We’re looking at hotels up and down the Hudson Valley. Everything is booked or ridiculously priced for a modest hotel. Like, every weekend in fall! Is autumn in the Hudson Valley area such a big deal? I guess it doesn’t help that, shouldered to the west, are the Catskills, huh? Is this typical?
I’m going to guess it’s leaf peeping.
No idea how popular the area typically is, but pent-up demand following the (hopefully) worst of the pandemic has had an impact on other touristy areas, like coastal Maine.
Correct. We have stayed overnight in Western Mass or Eastern New York for the Columbus Day weekend almost every year for twenty years. Last year and this year we just gave up. Even with the staggering growth of Airbnb’s in the area, prices are ridiculously high and availability low.
Well, it’s not that far from New York City. You’ve got Bear Mountain and West Point. They’ve got lot of vinyards there nowadays. There’s ziplining and hiking. And a bunch of historic sites.
Well, this is certainly eye-opening having not travelled in the post-Covid world. This is a lesson learned on booking early for future vacations!
Something else to consider is the continued shortage of labor affecting hotels/motels, restaurants and other attractions.
Long waits and short tempers are why we try to avoid going places at peak times.
I understand that hotel rooms are fairly cheap and available in Dubuque, Iowa. 
Hey, Dubuque offers scenic river bluffs too.
And a riverwalk - just like San Antonio.
In recent years we have vacationed in upstate New York, but not in the Hudson Valley. We were able to stay for reasonable prices in the Thousand Island area and near Plattsburgh. Maybe it’s because they’re further from New York and the whole Boston-Washington megalopolis than the Hudson Valley. Several years ago we stayed near Cooperstown, also inexpensively.
Maybe you just need to get further away from The Big Apple.
Yes, proximity to NYC is a big reason for the popularity of the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Even Lake George and Saratoga Springs, which are 3+ hours away from NYC, can get heavily booked up for leaf-peeping, hiking, apple-picking and countryside views which are unavailable in the city.
This. The fall foliage region goes full on just north of Bear Mt. Every place is booked this time of year, at least on weekends. If you have a car you might find a vacancy within driving distance of the Hudson Valley itself and there’s plenty of foliage to see all around the region. You could even stay anywhere in the NYC metro area and drive north from there to see the sights and attractions.
If there’s anything I miss about NY it’s the abundant fall foliage starting in the foothills where I lived. I live in RI now and this is the lowlands, lots of pine and marshland without much deciduous full growth.
I’ve found booking smaller hotels difficult pretty much everywhere. Whether it’s related to COVID, or short staffing, it seems a lot harder to find a reasonably priced hotel or Airbnb UNLESS you book well in advance, and I mean many months in advance.
Fewer last-minute deals are being advertised than there used to be since hotels don’t have to worry about filling their rooms. It’s too late to book now unless you are willing to pay a premium.
If I were you and wanted to visit the Hudson Valley, I would look at Fall 2023 or 2024, assuming you can reserve a room far in advance.
The short answer is it’s beautiful and has many unique features so close such as the 3 mountain ‘ranges’ and additionally the Ridgeline of the Gunks,
and…
NYC is so close, too close, found out how nice the Hudson Valley is and they are coming out of there like a flock of bats out of Hell. Many having and wielding money far beyond what was generally seen in the Hudson Valley. This is booking up many of the options and up-bidding the price for what is left. Expect even to pay NYC prices at some of the newer restaurants that are in towns/cities have been getting gentrified.
Well, for me the premier attraction is
This diner is in one of the first towns in the Catskills, overpriced and always crowded:
I’ve never eaten there, not wanting to pay $4 for a cup of oatmeal or $13 for a plate of pancakes. And I hear that prices in Hudson and Rhinecliff are worse.
Rhinecliff and nearby Rhinebeck has always been a bit up there but they became popular weekend destinations long before the current wave of city dwellers, and thus sort of spared from much of the current wave who are looking for new grounds upstate, instead of going to known city weekend getaway haunts. Rhinebeck was/is known as the Hampton’s of the north as an upper and upper middle class city dweller’s weekend destination (along with the more famous Long Island’s Hamptons).
Hudson has gotten crazy, though a few local holdouts remain. Like batshit crazy with city weekenders. And it appears like part of this is due to Amtrak, Both Rhinecliff (and thus nearby Rhinebeck), and Hudson has very good train service from NYC, and is just outside the range of Metro North (the commuter rail), though many there drive, and many of them drive Tesla’s.
Catskills have also seen a huge bump in visits, river towns on the west side of the Hudson (in the flatlands) are generally better, and also things get better heading north from Hudson on the east side.
As for the Phoenicia Diner, I ate there a few times in the past, it’s decent and I don’t recall anything bad about their pricing, but I normally hit up Brio’s in the town of Phoenicia when I’m in the area.
Also.
New.
York.
State.
SHEEP
AND
WOOL
2022
That’s literally nearly 20,000 attendees and participants from not only nationwide but worldwide.
Admittedly the Sheep & Wool crowd is descending on Dutchess County the weekend after Columbus Day, but you may find that we they are causing a ripple effect that crowds up the surrounding weekends.
There are some other such attractions such as the Dutches Fair and Columbia County Fair, Hillsdale has had a music fest for decades, and Saugerties has a garlic fest which I hear that garlic ice cream is very good.
Columbia County also has had quite a few good micro-breweries open up and is developing a reputation as a place for that as well.
One other reason that rooms can be hard to find: getaway weddings. I’ve heard of a number of couples from the NYC area who have had weddings in the Hudson Valley and Catskills. Some friends are attending one this weekend in Saugerties and staying at a B&B in the area, which they booked 8 months ahead.