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Pioneer Valley

With the exception of gritty Springfield, the Pioneer Valley offers a gentle landscape of college towns, picturesque farms and old mills that have been charmingly converted into modern use. The uber-cool burg of Northampton provides the region's top dining, nightlife and street scenes, while the other destinations offer unique museums, geological marvels and a few unexpected roadside gems.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Pioneer Valley.

  • See

    Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

    It was Springfield where, in 1891, a young Canadian physical education instructor called James Naismith first invented basketball. The game is celebrated at this state-of-the art museum. Though the emphasis at the basketball hall of fame seems to be more hoopla than hoops – there's an abundance of multiscreened TVs and disembodied cheering – devotees of the game will be thrilled to shoot baskets, feel the center-court excitement and learn about the sport's history and great players.

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    Emily Dickinson Museum

    During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson (1830–86) published only seven poems, but more than 1000 were discovered and published posthumously, and her verses on love, nature and immortality have made her one of the USA's most important poets. Dickinson spent most of her life in near seclusion in this stately home near the center of Amherst. Worthwhile guided tours (one hour) focus on the poet and her works, visiting both the Dickinson Homestead and the adjacent Evergreens.

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    Skinner State Park

    This mountaintop park, at the summit of Mt Holyoke, peaks out at a rather modest-sounding height of 942ft. But that's high enough to earn the visitor panoramic views of the Connecticut River and its oxbow curve, the fertile valley and the distant smudge of Mt Greylock to the west. A 1.5-mile road to the top is open to hikers year-round and to vehicles from May to October. The park is north of South Hadley off MA 47 in Hadley.

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    Amazing World of Dr Seuss

    This innovative museum is dedicated to the life and work of Springfield native Theodore Geisel, aka Dr Seuss. On the 1st floor, interactive exhibits use the stories of Dr Seuss to engage children with rhyming games and storytelling. Upstairs, galleries display original artwork, a moving collection of letters from the author to his great nephew, and a reproduction of Geisel's studio. Your ticket includes admission to four other museums in Springfield.

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    Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

    Co-founded by the author and illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this superb museum celebrates book illustrations from around the world with rotating exhibits in three galleries, as well as a permanent collection. All visitors (grown-ups included) are encouraged to express their own artistic sentiments in the hands-on art studio.

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    West Cemetery

    For a peek at Amherst's colorful past, make your way to the West Cemetery, between Triangle St and N Pleasant St. Here you'll find the graves of Amherst's notables, including Emily Dickinson. To spot her stone, follow the main paved path to the southern end of the cemetery; the Dickinson family plot borders the left side of the path.

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    Mount Holyoke College

    The nation's oldest women's college, founded in 1837, is in the center of South Hadley, the southernmost and sleepiest of the Five College towns. The great American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted laid out the center of the park-like 800-acre campus and it is often listed as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country. Bucolic and small, Mount Holyoke College has an enrollment of just 2200 students.

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    Leverett Peace Pagoda

    The world can always do with a little more peace. A group of monks, nuns and volunteers are doing their part in an unexpected spot in the woods near the pea-sized town of Leverett. Run by the non-proselytizing Nipponzan Myohoji sect of Buddhism, the Leverett Peace Pagoda was the first in the Western Hemisphere. The centerpiece is a stupa, a 100ft-tall white bell-shaped monument to Buddha – meant to be circumambulated, not entered. Nearby, prayer flags wave above a frog-filled pond.

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    Glacial Potholes

    Stones trapped swirling in the roiling Deerfield River have been grinding into the rock bed at this location ever since the ice age. The result: 50 near-perfect circles in the riverbed, including the largest known glacial pothole (39ft diameter) in the world.