Eastwind
Windham, Upstate New York
When planning our Upstate New York road trip, I knew I wanted to sneak a few cabin stays in the itinerary, but after hitting the hygge jackpot with June Farms for the first part of our trip, I started to wonder whether we had reached our ‘great cabin’ quota. Thankfully, when we turned right off the highway and drove down the gravel path to Eastwind, I realised that the cabin gods have treated us kindly.
Nestled in the Catskills with sweeping views of Windham Mountain, Eastwind is fairly new to the Upstate scene, with the renovation of the former 1928 inn finished in 2018. It’s compact but the Scandi team behind it have squeezed in a whole lot of cosy; with a main house (complete with an honesty bar, log burning stove, 11 bedrooms and a boot room), another house (with five more bedrooms), a communal fire pit, sauna, hot tub, and a scattering of Lushnas; small wood-and-glass A-frames structures. Whilst the bedrooms in the main house are not to be overlooked (mid-century furniture, hardwood floors, Turkish rugs), the three Lushnas towards the back of the grounds are something special.
There’s a special kind of joy that you can only get from stargazing whilst eating S’mores, and for that I’ll always rave about our Upstate adventure.
A true lesson in hygge, they are simple but offer up everything you could possibly want. They’re small so leave any chunky luggage in the car, but the bed is comfortable, the linens are soft and the view frames the mountain just right. Not to be overlooked, the private bathroom next to our cabin deserves its own special mention - it was bitterly cold outside most nights but the temperature in there never dropped below toasty, and our rain shower came with its own skylight. I wouldn’t have been mad if we had to camp out in there. In short, it’s cabin porn.
Food wise, there’s a communal supper on Saturday (this needs an RSVP) and the honesty bar comes with a bar snack menu (it’s a double yes for the grilled cheese). For something a little more substantial, we headed toChicken Run for comfort food and local charm. As a town, Windham is small and when the local ski slopes are off season, it’s a little sleepy. That said, we weren’t expecting a big nightlife buzz so we were content with grabbing a bottle of red from the local deli and heading back to our Lushna to watch the sun slowly dip behind the mountains.
S’mores are the currency of the Catskills, and with a fire pit within walking distance from our cabin, we couldn’t refuse another round (our first attempt was over at Scribner’s and I learnt the hard way that you shouldn’t put them IN the flames). There’s a special kind of joy that you can only get from stargazing whilst eating S’mores, and for that I’ll always rave about our Upstate adventure. After a nightcap at the honesty bar, we headed back to snooze, and woke up early to pull the canvas blind back so we could catch the sunrise. Post-coffee and shower, we said our goodbyes to Eastwind - and I quietly said a little thank you to the cabin gods once more.
Eastwind Hotel, from £189 ($235)
