Saratoga Springs - Spa City

Saratoga Springs is probably one of the supreme luxury resort cities in the north, thanks to horse racing and the old baths that draw both rich, poor and middle to this spot. It has culture, night life, lodgings from basic to luxury, shopping as well as the tracks and baths. It is the most upscale city that I cover as well. SPAC, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, is a popular venue for classical & popular music, as well as ballet in season. It is located in the Saratoga State Parks, which boasts the golf course and the old baths. Saratoga Springs began as a resort town in the early 1800 thanks to the mineral springs which people used to use as cure-alls for various ailments by, you guessed, bathing in them. There is also Skidmore College, a vigorous downtown art scene, the art colony Yaddo as well as a raft of museums, night clubs, coffee houses, restaurants. Broadway, Philo, Caroline Streets are popular night time hangouts which is as close as you get to Greenwich Village up here. I could spend whole pages talking about Saratoga, but it's easier just to pull off the Northway and check it out yourself. Congress Park, just south of downtown, is a charming, handsome park full of landscaping, gardens, sculptures and even an arts center.