Romantic Lodging in the Catskills: Inns, Cabins, and What Differs

Woodstock, Hunter and the Kingston area have many of the Catskills' boutique inns and design hotels, mostly renovated motels, converted farmhouses and older lodges. Scribner's Catskill Lodge in Hunter is a renovated 1966 lodge with a year-round heated pool, The Woodstock Way Hotel is built around a 15-foot waterfall on Tannery Brook, and Inness in Accord has 28 cabins and a farmhouse on 220 acres.

Village inns in the Catskills usually have bars, restaurants and common areas, so couples can have dinner and a drink without driving. The trade-off is that rooms are often smaller than at similarly priced rural properties, and peak weekends need booking several weeks to months ahead.

Many secluded options are in Sullivan County, around Livingston Manor, Roscoe and the Beaverkill and upper Delaware valleys, where properties tend to have land between the rooms and the road. Beaverkill Valley Inn in Lew Beach, built in 1893 on the Beaverkill, includes a full meal plan, and Antrim Streamside has cabins with screened porches on a quarter mile of private Willowemoc frontage.

Closer to Woodstock and Route 28, properties on a few acres sit between the two: more privacy than a village inn, less driving than Sullivan County. Foxfire Mountain House has 11 rooms and a private cottage on 10 acres, and The Leeway has 9 cabin-style suites on 6 acres along the Esopus Creek.

Catskills prices cover a wide range. Traditional inns and B&Bs around Phoenicia and in the Sullivan County towns are mostly in the $$ band. Design-led inns, renovated motels with pools and properties on larger grounds are mostly $$$, and Inness, Piaule Catskill, Hemlock Neversink and Hutton Brickyards are $$$$.

Price does not track quality closely, and many of the properties couples choose are in the $$$ band. Outside peak summer and foliage weekends, midweek rates are usually well below weekend rates at every level.

Couples' demand in the Catskills peaks three times a year: summer weekends from Memorial Day through Labor Day, fall foliage from mid-September through mid-October, and Valentine's Day weekend. All three need advance booking at popular properties. Easier times to book are late May before Memorial Day, the weeks from mid-October to Thanksgiving, and January outside Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

Winter brings snow on the farms and wood fires, and it suits couples who are not coming to ski. Rooms with fireplaces or outdoor soaking tubs are often booked first in winter, even though overall demand is lower than in summer.