NY Waterway's Shades of Autumn cruises are set to sail the Hudson River again this fall, with a schedule running October 10 through November 1, 2026, and tickets that have a track record of selling out early. The seasonal cruises depart from the Midtown Ferry Terminal at West 39th Street in Manhattan and offer riders a floating view of the region's changing leaves alongside a string of historic riverfront landmarks.
According to PIX11, NY Waterway released the schedule for two tour options this year: a two-hour cruise and a four-hour cruise, both running on weekends. The two-hour tour operates Saturdays, departing around 3 p.m. and stopping at Port Imperial in Weehawken before heading toward Irvington, New York. The longer, four-hour tour runs both Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 10 a.m. and also stopping in Weehawken before continuing on toward Croton Point.
Both itineraries pass some of the same signature sights along the river, including Grant's Tomb, The Cloisters, the George Washington Bridge, the Palisades, and Washington Irving's home, per the outlet's report. The four-hour version adds a longer run north, taking in the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse, Hook Mountain State Park, and the Tappan Zee Bridge.
What Riders See Along the Way
The Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse featured on the four-hour route has its own recent restoration story. Also known as the Tarrytown Light, the 1883 cast-iron structure operated for 78 years before it was rendered obsolete by the original Tappan Zee Bridge, and it reopened in May 2024 after a $3.4 million interior and exterior restoration funded by Westchester County, according to Scenic Hudson.
The Palisades cliffs that both tours pass carry their own preservation history. The cliffs rise up to 500 feet and stretch roughly 40 miles along the lower Hudson, and they were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1983 after multi-state conservation efforts created the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in 1900 to halt quarrying that once threatened to destroy them, per The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Near the two-hour tour's turnaround point in Irvington sits Sunnyside, Washington Irving's historic estate, whose surrounding landscape helped shape early American Romantic landscape art and folklore, according to American Cruise Lines.
Pricing, Onboard Amenities, and Booking Details
Ticket prices differ by tour length. The two-hour cruise costs $70 for adults and $45 for children, while the four-hour cruise runs $90 for adults and $55 for children, PIX11's report notes. Children under age four ride free on either tour.
Passengers can move between the open upper level and the lower level, which offers indoor viewing of the sights, and a tour guide provides historical information and regional stories throughout the journey. Onboard, the ferry offers hot cider, coffee, tea, sodas, cocktails, donuts, sandwiches, and wraps for purchase. The outlet's report also flags that Shades of Autumn tours tend to sell out early, a pattern prospective passengers may want to plan around.
Group bookings of 20 or more passengers qualify for a 10% discount on the cruises this year, which also include free multi-route shuttle bus connections to and from the Midtown West 39th Street terminal, according to the Paramus Post.
Why Foliage Tourism Matters to the Region
The return of these cruises lands during a season that carries real financial weight for the Hudson Valley. Direct visitor spending in the Hudson Valley reached $5.0 billion in 2023 and was estimated to grow to $5.45 billion in 2024, with non-resident foliage and leisure travelers providing more than half of autumn dining and retail revenue in key riverfront counties, according to Chronogram Magazine. Statewide, New York generated a record $137 billion in total economic impact and $88 billion in direct visitor spending across 306.3 million travelers in 2023, with the fall foliage season serving as a primary driver of that activity, per the New York State Governor's Office.
Sightseers looking to time their trips can also lean on the state's own tracking system. I LOVE NY, the state's official tourism agency, publishes weekly fall foliage reports every Wednesday starting in mid-September, drawing on a network of field spotters to monitor leaf conditions across the state's 11 regional travel zones through November.
A Fleet With a Long Harbor History
NY Waterway, the company running the cruises, has deep roots in the region beyond seasonal sightseeing. Founded in 1986 by Arthur E. Imperatore Sr., the operator runs the largest privately owned commuter ferry fleet in the U.S. and famously evacuated 160,000 people from Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, as well as 143 passengers during the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson” plane landing, according to Patch. In July 2023, the company christened the Arthur E. Imperatore, one of the largest and most modern commuter ferries in the NY-NJ Harbor, named for the founder who died in 2020 at age 95.
Shades of Autumn is one of several fall foliage boat options competing for Hudson River sightseers this season. Circle Line runs 40-mile Oktoberfest-themed cruises to Hook Mountain starting around $64, while Classic Harbor Line offers 2.5-to-3.5-hour yacht cruises starting at $84, according to Secret NYC. For riders drawn to a longer, more historically framed itinerary along a working commuter fleet's route, NY Waterway's cruises remain among the more established options on the river this fall.
