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Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley

The Berkshires

Few places in America combine culture and country living as deftly as the Berkshire hills, home to world-class music, dance and theater festivals – the likes of Tanglewood and Jacob's Pillow – as well as miles of hiking trails and acres of farmland.

Extending from the highest point in the state – Mt Greylock – southward to the Connecticut state line, the Berkshires have been a summer refuge for more than a century, when the rich and famous arrived to build summer 'cottages' of grand proportions. Many of these mansions survive as inns or performance venues. And still today, on summer weekends when the sidewalks are scorching in Boston and New York, crowds of city dwellers jump in their cars and head for the Berkshire breezes.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout The Berkshires.

  • Museum

    MASS MoCA

    MASS MoCA sprawls over 13 acres of downtown North Adams – one-third of the entire business district. After the Sprague Electric Company closed in 1985, some $31 million was spent to modernize the property into 'the largest gallery in the United States.' The museum encompasses 222,000 sq ft in 25 buildings, including art construction areas, performance centers and 19 galleries. Long-term exhibitions include a gallery of wall paintings by Sol LeWitt. Thought-provoking guided tours run daily at 1pm and 3pm.

  • Waterfall

    Bash Bish Falls

    In the very southwest corner of the state, near the New York state line, is Bash Bish Falls, the largest waterfall in Massachusetts. The water feeding the falls runs down a series of gorges before the torrent is sliced in two by a massive boulder perched directly above a pool. There it drops as a picture-perfect double waterfall. These 60ft-high falls are a popular spot for landscape painters to set up their easels.

  • Museum

    Chesterwood

    This pastoral 122-acre plot was 'heaven' to its owner Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), the sculptor best known for his great seated statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. French's public works, mostly monumental, made him a wealthy man. His house and studio are substantially as they were when he lived and worked here, with nearly 500 pieces of sculpture, finished and unfinished, in the barnlike studio. Guided tours run at 11am, noon, 1pm and 2pm.

  • Museum

    Clark Art Institute

    Even if you're not an avid art lover, don't miss this gem, set on 140 gorgeous acres of expansive lawns, flower-filled meadows and rolling hills. The building – with its triple-tiered reflecting pool – is a stunner. The collections are particularly strong in the impressionists, with significant works by Monet, Pissarro and Renoir. Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent represent contemporaneous American painting.

  • Historic Site

    Mount

    Almost 50 years after Nathaniel Hawthorne left his home in Lenox, another writer found inspiration in the Berkshires. Edith Wharton (1862–1937) came to Lenox in 1899 and proceeded to build her palatial estate, the Mount. When not writing, she would entertain literary friends here, including Henry James. Wharton was also a keen horticulturist; many visitors come here just to wander the magnificent formal gardens, which, thanks to a $3 million restoration effort, have regained much of their original grandeur.

  • Museum

    Norman Rockwell Museum

    Born in New York City, Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) sold his first magazine cover illustration to the Saturday Evening Post in 1916. In the following half-century he did another 321 covers for the Post, as well as illustrations for books, posters and many other magazines on his way to becoming the most popular illustrator in US history. This excellent museum has the largest collection of Rockwell's original art, as well as Rockwell's studio, which was moved here from nearby Stockbridge.

  • Museum

    Williams College Museum of Art

    In the center of town is this worthwhile – and free! – art museum. It has a collection of some 15,000 pieces, with substantial works by notables such as Edward Hopper (Morning in a City), Winslow Homer and Grant Wood, to name only a few. The photography collection is also noteworthy. Temporary exhibitions are accompanied by academic talks. To find the museum, look for the huge bronze eyes by Louise Bourgeois, embedded in the front lawn on Main St.

  • Museum

    Hancock Shaker Village

    This evocative museum illustrates the lives of the religious sect that founded the village in 1783. The Shakers believed in communal ownership, the sanctity of work and celibacy, the latter of which proved to be their demise. Known as the City of Peace, the village was occupied by Shakers until 1960. At its peak in 1830, the community numbered some 300 members.

  • House

    Naumkeag

    Designed by the renowned architect Stanford White in 1885, this 44-room Gilded Age 'cottage' was the summer retreat of Joseph Hodges Choate, a former US ambassador to England. The estate retains so much of its original character that you might expect Choate to be sitting at the breakfast table. The influence of his travels abroad are visible not only in the home's rich and eclectic interior but also in the acres of surrounding formal gardens with their fountains, sculpture and themed plantings.