A few weekends ago, Patrick and I drove out to the Catskill mountains area and spent some time exploring Woodstock, NY. We had so much fun spending time in a new place, hiking to incredible views, and enjoying some good food. We found an airbnb in Cornwallville, NY which was about 45 minutes outside of Woodstock. Here’s an overview of what we did and some tips if you plan to visit too.

To Do:

• Explore the downtown area. Woodstock is so vibrant and welcoming, it was so much fun to walk around downtown checking out various shops and restaurants. Some of our favorite places we stopped at:
  • Bread Alone Bakery
  • Catskill Mountain Pizza
  • Candlestock
  • Mirabai Bookstore
  • Any shops along Tinker Street
• Go on hikes! We attempted these nearby hikes:
  • Kaaterskill Falls (parking at the laurel house road area). We unfortunately weren’t able to hike this trail because it was so crowded when we attempted to go! We drove around the parking lot for 30+ minutes trying to find a spot and were unsuccessful. I’d recommend getting here early if you plan to hike this trail especially on the weekend!
  • Overlook Mountain. This was an amazing and challenging hike just outside of the downtown area of Woodstock. This trail is an out and back style, 4.6 miles roundtrip. It’s also mostly all up hill on the way so be prepared for a steep and challenging push to the top of the mountain. The view at the top is very rewarding though!
  • Both of these trails were dog friendly which was a plus too :)
• Drive around to nearby towns within the Catskills. The Catskill mountain area is so large but Woodstock is close to a lot of neat nearby areas like Catskill, Hudson, and Saugerties. We didn’t have time to spend time in other areas but I’d love to in the future!

Tips

• Arrive to trails early! Learn from our mistake and get to trails early to beat crowds, especially on the weekend.
• Find a place to stay that’s central to the area you want to explore. I never realized how big the catskill region is!
• Many roads within this region are curvy and “back road” type of style. It took a little longer to get to places because of this.