Urban Cowboy Lodge

"Turns out, gathering around the campfire hasn’t gone the way of the hotel business center—at least not at Urban Cowboy Lodge. Set on a 68-acre tract in the Catskills, with a cluster of wooden buildings that fan out neatly atop a hill, the hotel looks and sometimes feels like a summer camp. It’s an apt comparison when you consider its merrily irreverent staff and adult-friendly, join-if-you-want-to, fine-if-you-don’t approach to programming, which ranges from fireside rounds of reggae bingo in the antler-bedecked common area to morning hikes and piano nights on the baby grand. The ethos extends to the decor, which includes vintage sports equipment bolted to the walls and a riot of Native American–inspired prints that cover everything from the couch cushions to the wallpaper. It’s the first rural foray for founders Lyon Porter and Jersey Banks, who teamed up with hotel developer Phil Hospod of Dovetail + Co. for this venture—and who previously brought country flair and a community ethos with Urban Cowboy locations in Brooklyn and Nashville. But if that tack feels purposefully contrarian in the city, it’s right at home here in the mountains. —Betsy Blumenthal" - Jessica Chapel

"could hardly be a better hiker’s paradise. Set on expansive grounds, choose the inn or one of the freestanding cabins." - Mitchell Friedman

"Urban Cowboy Catskills could hardly be a better hiker’s paradise. Set on expansive grounds, choose the inn or one of the freestanding cabins. Either way, you’ll have access to their restaurant and bar, perfect little swimming hole, and massive clawfoot tubs." - Mitchell Friedman

"At Urban Cowboy, the maximalist patterned wallpaper nearly turns your eyes to kaleidoscopes. But it’s brought back to earth, and to this place, by large picture windows that bring in the forest (obscured only by a sumptuous clawfoot bathtub) and an old-fashioned stove or wooden armchair in the corner of the room." - Mitchell Friedman

"More cowboy than urban, frankly; the first thing that strikes you about Urban Cowboy Catskills is that the rustic vibe, rather than being replaced with hard-edged minimalism or Scandinavian modernism, has been left intact, or even heightened. Sure, it’s a contemporary, carefully curated, and very self-aware sort of rustic, but it’s all the more likeable for it." - Mitchell Friedman