Hey, look, a museum with fewer crowds. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

After the heat wave, perhaps you’re considering an escape from the city. Here’s a novel option that covers a lot of cultural ground. Curious? Read on.

But first, take our Summer survey! We want to hear what you’re liking and disliking about this newsletter. It’ll take only five minutes.

Now let’s talk day-trip details,

Margot and Max

Your ride is here. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

The Game Plan

To explore the Hudson Valley, it helps to have a car. But to see some of the area’s best art, look no further than public transit — specifically, an adorable green trolley with bells and brass rails.

The Cold Spring Trolley runs between the village of Cold Spring, the hamlet of Garrison and the city of Beacon, and on weekends, for just $2 per trip, the sweet, old-fashioned streetcar make stops at seven of the region’s cultural institutions.

String a few trolley rides together, and voilà, you have an upstate culture crawl.

Our below outlined route will take you to three sites — Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center, Magazzino and Dia:Beacon — but feel free to build your own itinerary (or plan a follow-up trip) to hit other trolley stops, such as the Putnam History Museum in Cold Spring; the Boscobel House and Gardens, a neoclassical mansion from the Federal period, in Garrison; or the Madam Brett Homestead, an 18th-century Dutch-style house, in Beacon.

Getting there

The crawl starts at Grand Central, where you will take an early Metro-North train to Garrison, about an hour and a half ride north on the Hudson line. Give yourself at least 15 minutes to buy your ticket, but allot even more time if you plan to pick up breakfast.

For that, we recommend The Great Northern Food Hall. Its admirably flaky pastries and dense, fragrant Danish rye bread make compact snacks to pack for the day, but most critically, its grain bar serves ollebrod. This is a breakfast porridge of old rye bread crumbs that tastes a million times better than that description sounds. Great Northern’s version is gussied up with vanilla foam, tarragon and nubbins of caramelized rye, a sophisticated start to your day of culture.

Architecture and nature in harmony. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Museum No. 1

From the Garrison station, pick up the trolley to Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center. An industrial designer who devised one of America’s top-selling dinnerware collections to date, Wright rejected the distinction between indoors and out and spent years landscaping this abandoned quarry with outdoor rooms and pristine sight lines. With a reservation, you can tour Wright’s glass house and its grounds, or on your own schedule, you can roam miles of painstakingly planned hiking trails. This guy knew how to live.

Moo Moo's Creamery doesn't skimp on the sprinkles. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Ice cream break

Moo Moo’s Creamery in Cold Spring is a local favorite for the view as much as for the scoops, so take your New England-dense cup of ice cream to the Hudson River waterfront, soak up the sunshine, and breathe in air that doesn’t smell like ripe trash and air-conditioner drippings! Oh, and try the Nilla Nilla Wafer flavor.

Magazzino means "warehouse" in Italian. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Museum No. 2

Next, hop on the trolley to Magazzino, a revamped warehouse in Cold Spring that for the past two years has made a private Italian art collection free and open to the public. Its ongoing exhibition is on Arte Povera, a little-known Italian art movement in the 1960s, during which radical artists shunned the commercial market and created minimalist art using humble materials. These works pack a punch, so be sure to decompress outside with the museum’s resident Sardinian donkeys before you move on to your next stop.

Fuel up before your final stop. Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Beer and soul food break

Draught Industries is one of the many chic bars and restaurants that have remade the city of Beacon in recent years, and it probably wouldn’t look out of place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Its craft beer list, though, is refreshingly Hudson Valley, and the long, slender bar with a dozen-plus tap options will satisfy even jaded beer nerds.

BJ’s is a Beacon restaurant that’s decidedly not Park Slope-y. It’s a soul food joint with a spare interior, greaseless fried whiting and life-affirming pie. The menu options rotate daily, but if you see sweet potato pie (emphasis on the sweet) in the case, order it, even if you’re not immediately hungry. You can and should make a slice your next-day breakfast. Don’t skip the oxtails, either.

Museum No. 3

If you still have energy and haven’t been to Dia, push along to Beacon. In a former Nabisco box-printing plant that’s now one of the country’s most expansive contemporary art spaces, take in large-scale sculptural works, such as Richard Serra’s ellipses; Dan Flavin's fluorescents; and Dorothea Rockburne’s immersive, blindingly white matrix. Then, once you’re tuckered, take a pause in the outdoor garden, flip through an art book in the bookshop, or partake in a well-deserved snack in the cafe. It’s been a big day.

Pro tip: On this day trip, precision is your friend. Bring exact cash for the trolley, enough ones for a handful of $2 trips. And time your travels carefully; some locations get only a few stops per day.

See the museums, restaurants and bars on our Google Map.

3 Quick Things

Something free or cheap

Psst. We’ve got a biking game plan coming up in a few weeks. If your skills could use improvement, take one of the many free workshops on offer from Bike New York. Its 101 course provides bikes and helmets to beginners who register online, and more experienced riders can book programs on street skills, bike maintenance and even local bike laws.

Something for the weeknight

This summer, there’s a massive graffiti and street art exhibition in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, assembling works from dozens of notable artists, including John Ahearn, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tats Cru and Takashi Murakami. "Beyond the Streets" is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday to Sunday, through August 25, so get a ticket for a Thursday after work and discuss your favorite works over dinner afterward.

Something from a reader

Spend a day in Red Hook — again. (Our Summer readers are big fans!) Emilie from Long Island City recommends taking the ferry to get there, “a way more enjoyable transportation option than the G train,” and starting with lunch at Brooklyn Crab, a spot “that will make you feel like you’ve been transported to Montauk.” Afterward, head to Ample Hills’s Red Hook factory for dessert and exploration. Then cap your day off by visiting a distillery (Widow Jane or Van Brunt Stillhouse), a winery (Red Hook W inery) or a brewery (Other Half). “Or just go to all three,” Emilie writes.

Share your favorite seasonal thing to do at summer@nytimes.com, and your idea might be featured in our next newsletter.

Happening This Week (and Beyond)

Tonight: Lalah Hathaway will sing songs by her father, the soul singer Donny Hathaway, outdoors at Lincoln Center.

Tomorrow: Bring your dog to a free screening of “Well Groomed” in Fort Greene Park.

Tomorrow: On the waterfront terrace at Brookfield Place, catch DJ Shub, a Mohawk who’s considered the “Godfather of PowWowStep.”

Friday: Find out which Comedians You Should Know at Littlefield in Gowanus.

Friday: Bop to Cha Wa’s fusion of funk with New Orleans-style brass in Bryant Park.

Saturday: Hit PopRally, a MoMA pop-up at Snug Harbor on Staten Island. There will be music, games and a screening of “Splash,” a 1984 movie about a mermaid in Manhattan.

Saturday: Watch or compete in the Ke Aloha Outrigger, a set of canoe, stand-up paddle and kayak races along the Hudson River that’s accompanied by an Polynesian Ohana festival at Maxwell Place Park in Hoboken.

Saturday: Buy a ticket to this week’s pop-up dinner at the Brownsville Community Culinary Center. Your ticket will benefit the B.C.C.C. and the Melting Pot Foundation.

Sunday: Sample international bites at the Grand Bazaar on the Upper West Side. The weekly market’s profits support four local public schools.

Monday: Watch “Black Panther” for free in Highland Park in Queens.

Any time: Take a walking tour of the spots where unruly, radical and trailblazing women left their marks on New York City — and are still making history today. Our newsletter readers can use the code SUMMERINTHECITY to get a 15 percent discount on tickets.