Most people come to Cooperstown, New York for baseball, and fair enough. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum sits right on Main Street, and you could spend a full day inside without seeing everything. But this small village at the southern tip of Otsego Lake has a lot more going on. If you’re here for a tournament week or a long weekend, it’s worth knowing where to go once you’ve seen the plaques.
Otsego Lake
James Fenimore Cooper called it the Glimmerglass, and on a still morning you’ll see why. The lake runs about nine miles north from the village, framed by wooded hills. In summer you’ll see kayaks and paddleboards out early. At the northern end, Glimmerglass State Park has a swimming beach, easy trails and the Hyde Hall Covered Bridge, thought to be the oldest surviving covered bridge in the country.
Two museums on Lake Road
About a mile north of the village, the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum face each other across the road. The Fenimore holds American folk art and a well-known collection of Native American art, with a lawn that rolls down to the water. The Farmers’ Museum is a working 19th-century village with a blacksmith, a print shop, heritage animals and the Empire State Carousel. Kids who have had a week of baseball tend to love it. Both keep seasonal hours, so check before you go.
Doubleday Field and Main Street
Doubleday Field is a short walk from the Hall of Fame and still hosts games through the summer. Main Street is lined with baseball card shops, bat makers and memorabilia stores. If you want a bat with your player’s name on it, Cooperstown Bat Company and Where It All Began are both about a seven-minute drive from our Field of Dreams home.
Cider and beer
A few miles west of the village, Fly Creek Cider Mill presses its own cider and runs a marketplace full of tastings and snacks. It’s seasonal and at its busiest in the fall. South of town, Brewery Ommegang makes Belgian-style beers on a former hop farm, with a café and a big lawn that suits a group.
Where to stay
Field of Dreams is our home in a lightly wooded setting about three miles from the Hall of Fame. It sleeps up to 13, so the grandparents and cousins can come too, and there’s a private heated pool for the afternoons when everyone needs a rest. The kitchen comes stocked with coffee, spices and wine glasses, and there’s a washer and dryer for all those grass-stained uniforms.
Check availability at Field of Dreams, or call Sandra on (877) 373-2602 to talk through your dates.
Featured photo: Ted Fischer — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons