Ever since Baby and Johnny had the time of their lives at Kellerman’s, I’ve harboured a long-standing longing to visit upstate NY, specifically the Catskills. Steeped in the woodlands well outside the big city, 230 acres of forest, grazing goats, meadowed trails, and a harmonious intertwine of history and homeland for healing and rest, resides Hemlock Neversink. A curious name for a glorious hermitage.
Maybe it all began with the mountain air, and its magnetic lure for those exhausted by the exhaust-tinged inhales of the urban jungle. Come the 1970’s, The New Age Health Spa, precursor to Hemlock Neversink, established itself as a prime draw for city denizens pursuing holistic healing. Preserved and enhanced, today it serves the same purpose and populous, with a modern slant to accommodate even the savviest of serenity seekers.
We have a strong perspective, but are not prescriptive, co-founder Sims Foster walks his talk throughout this 100-year-old campus. How this is experienced is most decadently, up to you. The choose-your-own-adventure approach is a dapple of dopamine, the kind that ignites when curiosity meets capability. Workshops, activities, hikes, saunas, steams, sundecks, mountain biking, snow shoeing, birding, tennis; all is included. On any given day, a generous spread of offerings abound, from honey tasting to Vinyasa flow, a candle workshop to soap making (yes please, to both), a goat hike (every morning at 10am, goats are going with or without you), pastel portrait drawing, flow and let go yoga, or round the night out with an 8:30pm sip and swim. No prescription. Just providing.
Indoors, your welcome begins at Reception, where multiple fireside alcoves (one new, one upwards of one hundred years old) beckon you to breathe deeply and slow everything down a little. The in-house, plant-forward restaurant Bittersweet lives here, more on that in a bit. There is a building dedicated to movement, a stunning wooden alcove where wellness through fitness can be explored via various classes, offered at different levels and comforts. A dedicated activity building, where exploration through the arts is offered with clay, knitting, needlepoint, painting, and other craft-centric modalities of self-discovery, literally all night, for whenever the creative muse beckons. Next to the sundeck, a pool, for aqua classes or just a little daytime dunk. The gym, with its Scandi modern equipment and low-tech mindful atmosphere, is available to you for self-guided work or group sweat sessions.
The meadowlands are a meditation unto themselves. Wildflowers of Queen Anne’s Lace, flowering thyme, mint. Wild blackberries and blueberry bushes beneath trees so heavy with apples (the goats love ‘em). We were just a few weeks early for fall to flaunt its color kaleidoscope, but some of the leaves were prodigiously previewing what was to come. I genuinely cannot fathom a season I wouldn’t want to spend here. Nature takes the lead and we are here to relish its bounty.
The art spaces are creative sanctuaries, so welcoming and stocked, and an entire relaxation room, cushioned loungers facing the trees, carafes of colored pencils and coloring books. Granola to graze upon, lemon water to quench. There are giant jars of fresh lavender, cedar, clove, so you can create bespoke sachets. And trail mix is bagged for your snacking pleasure.
And the spa. Behold, the epicenter of recalibration and calm. A multi-sensory steam room and a detoxing sauna that looks like it’s built of Lincoln Logs. Apres treatment loungers that let you linger while gazing at the Catskills. And the treatments. It’s no wonder this tapestry of healing has held court for over half a century. My sleep-challenged friends? There is a Grounding Deep Slumber Massage.
With warm, earthy furnishings sourced from Portugal, the Quaker-style rooms featuring Shaker handcrafted wooden pieces are designed for practicality and rest. Bellino linens and Matouk bathrobes all but guarantee it.
Dining at Bittersweet is elite-level nourishment, with daily provisions spanning from sunchoke soup to ricotta dumplings. One night I began with labne and grilled peaches, tarragon salsa verde, Hemlock honey, almonds and grilled pita. Another night, grilled broccolini. The salmon pave with smoked trout roe is excellent, as were the ricotta dumplings. The rice pudding was my favorite, colorfully doused with Chantilly cream, orange and cardamom, pistachios and a blackberry drizzle.
Hemlock Neversink quietly abides by an anthem of activity pillars. Connect. Heal. Nourish. Move. And Grow. By the time you leave, you will have experienced the gamut. Connection, fostered through an environment that generates engagement, with nature, with animals, with others. Healing, be it a meander through ancient woodlands or a deep tissue treatment, healing is the soul of Hemlock. Mindful consumption nourishes at Bittersweet, where the relationship between what we feed ourselves and how we feel, frankly, feels less complicated. Moving becomes a personal choice and growing, well, it’s a bit of an inevitability, given the breadth of experience to be had here.
This newest unveiling from Foster Supply Hospitality, open just under two years, is the antidote to urban mayhem and the answer to why grown-ups should always make space for mental and physical breath. A mission-driven passion project welcoming the wellness curious, the solo traveler, the weekend recoup, the wedding party, the corporate bond; it is a retreat, a reboot, and a recalibration ready to restore. A Conde Nast favorite and a Sullivan Country secret that won’t be one for long, head upstate to where the streams cross the trails, the deer and goats roam, and enjoy a retreat of the most rejuvenating kind.
Helmock Neversink
email: stay@hemlockneversink.com
address: 7491 State Rte 55, Neversink, NY 12765
phone: 845-985-1183
text: 845-715-1071
