The Starlite Motel

With road trips and local travel on the rise, the Catskills, with their plentiful supply of mid-century hotels, motels, and resorts, are enjoying a second life. And while plenty of modern-day Catskills hoteliers are embracing the region’s hospitality history, few are quite as unashamedly retro as Kerhonkson’s beautifully restored Starlite Motel.

The exterior color palette, with its pinks, aquas, and mint greens, is straight out of the 1960s, as is the giant MOTEL sign that adorns the rooftop of this low-slung structure. The interiors, however, take things in a more contemporary direction — the Starlite’s proprietors are veterans of New York’s art, fashion, and design worlds, and created their own visual language for the rooms, which feel lighter, brighter, and more polished than the hotel’s mid-century inspiration might suggest.

They’re also more comfortable, with touches like hardwood floors, tiled baths, and pour-over coffee in every room. The Starlite Canteen serves breakfast on the weekends, and drinks every day — this, too, is an upgrade from typical motel fare, with ingredients sourced from local Catskills purveyors. A saltwater swimming pool and a firepit round out the social spaces, and while it’s not exactly Manhattan, the area is well enough supplied with restaurants, and the Starlite’s staff are happy to help.

Smaller hotels like The Starlite Motel fill up quickly. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, contact us and we can help.