Still beleaguered by government restrictions and safety concerns, embarking on far-flung travels in the COVID-19 era has been a fantasy for most. Instead, many are jumping in their car to take a vacation. The good news for cooped up New Yorkers craving a spell of fresh air: a new crop of laidback hotels have opened in the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and the Finger Lakes, with plenty more in the pipeline for 2021.

Later this year, developer Steve Gold will unveil the Samuel Amoia-designed Aurum in Mount Tremper, complete with mountain bungalows and a 6,000-square-foot centerpiece Roman hammam. Significant growth is also expected in Sullivan County—100 miles northwest of the city. Here, Catskills hitmaker Foster Supply Hospitality is planning to introduce its first true wellness retreat in Neversink, and in Bethel, the Chatwal Lodge will debut in the spring as the second bucolic outpost of Dream Hotel Group’s New York flagship the Chatwal, a Luxury Collection Hotel. Located at the Chapin Estate, a gated residential community founded by Steve Dubrovsky, the lodge will telegraph the Adirondack Great Camps of the Gilded Age—the specialty of Dubrovsky’s construction company—combining a treehouse, tent, and suites. Meanwhile, the Bradstan Boutique Hotel at the Eldred Preserve will sport a more contemporary look courtesy of Cooper Carry, while Callicoon Hills in the hamlet of Callicoon Center will evoke the area’s former life as the resort-laden Borscht Belt.

Until then, these five hotels in Upstate New York marry style with scenic beauty, providing a welcome dose of escapism close to home.

Urban Cowboy Lodge Catskills

 

First came the funky Brooklyn B&B (now shuttered except for the annex reserved for photoshoots), then the Victorian mansion-turned-suites in East Nashville. The latest incarnation of the Urban Cowboy brand, founded by couple Lyon Porter and Jersey Banks, is Urban Cowboy Lodge Catskills in Big Indian—the overhaul of a late 19th-century inn. Developed in partnership with owner Phil Hospod of Dovetail & Co., it is romantic yet playful, devoid of cell phone service and bedecked with antiques, midcentury furniture, and antler light fixtures. “I lived in the Adirondacks for a summer and fell in love with the lodges and old camps of that region,” recalls Porter. “It was baffling that there wasn’t a true lodge in the Catskills, so I created an Adirondack-inspired one with as much wood, horns, and hunter green as I could find.”

Porter’s maximalist flair is illuminated in the custom Printsburgh wallpapers that envelop the rooms along with Pendleton woolen blankets. “I overlaid patterns on patterns and mixed hand-bent twig work to create my dream lodge,” he explains. An imposing hearth crafted from river stones found on the 68-acre property, for instance, is flanked by red cedar trees, rebuilt in Adirondack fashion by local artist Judd Weisburg. Rick Pratt, a prominent maker of twig furniture, then “twisted black willow all over the bar and penthouse headboard. It tied the entire project together,” says Porter. The area, he adds, is magical “with bears, fly fishing, hiking, and fresh air. We wanted to create a place for our community to escape the city, commune with nature, and sit by a fire looking at the stars.”

Lake House on Canandaigua

 

Bill Caleo and his sister Lyndsay Caleo Karol, founders of the design house Brooklyn Home Company, spent their childhood summers on Lake Canandaigua in New York’s Finger Lakes. Fittingly, their first hospitality project, a collaboration with Brooklyn-based Post Company (formerly Studio Tack), is a complete transformation of their family’s lakeside motor lodge. The Lake House on Canandaigua, as it’s now called, is “a story of an ongoing and multigenerational commitment to a place,” says Post Company cofounder Ruben Caldwell.

Impressed by the ambiance of the studio’s Scribner’s Catskill Lodge in Hunter, New York, the Caleo siblings sought out the firm, which worked with Rochester- and Syracuse-based architects SWBR on the site’s planning, landscaping, massing, and finishes. While Lyndsay designed the furniture, some of which is based on childhood memories, her husband and frequent design partner Fitzhugh Karol lent his savvy to features including the lobby’s chandelier. “Once [guests] walk through the light-filled double-height lobby, they realize the full beauty and serenity of the lake’s atmosphere,” says Bill, noting that the majority of the 125 guestrooms at the geothermal-powered property offer water views. “Clean white lines on the exterior carry through inside, while natural wood in soft stains are balanced by dark navy, gray, and gold.”

Reinforcing this waterfront narrative are shiplap walls, exposed beams, and nautical artworks. In the Sand Bar, a restored Peterborough wooden motorboat is one of the hotel’s highlights. Overall, there is a synergy “between presence and absence,” says Caldwell. “The library is intensely saturated, a moody contemplative space, while the guestrooms suggest a sense of calm.”

Hotel Kinsley

 

Earlier this year, 41 Pearl Street, one of four distinctive Uptown Kingston landmark buildings comprising Hotel Kinsley, began welcoming guests into a late 18th-century Georgian stone structure flaunting Delft tiles, numerous fireplaces, cantilevered side tables, and custom white oak platform beds accented with wool felt-upholstered headboards. It follows 301 Wall Street, a former 19th-century bank that fuses its regal original details with midcentury vibes. “We were responding to the architecture of each space, while also being mindful that Kingston is very much a vibrant city,” says Robert McKinley, whose eponymous Manhattan studio collaborated with the hotel’s partners, developer Charles Blaichman and restaurateur Taavo Somer of the Lower East Side alleyway hangout Freemans.

Contemporary artwork, including a cheerful mural by Brooklyn artist Happy Menocal that complements the airy, book-adorned restaurant, underscores the designer’s urbane vision. “Hotels in the area can feel like a hunting lodge or a log cabin. We decided to move away from those palettes,” McKinley explains. Instead, hand-oiled oak, unlacquered brass, waxed canvas, and mohair velvet seamlessly mingle with custom and vintage furniture. Such retro pieces “create touchstones to the past and help fill the space with a certain soul that feels established,” he continues. Next up are 270 Fair Street, which traces back to the 1870s and features an outdoor deck and retail space in a former Singer sewing machine repair shop, as well as the 17th-century 24 John Street cottage with stained glass and scalloped shingles. Both, McKinley points out, “have a Bohemian feel and texture.”

Hutton Brickyards

 

Upstate New York had piqued the interest of Salt Hotels founders David Bowd and Kevin O’Shea for quite some time. “We have always loved the region, and it’s a great contrast to our seaside locations,” says O’Shea, the company’s chief creative officer. Come April, that will manifest in the Hutton Brickyards, a historic industrial site and concert venue in Kingston reimagined as a hotel with a riverfront spa and 31 cabins and suites.

Joining Bowd and O’Shea’s properties in Provincetown, Massachusetts and Asbury Park, New Jersey, Hutton Brickyards, complete with an apiary, archery range, croquet lawn, and firepits strewn across its sprawling grounds, will have the carefree air of a summer camp. “We were guided by design principles from the Shaker aesthetic, keeping lines clean and ornamentation to a minimum, which allows for the breathtaking natural surroundings to take centerstage,” says O’Shea.

As a nod to its heritage, bricks fill the custom-built Gabion metal cages that are used as fence posts, the bases for directory signage, retaining walls, and dividers and fireplace surrounds in the outdoor pavilion. Housed in an old factory building anchored by a showpiece wood-burning oven, this covered, open-air restaurant, bar, and lounge is mere steps from the river. “Nowhere else can you dine this close to the Hudson,” adds O’Shea.

Kenoza Hall

 

Kenoza Hall, the newest addition to Foster Supply Hospitality’s growing portfolio, was built in Kenoza Lake in the late 19th century as the Armbrust House. To revive that Victorian legacy, company cofounder Kirsten Harlow Foster nodded to the era by incorporating the likes of clawfoot sleigh beds and ornamental bird cages. “The materials had to honor the stateliness that comes to mind when I think of Victorian design: rich and luxurious velvets and fabrics, silver trays, gold frames, crystal lights, marble,” she explains.

Yet, Harlow Foster was also careful to ensure the overall feel of the hotel is light and modern. A gray and pink color palette is paired with classic blue and gold tones, while circa-1800s wood-beamed floors with cork and oil paintings, some of which date back to the Hudson River School, juxtapose street art for a modern touch. Wallpaper is another Victorian hallmark, “but instead of the often overbearing wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-ceiling application in traditional homes,” says Harlow Foster, she opted for fun, contemporary patterns that draw from the local landscape and wildlife and grace unexpected places, like the back of a closet, behind a bathtub, or inside one of the writing desks.

Further establishing a connection between Kenoza Hall and its peaceful grounds is the Sebastian Kneipp-influenced Hemlock Spa, as well as the whimsical “Kenoza ‘critters’ that are layered carefully throughout the main building and channel the forests and lakes surrounding our walls,” points out Harlow Foster.

Photos by Ben Fitchett, Chris Mottalini, and Nicole Franzen

This article originally appeared in HD’s February/March 2021 issue.