Everything You Want to Know About Ice Skating at Saratoga Spa State Park

Is it free, are there skate rentals, and will the rinks survive this warm spell? PLUS: Allie B's mac and cheese hits supermarkets, Salt & Char's glow-up, and more.

Skating on one of two ice rinks at the Spa State Park in mid-February.

If you feel like you’re the only one who didn’t know the Saratoga Spa State Park had ice skating rinks, well, you’re not. Like the nearby Victoria Pool, the rinks aren’t advertised all that well, unless you’re one of those people keeping an eagle eye on the Park’s Facebook page. And even if you do follow the Park on social media and saw its posts about the rinks winter year, it’s still not abundantly clear where in the park they are, or how they operate. Add in the fact that the past few winters haven’t been consistently cold enough for great outdoor skating, and it makes sense that lots of locals just discovered the rinks for the first time this winter, one of the most consistently cold ones in recent memory. (Others, obviously, have been in the know for years.)

Now, I must admit, I’m a little late to the game on publishing this story. Probably too late.

But in my defense, just last week I was freezing my fingers off interviewing skaters at the Park. That was back when upstate New York was still a frozen tundra, and Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction of six more weeks of winter seemed spot on. Who was to know that this week, Mother Nature would all of a sudden ease up on the winter weather and subject us to a sloppy, slushy premature spring?

So, bookmark this story for next winter. Because regardless of the current state of the 2025 Spa Park ice rinks, the people of Saratoga have questions, and I have answers: