6 Best Sights in Utica, Albany and Central New York

The institute is made up of a museum, an art school, and a performing-arts center. Its Museum of Art occupies two distinctly different buildings. The 1850 Italianate mansion, called Fountain Elms, has rooms of Victorian-era furnishings. The main gallery spaces are in the 1960 Philip Johnson structure, a rather austere building clad in polished granite. The holdings include 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and photographs; 19th- and 20th-century European paintings; Asian prints; and pre-Columbian artifacts. A highlight here is the collection of Hudson River School paintings, which include the four-part "Voyage of Life" series by Thomas Cole as well as works by Asher B. Durand and Frederic Church.

From Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day, a 1950s-era locomotive chugs and whistles from Utica's historic Union Station on day trips into the Adirondack Wilderness via the Adirondack Scenic Railroad.

Learn how the F. X. Matt Brewing Co. creates its Saranac-brand traditional lager, pale ale, pilsner, Adirondack amber, and old-fashioned root beer. The same family has operated the seven-story brick brew house for more than a century. Inhaling the yeasty aroma of fermenting hops and malt, you can see several steps of the brewing process. Tours are on the hour and end with a beer or root-beer sampling. Call in advance for reservations.

The massive limestone-and-granite building has 47-foot-high vaulted ceilings, marble pillars, a terrazzo floor, original steam-heated wooden benches, and a vintage barbershop that still gives haircuts. Train tours operated by Adirondack Scenic Railroad leave from the 1914 Italian Renaissance–style station for day trips into the Adirondack wilderness.

A brick building in the historic Main Street district houses four floors of hands-on exhibits for all ages. There's a Dinorama, with dinosaur models and fossils, and a Weather Room, with Doppler radar. Kiddies can walk into a replica Iroquois longhouse, don firefighting gear, and pretend to fly a 17-foot-long airplane. Outside you can explore the inside of an old Adirondack locomotive, dining car, and caboose parked alongside the building.

Siberian tigers, Alaskan grizzly bears, and California sea lions are some of the 200 animals that reside in this city park with views of the Mohawk Valley. A petting zoo and live animal shows are options in summer.