New Yorkers have been a driving force behind the rise in popularity of rustic hotels located outside of the city during the past few years. One of our travel editors visits the Catskill Mountains in order to investigate a posh new establishment there.
Before I went to Wildflower Farms, which is a new resort in the Catskill Mountains, I had never seen more than one American kestrel in my entire life. Two years ago, I was traveling through upstate New York when I saw a bird perched on top of a fence post. I slammed on the brakes to get a better look at it, but before I could, the bird took off from its perch and disappeared. However, on the first morning that I spent at Wildflower Farms, I saw the smallest raptor in North America perched on a pole that was only around 30 feet away from the main building. It remained motionless for a sufficient amount of time for me to take a good look at it through my binoculars, as if it had been placed there by the guest services department. In the later part of that day, I saw a bald eagle and one of its kids fly out of their nest high in a tree perhaps close to cabin No. 32.
This Auberge Resorts Collection facility opened in Gardiner this fall and was just selected to Travel & Leisure's 2023 It List. Phenomenal birdlife is just one of the numerous everyday majesties that can be found at this Auberge Resorts Collection property. Its sixty-five cottages and cabins are built in a circle around the great main building, which houses the restaurant Clay, the poolside Dew Bar, and an open-air venue known as the Great Porch, in addition to a shop, a spa, and an event space. Everything looks out onto a wide open plain that slopes gently like a carpet up to the jagged granite ridge of the "Gunks," which is another name for the Shawangunk Mountains. As it winds its way around the eastern border of the property, a stream provides a soothing background noise. (At first, I was curious as to whether or not I could make out the sound of...traffic? It was nothing except the wind and the water, though.)
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"As people spend more time with screens, it's valuable for us to be in nature," said resort owner Phillip Rapoport, who lives in Gardiner with his wife, Kristin, and their young son, and who frequently hikes and climbs in the neighboring Mo honk Preserve. The couple invested seven years into the development of the property, working closely with the architects from Electric Bowery in California and the designers from Ward & Gray in New York to achieve the ideal balance of uncluttered modernism and well-upholstered homeyness. "We wanted to give the interiors the same feeling as our own home," Kristin explained. "We wanted to give the interiors the same feeling as our own home."
The end product is a picture of life in the Catskills' rural areas that has been seen through the prism of luxury. I had the option of getting up early so that I could provide food for the birds and collect eggs for breakfast. Baking bread, preparing botanical cocktails, or decorating ceramics with dried flowers are all activities that I could try my hand at. I attended a lesson on pickling, where I worked with six other participants to rapidly massage salt into red cabbage, beets, and chard in order to turn them into sauerkraut. It was enjoyable fun, although a messy one.
I went to one of the daily sessions that was hosted by a farm manager so that I could gain a glimpse into the country roots of Wildflower. The manager explained how the team collaborates closely with the kitchen at Clay to choose what to plant and when to grow it depending on the preferences of the chef as well as the constraints imposed by the terrain and the weather. I discovered that beets perform exceptionally well, whilst carrots produce results that are less than ideal. However, the farm is a dynamic business venture. The objective is to expand the existing two and a half to four acres of vegetable production, which currently consists of 150 plant beds and three greenhouses, and then to add pigs and cows, all of which will be used in the restaurant.
You might not be interested in farming, and despite the fact that I'm not qualified to pass judgment, I had the impression that many of my fellow guests didn't come to learn about beets so much as they came to eat them. If this is the case, there is a lot to look forward to at Clay, where head chef Rob Lawson prepares exquisite farm-to-fork delicacies such as celery root with dates and truffles. Collaborations in the kitchen are also conducted with renowned chefs from other establishments, such as New York City's Gramercy Tavern's Michael Anthony. In addition, the downstairs cocktail bar known as the Green Room welcomes regional brewers and distillers to bring their bottles to accompany the monthly jam sessions hosted by local musicians.
During my stay, it seemed as though folks were congregating at Clay for the most of the day. But the resort also makes it quite simple to disconnect from the outside world: I could laze by the zellige-tiled saltwater pool at the spa, snuggle up in my cabin next to the wood-burning fireplace, or sit around a firepit with a cocktail while the birds went quiet and the profound country darkness settled. All of these options are available at the resort.
Since time immemorial, residents of New York City have been drawn to the Catskills and Hudson Valley region by the kind of refined tranquility that can be found there. However, the allure of the state's interior has never been stronger than it is right now. I made many trips to the area over the course of many years before settling on the decision to buy a home there seven years ago. During the epidemic, I watched what had been a slow flow of urbanites become a flood of them. A record number of homes were purchased at or over their asking price. By 2021, there was a shortage of Airbnbs, while hotels and resorts were experiencing robust growth in revenue. During that time period, a number of brand-new, independently-owned establishments opened their doors throughout the Catskills. Some of them are more like glamping destinations than full-service hotels, and many of them have a Scandi-cabin vibe to them. Some examples of these places are Innes, Piaule Catskill, Hutton Brick Yards, AutoCamp, and Eastward Olivera Valley.
Wildflower is the first foreign luxury hotel operator — Auberge has 25 hotels, ranging from California to Greece — to take the leap in the region, making it stand out from the other entrants in the area. There are suggestions that additional establishments, including as Soho House and Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, as well as André Balazs and Montage, would follow suit.
If the flood has not yet occurred, it is possible that the region is not yet prepared for it, as is the opinion of certain people who work inside the sector. One hotelier, Erik Warner of Eagle Point Hotel Partners, told me that he has been searching at the Catskills for ten years. However, he believes that the region does not quite have the "critical mass" of services and attractions that are necessary to support a world-class hotel scene. As he put it, "You can't go hotel-hopping," and I quote: " Warner noted that a significant number of the newly opened hotels "think they'll succeed just by being there," despite the fact that their owners lack previous experience in the hotel industry.
Phillip Rapoport has a hunch that the rising development in the region will make it more challenging to establish new resorts there. He stated that "trust among locals is extremely important." It is not necessary to have more than one hotel in any of these towns. For the time being, Wildflower Farms has made a significant advance toward the goal of turning upstate New York into a worldwide destination rather than merely a weekend playground for people living in New York City. (Traveler's from Turkey, Singapore, and the Philippines have already checked into the resort.)
After I had paid for my stay, the staff gave me a jar of sauerkraut and a box containing the eggs I had collected, together with detailed instructions on how to care for the sauerkraut so that it may develop into something truly delicious. I was very grateful. The resort has, in a sense, begun a process that is analogous to this one: given sufficient time and careful attention, it, along with tourism throughout the entire region, will unquestionably improve with age.