Whenever we visit New York, we like to spend a couple of days chilling out upstate in the Catskills. Just a couple of hours north of the craziness of Manhattan, this beautiful area of mountains, woods and lakes feels like another world away. It’s so peaceful and sparsely populated that you sometimes feel as though you have the whole place to yourself. In recent years, there has been a big increase in restaurants, breweries, and boutique hotels opening up in the area, as many New Yorkers have moved up to the Catskills to escape city life. We recently checked in to Kenoza Hall, one of the latest hotels to open in the area, for a couple of days R&R.
Kenoza Hall opened in 2020 and is run by Foster Supply Hospitality, who have been leading the way for boutique hotels in the Catskills for the past few years – they now have a brilliant collection that includes another of our faves, The DeBruce. Kenoza Hall, a lovely white clapboard mansion sitting on a slope above Kenoza Lake, was previously a private family home and it still feels like you could be in someone’s house, despite the conversion into a 22-room boutique hotel.
We loved the common areas especially – there’s several cosy living areas with comfy chairs, books and a fireplace to relax by. The outside porch and terrace, featuring classic Adirondack chairs and a fire pit, makes for a great place to sit with a drink after dinner too. In the rooms, there’s the same homely feel albeit with a few more modern touches – velvet chairs, old wooden writing desks, and original hardwood flooring, are combined with bright patterned wallpaper, modern white bathtubs, gold drapes, and designer light fixtures to create a chic, cosy space. If you can stretch to it, go for a room with a private balcony overlooking the lake.
Elsewhere on the property, there’s a spa offering massages and treatments as well as daily free classes – we even dragged ourselves up at 8am for a yoga class one morning! In the summer months, there’s an outdoor pool and hot tub too, as well as walking trails around the property and a jetty down on the lake. It’s a beautiful place to watch the sunset.
Kenoza Hall has a very impressive restaurant too. Dinner highlights include the must-order grilled Caesar salad with white anchovy and parmesan; the beef tartare with egg yolk cornichons, shallot, and truffle; the moules frites; and the red wine-marinated Chilean sea bass with bouillabaisse sauce. And every morning you can tuck into eggs, hash browns, fresh juices and granola for breakfast.
We loved Kenoza Hall and we love the Catskills. If you’re planning a trip to the area on your next New York trip (and we really recommend that you do) then check out Kenoza or any of the Foster Supply places, and you’ll be in good hands.
5762 NY-52, Kenoza Lake, NY 12750, United States
kenozahall.com