get off the train. There aren’t as many Uber or Lyft drivers servicing in Beacon as the city, so scheduling your ride is the best way to secure a ride. If you wait until you get off the train, you will be competing with everyone else calling for ride-share services at the same time, and you might be waiting a good 20 minutes for the next available car.

Another option for getting a ride to Fishkill Farms is using the local taxi service. Sometimes, this would be the best bet. Make sure to get a contact for your ride back, or call at least 10 minutes ahead of time.

Fishkill Farms is 270-acres of pick-your-own fruits, fall events and festivities. They are also a working farm outside of all the entertainment and events. Based on the months you visit, you are able to pick from different berries, pears, peaches, flowers, heirloom tomatoes to apples and pumpkins during the fall months. From September to October they host their annual Harvest Festival Weekends, where you can join in the festivities of live music, hard cider bar, apple cider doughnuts, fresh cider, food trucks, corn maze, and hayrides! I’ve previously visited Fishkill Farms many years ago, and there were still sunflowers around during apple picking season!

Apple Picking at Fishkill Farms

Pick Your Own (PYO) apples require paid reservations ahead of time. Use the reservation scheduler HERE to book your time slot. Apple picking starts September 7 is going until November 10 (more dates might be added later). They grow over 100 apple varieties on the orchard, so you won’t need worry about not being able to find your favorite kind of apples at the farm. Tickets start at $48 dollars for up to 5 persons, sharing a bag, on weekdays and go up to $58 on the weekends.

I would recommend getting the weekend tickets because the Harvest Festival Weekends is happening and it’s a much livelier experience. I love that the time slot ticketing can be shared by 5 people, and extra apple picking bags can be purchased. One bag was pretty heavy to bring back between the two of us on the train ride back, but if you have more people, it’s not so bad splitting the goodies.

The apple orchard is vast! We spent the majority of our day exploring the different apple varieties and wandering. We noticed some apple varieties were already done picking for the season (early ripening), but nonetheless, we still had a great time finding an abundant amount of apple trees that were still full of fruit. Likewise, there were still some apple varieties that were still roped off and not ready for picking as of yet. For more information on PYO timing and seasonality, check their calendar here. You’ll be able to time your trip better if you’re looking for specific apple varieties or fruits/veggies.

Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze at Fishkill Farms

After finishing up with apple picking, we took a tractor wagon ride down to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. Included in your PYO apple reservation are wagon rides throughout the apple orchard. We were getting tired from all the apple foraging, so the wagon ride was such a nice relief. You can find the pick-up spots at different locations around the orchard.

We spent some time at the pumpkin patch getting some photos in. You know, the *fall aesthetic* photos.

After the pumpkin patch, we walked over to the corn maze. Fishkill Farms has Corn Maze For Cause, which donates 30% of admission tickets to their community through American Farmland Trust, Happy Life Animal Rescue, and Second Chance Foods. Tickets are $5 and can be bought at the corn maze entrance or at the apple picking welcome center. You will be PYO reservations to enter the corn maze since the maze is located within the apple orchard.

We were able to find our way out of the 1-acre corn maze in around 10 minutes, which wasn’t so bad! We asked what the average time of completion was and the attendant told us it was from 15-30 minutes.

Food & Drink at Fishkill Farms

We really worked up an appetite after scouring the apple orchards for the best picks and lugging the bag with us, under the hot sun. We noticed wagons for rent at check-in and that’s definitely the way to go, next time we go apple picking. During the Fall Harvest Festival, Fishkill Farms have different food trucks and vendors serving up some yummy foods. Parched and hungry after working the fields, we decided to order from Hooked Events. See the different vendors and food lineup calendar here.

I went for the quart-sized lemonade and their award winning lobster roll. Although, we had a bottle of water with us during the apple picking, I was still so thirsty! This giant lemonade *cup* really hit the spot and satiated me. There was nothing more refreshing to me at that moment. After refueling, we decided to relax and try some of the other offerings available on the premises.

An apple picking trip wouldn’t be complete without apple cider doughnuts and taste testing some of the local hard cider! Luckily on the weekends of the Fall Harvest Festival, both are available at Fishkill Farms for visitors to enjoy. At this point, it feels like a tradition to try the apple cider donuts and ciders (if available) every time I make a trip to the apple orchards.

At Fishkill Farms, the line for their famous apple cider doughnuts was quite long, but it moved fast. At the time I was there, they limited a box of a dozen doughnuts per group. Taste-wise, it was really delicious!! I now know why the line was so long, and it’s really worth the wait. Reminder, that these doughnuts are available during the weekends only!

Besides the cider donuts, we also relaxed by the Treasury Cider Bar porch, overlooking the Hudson Highlands, with the fall foliage peeking. We decided to do the flight of the hard cider that were made exclusively with the apples from Fishkill Farms. The tasting ranged from semi-dry to dry ciders, and we ordered a meat and cheese plate to snack with it. The day at Fishkill couldn’t have ended better than this, as the sun started to set behind the mountains.

Definitely check out the Farm Store before you head out. They carry a lot of local products from homemade pies, fresh produce, local meats, cheeses, honey and even fall decorations. Too bad, we didn’t have much space to carry more things back to NYC, otherwise we’d shop some more in the store. I really wanted to bring back some apple cider with our apples and donuts.

Finally, my vlog from the Fishkill Farms day trip:

For more trips from NYC, check out:

A Perfect Cold Spring Day Trip From NYC Without a Car

Hudson Valley: Fall Weekender in Rockland County New York

Apple Picking on Long Island: Harbes Farm & Orchard

Winter Getaway House in the New York Catskills

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