Things to do / Travel Guide
Tired of the standard fare of tourist attractions? Here are some off-the-beaten-path attractions that will surely liven up your visit to the Catskills and Hudson Valley region.
Lazy Meadow
If the thought is proposed to you of a bed and breakfast (B&B), in Mount Tremper, called Lazy Meadow, probably the farthest thing from your mind is the B-52s, the party band from Athens, Georgia. But this B&B is the real deal, a Fifties-derived job created and maintained by Kate Pierson, lead singer of the band that gave us “Love Shack.”, “Private Idaho” and “Rock Lobster”! She's combed through the antique shops in nearby Phoenicia, brought in the designers who gave us the Love Shack video from 1989, and imbibed the whole place with lots of love and care. It's all Fifties retro with a psychedelic touch, but in every cabin. Oh, and the cabins are refurbished Fifties caravans.
Shandaken
Shandaken, pronounced with stress on the middle syllable, is a hopscotch of different cultures and zany attractions. While the town is located in one place on the map, it sometimes refers to all of the small hamlets and communities along and around State Rode 28, from Mt. Tremper to Pine Hill. It thus includes Phoenicia, Shandaken, Oliverea, Big Indian, and others. The main streets of these towns are charming to behold, with small cafés and restaurants, antique shops and boutiques.
Shandaken has more than its share of ashrams and spiritual retreats, and French restaurants. The ashrams were established enough that they were visited in the Sixties by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. You'll find one in Phoenicia, one in Mount Tremper, and one in Big Indian, each focusing on a different path to enlightenment.
The French restaurants were founded by expat chefs from the Old Country searching for a retreat from the city in the 1950s. The restaurants are spread out in the different hamlets, just like the ashrams, and sometimes you make a double take at how French things are. The establishments are rustic, country-style and unpretentious, and personal and pleasant, all to varying degrees.
How about a trip to the world's largest kaleidoscope? Where else would you find that but in Shandaken, smack in the middle of the Catskills. The kaleidoscope is 37 feet tall and was built on a whim from a converted silo. Twenty people can crowd inside at the bottom, and watch 254 hexagonal images dance across a palette that appears to be 50 feet in diameter, in perfect and symmetrical tandem. The venue is open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., every day.
Margaretville
On the westerns side of the region, near Pepacton Reservoir, the town of Margaretville packs a pleasant dose of culture. You can stay at the beautiful Margaretville Mountain Inn, a 19th-century Victorian-style bed and breakfast establishment, and branch out onto nearby Main Street for the town's attractions, including several art galleries and quaint, picturesque covered bridges over the Binnekill, the local stream.
Delaware and Ulster Railroad
Nearby Margaretville is Arkville, a small town from which you can take the Delaware and Ulster Railroad, a scenic express through quaint hamlets, fleshy fields, and looming mountains. It runs alongside State Road 30, and the terminus, where it turns around for the ride back, is Roxbury. From May through October, trains run twice a day, once before noon and once after, each for a bit shy of two hours roundtrip, on Saturday and Sunday.
East Durham
East Durham, a town in the northernmost part of the Catskills and Hudson Valley region, was founded by Irish immigrants in the 1880s as a resort town. Thanks to a second influx of Irish people since the 1970s, East Durham is today a flourishing town devoted to all things from the Emerald Isle. The streets are lined with pubs, and the color green and the emblem of the shamrock are proudly plastered everywhere; “Ireland's 33rd county,” the place is even called. East Durham boasts an Irish Heritage Museum, and several Irish-focused shops.
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