Warm Simplicity: Modern Rustic Lodging North of NYC

I am an upstate New York girl, born and bred (the little hamlet of Loudonville, just north of Albany) but funnily enough, I have not explored much of the Hudson Valley and The Catskill Mountains. A recent fantasy of mine is to buy a unique and rustic but charming investment rental property up there catering to New Yorkers wanting to escape the city for long weekends full of outdoor activities: leaf peeping, skiing, hiking, rafting, swimming etc.

I am definitely not the first person to want to capitalize on this idea. The last few years have seen many new chic but cozy lodges, cabins, inns and even motels make their mark up north within 2.5 hours of NYC. Farm to table restaurants and artisanal cocktail bars are also sprouting up, either as part of the lodgings or their own stand alone businesses.

I’ve started a preliminary search for properties in Windham, Hunter, Phoenicia, Tannersville, Mt Tremper, Boiceville, Chichester and Stone Ridge. An adorable A frame on a quiet street in Hunter looked promising. It needed a full gut renovation but that’s part of the fun of the project! It had only been listed for a week and I wanted to see it ASAP so my aunt (who is a Realtor in the area) reached out for more info. She found out the owners had accepted an offer within 5 days of being listed! So apparently, the good ones (even the ones that need a full gut) go FAST.

I will keep you posted on my investment cabin in the woods dream and would love to hear from anyone else who has embarked on this journey. There is so much research involved in terms of location and also a lot of math (cash on cash return, cap rates, airbnb calculators etc) which makes this venture overwhelming, but I feel very passionate that I can make it profitable (and make it gorgeous in a rustic/cozy/chic camping vibes sort of way). Once an upstate girl, always an upstate girl.

In the meantime, if you want to check glamping off your bucket list, or just want to sit by a roaring fire in a leather armchair covered in a sheepskin with a delicious cocktail in your hand, check out these spots below:

Eastwind Hotel & Bar / Windham, NY

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