Wylder Hotel Windham

New York’s Catskill Mountains are increasingly full of hotels of all sorts, but no reconditioned motel or spruced-up summer camp can deliver an experience as fully realized as what’s on offer at Wylder Windham. This stately clapboard inn has stood on this site since 1880, and accumulated a handful of outbuildings along the way; today, after a thorough 21st-century renovation, it’s part boutique hotel, part mountain resort, and a fine introduction to the modern Catskills lifestyle.

The rooms vary a bit in style according to their setting, whether in the Victorian-style main building or the more modern lodges; all share a handsome rustic-elegant aesthetic and comforts that are substantial but always tasteful. Some come with soaking tubs, and the suites add Carrara marble bathrooms. And for larger parties the four-bedroom Farmhouse is available in its entirety.

It’s in the realm of activities that Wylder Windham flexes the most muscle. On site you’ll find a heated pool, a wood-fired sauna, pickleball courts, firepits, and a game room; bikes are available for warm-weather exploration as well. And the surrounding countryside offers no end of adventure, all year round; guests are shuttled to Windham Mountain in a classic emerald-green Land Rover Defender.