{"id":53632,"date":"2016-07-23T07:03:32","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T11:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/?p=53632"},"modified":"2025-09-02T00:17:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T04:17:49","slug":"summer-catskills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/53632\/summer-catskills\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make the Most of Summer in the Catskills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some destinations feel purely like vacation spots, others feel instinctively like home. The Catskills are a place you can settle into\u00a0and stay\u00a0awhile.\u00a0Pick a couple of towns and really get to know their main streets. Even though you may only have a weekend, make the most of it by lingering over pancakes and coffee talk with the owner\u00a0of a charming cafe, spreading out a picnic on your Kaaterskill Falls<\/a>\u00a0hike, and keeping your eyes wide\u00a0open as you\u00a0speed across a mountain zipline at 60 mph. Take\u00a0it all in. It\u2019s beautiful here.<\/p>\n

Get Outdoors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"windham

People claim the Hudson Valley has all the cultural charm\u00a0while the Catskills are incredibly adventure driven. Half of that is true.\u00a0In summer, ski slopes trade their snow for sand dunes and offer\u00a0mountain biking that is more extreme than your average trail. Windham\u00a0Mountain\u00a0boasts the longest jump on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d prefer to seek thrills\u00a0of a more controlled variety, strap onto a zipline at Hunter Mountain. They have the longest, fastest\u00a0and highest zipline tour in North America, and those descriptors don\u2019t feel\u00a0like exaggerations once you reach the jumping off point. The bird\u2019s eye\u00a0view is once-in-a-lifetime level pretty, and the young local guides make\u00a0you feel like you\u2019re in good hands.<\/p>\n

Eat + Drink<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"The

Make a point to dine at Maggie\u2019s Krooked Cafe & Juice Bar\u00a0in Tannersville. We made the\u00a0seemingly unremarkable choice of\u00a0ordering pancakes one morning, and our lives\u00a0will be forever changed because of it. Maggie\u2019s doesn\u2019t make ordinary\u00a0pancakes\u2014hers include toasted grains and are incredibly textural and\u00a0gorgeous.<\/p>\n

Speaking of good food, the famed\u00a0Phoenicia Diner<\/a>\u00a0in Phoenicia is\u00a0all about cooking farm-to-counter classics with a spin. Their tortilla soup\u00a0is flavorful and their CBLT (crab cake\u00a0with bacon, lettuce and tomato) is phenomenal.\u00a0The whole vibe is transportive in the best kind of\u00a0retro way, and they serve drinks in the evenings.<\/p>\n


\nStay Here<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Suite

The Emerson<\/a>\u00a0in Mount Tremper has\u00a0undergone a recent renovation. Among its many draws (spa, sophisticated\u00a0on-site dining, swimming pool, a little stream running behind the resort), it is home to the world\u2019s largest kaleidoscope. It\u2019s a sprawling property\u00a0that feels both vintage and comfortably modern, with amenities to match.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0you\u2019re looking for something as trendy as your digs back in Brooklyn, book\u00a0a room at the motel turned hotel The Graham & Co<\/a>.<\/a> in Phoenicia, which has a pool, free bikes, and no in-room TVs, because togetherness and nature!<\/p>\n

Insider Tips
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

While you\u2019re in the neighborhood, pass through the town of\u00a0Woodstock for some heavy 60s nostalgia, but more importantly, make your way\u00a0to Bethel Woods<\/a>, the actual site of the\u00a0festival, a fascinating\u00a0museum and a\u00a0performing arts center.\"On

How to Get to the Catskills without a Car<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Take Amtrak or Metro North along the Hudson where you\u00a0can jump off and rent a car or hire a taxi to get to your destination. You\u00a0can also ride the\u00a0Trailways\u00a0or Short Line<\/a>\u00a0bus. If you pick\u00a0one town to spend most of your time in, once you get there, you can\u00a0probably walk or ride a bike. If you\u2019d like to hop from town\u00a0to town, it\u2019s best to rent a hybrid car once you get upstate\u00a0to enjoy as much of the region as possible.<\/p>\n

Photo credits:\u00a0Jim Liestman<\/a>,\u00a0Windham Mountain,\u00a0Hunter Mountain and the author<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some destinations feel purely like vacation spots, others feel instinctively like home. The Catskills are a place you can settle into\u00a0and stay\u00a0awhile.\u00a0Pick a couple of towns and really get to know their main streets. Even though you may only have a weekend, make the most of it by lingering over pancakes and coffee talk with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":53658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[325,757,784,1242,750,817,747,758,787,334,1869,1089,776,791,770,855,790,788,1057,781,778,774,856,847,748,1,751,316,857,802],"tags":[238,116,176,381,293,81,280,120,125,254,130,212,144,299,36,18,20,133,449,282,204,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-53632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"category-activity-2","9":"category-adventure-activity-2","10":"category-air-balloon","11":"category-bike-2","12":"category-biking-adventure-activity-2","13":"category-bus-2","14":"category-cafe-activity-2","15":"category-camping-adventure-activity-2","16":"category-catskills-new-york-destination","17":"category-editors-picks","18":"category-farmers-market-shopping-2","19":"category-farms-food-drink","20":"category-fishing-adventure-activity-2","21":"category-food-drink","22":"category-health-2","23":"category-hiking-adventure-activity-2","24":"category-kayaking-adventure-activity-2","25":"category-museums-culture-2","26":"category-outdoor-dining","27":"category-picnic-food-drink","28":"category-restaurants-food-drink","29":"category-spa-health-2","30":"category-tours-culture-2","31":"category-train-2","32":"category-uncategorized","33":"category-walk","34":"category-weekend-getaways","35":"category-yoga-health-2","36":"category-ziplining","37":"tag-adventure","38":"tag-amtrak","39":"tag-bed-and-breakfast","40":"tag-biking","41":"tag-budget-friendly","42":"tag-concerts","43":"tag-cultural-getaway","44":"tag-family-fun","45":"tag-food","46":"tag-free","47":"tag-green","48":"tag-hiking","49":"tag-hotel","50":"tag-locally-sourced","51":"tag-metro-north","52":"tag-museum","53":"tag-music","54":"tag-outdoors","55":"tag-restaurants","56":"tag-romantic","57":"tag-train","58":"tag-weekend-getaway"},"acf":[],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":53658,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/8959145611_d7f175ca93_k-e1469461489718-350x197.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}