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Visiting Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame on a Budget

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Make the Most of your time in Cooperstown

If you love baseball, you've got to make a trip to Cooperstown once in your lifetime. However, taking your family could get costly. I want to share the tips and tricks we used to make this trip down right dirt cheap!

 

Visting the Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball Hall of Fame
We visited the hall in 2006. My son was 9 at the time, and he was in heaven! Unlike most kids, he really gets into the history and the accomplishments of HOF's. However, his 5 year old sister hates baseball. The hall knows this, and they have a great thing for kids.

When you pay for your tickets, you can ask for a SCAVENGER HUNT sheet. The kids will go throughout the museum looking for Cool Papa Bell's sunglasses or Babe Ruth's contract, etc.. Instead of getting the "I'm bored" comment, your kids will have a blast. Once they finish the scavenger hunt, you can turn in your sheet at the gift shop, and they will give your kids a pack of Hall of Fame Baseball cards.

If you click through the web site, you can view what's on each floor. But all the good stuff is on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Some of the things you will see is a wall with a baseball from most every no hitter thrown, a section showing the Negro Leagues, Ty Cobb, Cy Young. You name it. You need to check the web site to see what special events are planned during your planned visit.

Operating Hours

Summer Hours (current)
Daily, 9 AM to 9 PM
From Friday of Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Monday.

Off-Season Hours
Daily, 9 AM to 5 PM
From the day after Labor Day through the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend.

Admission

Adults $14.50
Senior Citizens and members of veterans organizations $9.50
Children (ages 7-12) $5.00
Children (under 7) Free
Retired career military Free
Active military Free
Adult 3-Museum Admission* $29.00
Junior 3-Museum Admission* $12.00
Adult 2-Museum Admission** $20.50
Junior 2-Museum Admission** $8.00

Places to Stay

These are great places to stay that won't break the bank.

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Places to Eat

Get good grub without breaking the bank

The following list of places to eat and not to eat.
  1. Fly Creek Harmony House Cafe
    6208 State Highway 28
    Fly Creek, NY 13337
    607-547-5077

    Located 10 to 15 minutes from Cooperstown, this cafe is the best restaurant in the area. Unlike most other restaurants in the area that just reheat Sam's club food. This place makes everything on their menu from scratch using fresh ingredients. We had both breakfast and lunch items off the menu. Our plates were wiped clean every thing was so yummy.
  2. THE DOUBLEDAY CAFE
    93 Main St
    Cooperstown, NY 13326
    Telephone: 607/547-5468
    Located in downtown Cooperstown, the Doubleday Cafe offers a wide variety of food and drink, offering meals for the entire family. Daily specials!

    Kid Friendly, you can't go wrong with Doubleday's Applebee's like menu. The reasonably priced jalapeño burger was outstanding. One great thing about this place is that it stays open later than most other restaurants. Cooperstown keeps retirement community hours. When it gets dark, it seems like everything shuts down except for Double Café.
  3. Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard
    288 Goose Street
    Fly Creek, NY 13337
    phone: 1-800-505-6455
    http://www.flycreekcidermill.com/

    After you eat at Fly Creek Harmony House Cafe, you can have desert at Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard. The Cider Mill is just around the corner from the Café, and it's a great place to stop and let little kids visit and feed farm animals.

    This is a working mill where you can get some of the best cider I've ever tasted. They give you free samples to get you hooked in buying a gallon. We had their delicious apple pie and doughnuts. If you just want a sandwich to go, Fly Creek Cider Mill has this as well along with soups and pulled pork BBQ.

    One cool aspect about this place is that it is small kid friendly. Farm animals are located around the mill where your kids can pet and feed them. Our 5 year old daughter really liked feeding the ducks and chickens.

    Lastly, they do have a nice gift shop that is geared more to country or Cracker Barrel type gifts. You won't find much baseball type stuff here
  4. The Pepper Mill Restaurant
    5418 State Highway 28
    Cooperstown, New York 13326
    Telephone: 607-547-8550
    http://www.cooperstownpeppermill.com/

    We didn't eat here during our visit. However, all the locals recommended it, and they had a lot of cars outside the restaurant. A lot cars is somewhat positive.

    If you are coming to Cooperstown with a team, you may want to book their private banquet room with seating for 200 people. You could have your award ceremony or just eat together as a team.

Places Not To Eat!!

These places make institutional food look good.

I warned you! Avoid these dumps posing as restaurants.
  1. Triple Play Cafe
    64 Main Street
    Cooperstown, NY 13820
    Telephone: 607/547-1395

    Avoid this place. Lets begin with that this place shouldn't be in business. The food was not fresh. It had been either under the heat lamp too long or it just tasted bad. The owners of this place definitely don't know how to eat. It's institutional food that is poorly doctored. Do yourself a favor and eat at the Doubleday cafe.
  2. T.J.'s Place / The Home Plate
    124 Main Street
    Cooperstown, NY 13326
    (800) 860-5670
    (607) 547-4040
    (607) 547-4042 (fax)
    http://www.tjs-place.com/
    We visited this restaurant in early June last year. I'll be honest with you, we didn't eat at this joint. However, we sat down to be served, and it took forever to get someone to come to our table with hardly anyone in the restaurant!

    The straw that broke the camels back was the fact that they charged $1.00 for tap water. Now when you are traveling with kids, one of the ways to cut cost is to order water instead of a soda.

    Since we didn't get any service and they charged for water, we left and went to Fly Creek Harmony House Cafe.

    If you have had a different experience, please post your comments. If I get enough positive comments, I will put TJ's on the places to eat list.

Cool Baseball Books

My son is a baseball nut, and he devours the Dan Gutman baseball series. If you want to get your son to read, get him these books.
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  • coop local May 5, 2012 @ 1:54 pm | delete
    Hey folks, as a local I just wanted to update a few things. The best place to eat in town is the Lakefront Hotel and Restaurant. Great place to sit outside in summertime. Not the best kid friendly place but not bad either. We would not set foot into the peppermill so if that tells you anything. The Harmony House has changed hands but it looks to be a positive channge and we enjoyed our first visit and assume that it will continue to get better. You are spot on with Triple Play Cafe and T.J.s. We don't go there. Sal's and New York Pizzeria are both kid friendly and great pizza. Some new places have come up and hopefully will do okay. Back Alley Grill has had very bad service both times we have been there and alcohol is overpriced. Boca started great and is hit and miss. Redneck Barbecue is good but not great, still holding out that they will get better with time. Avoid Portobellos in Fly Creek as it is way overpriced for everything. Go acroos the street to The Stockyard (formally Harmony house) The Hawkeye grill at the Otesaga is a little expensive during summer but is the place to eat in the winter. Lastly Cooley's Stonehouse Tavern has okay pub food, but the menu never changes. Good for wings and apps along with a beer. Happy Eating everyone hope you enjoy the visit.
  • OhMe May 11, 2011 @ 3:30 pm | delete
    Great information on Visiting Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Lensrolled to my Baseball Card Adventures Series by Dan Gutman.
  • PitTip Aug 10, 2009 @ 8:40 pm | delete
    Glad you liked the lens. When we were planning to visit Cooperstown, I searched everywhere for places to eat, stay, etc...., but there was nothing on the web to help folks traveling to Cooperstown for the first time. Thus, I decided to make this lens. Please spread the word. Also, when you get back, please email me back what you would recommend when visiting Cooperstown.[in reply to Robyn]
  • lefty78 Jun 4, 2009 @ 11:45 pm | delete
    Great lens, love Cooperstown...check out my group Total Baseball
  • Robyn Mar 14, 2009 @ 11:25 pm | delete
    Love this lens! I am going to Cooperstown in June of this year! Can't wait. Thanks for the great tips.
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