Eastwind Windham

Eastwind Windham is the second property in the small Eastwind portfolio — after the original Oliverea Valley flagship — and it lands the same Scandi-Catskills idea in a different shape. Nineteen rooms, a wood-barrel sauna outside, Lushna A-frame glamping cabins on the lawn, and a main lodge that reads like the work of someone who actually likes mid-century furniture rather than just owning a Pinterest board about it.

The whole place sits in Windham, a Northern Catskills ski town that's quieter than Hunter and less precious than Hudson. Pine and wool, smoked oak, wood stoves, mountain views. It's a hotel built for people who came up here to ski or hike, not to be photographed doing either.

The setting

Windham is on the north end of the Catskill Park, about two and a half hours from Manhattan up the Thruway and across Route 23. The mountain (Windham Mountain Club, recently bought and remade) is a five-minute drive. The village itself is a single Main Street with a few good restaurants, a coffee shop, and the kind of hardware store that still sells real snow shovels.

You're high enough that the air is meaningfully colder than Hudson, twenty miles south. In summer the surrounding state forest — North-South Lake, Kaaterskill Falls, the Escarpment Trail — is the draw. In winter it's the slopes plus the sauna afterwards. Either season, you're spending most of your time outside.

The building

The lodge is a reimagined motor lodge — the bones are mid-century roadside, the renovation is Scandi-mid-century in the Eastwind house style: pine paneling, wool throws, blackened steel, a lot of glass facing the mountains. Public spaces include a lobby bar with a fireplace, a lounge that doubles as the breakfast room, and a back deck that runs along the sauna and fire pit. The Lushna cabins are slim wedge-shaped A-frames, glamping in the literal sense — bed, wood stove, big triangular window — with the bathhouse a short walk away.

The rooms

Nineteen keys total, split between lodge rooms in the main building and the freestanding cabins. Lodge rooms are compact and warm: pine, wool, a king or two queens, decent window views. The Lushna cabins are the picture you've seen of the property — pointy roof, wood stove, bed pointed at the trees. They're not for anyone who wants a soaking tub in the room or to walk to the bathroom in slippers in February. From-rate sits around $245.

Food & drink

There's a small lodge bar and a daily breakfast service for guests; they don't run a destination restaurant. For dinner you'll walk or drive into Windham village — the Hickory or Babbling Brook, a few others — or down to Phoenicia for something more involved. Eastwind isn't pretending the food is the reason you came. The sauna and the mountain are.

On the property

The wood-barrel sauna is the signal item. It's a Finnish-style cedar barrel out behind the lodge, available to guests on a booking system, with a cold rinse at the end if you want it. There's a fire pit, hammocks in summer, snowshoes in winter.

• Wood-barrel outdoor sauna (booked in slots)
• Fire pit and lawn games
• Lushna A-frame cabins as a separate accommodation type
• Hiking trails directly accessible; ski mountain 5 min by car
• Open year-round; ski season is the busiest

Who it's for

• Couples who'd rather hike or ski together than sit at a bar.
• People who already understand what a Finnish sauna is for.
• Manhattan and Brooklyn weekenders who want the Catskills without doing Hudson.
• Anyone whose ideal hotel has a wood stove and bad cell service.

Who it's not for

• Travelers who want a full restaurant program in the building.
• Anyone uncomfortable in a glamping cabin, if that's the room type they end up in.
• Big groups — there are only 19 keys, and the lodge is small.

Nearby

Windham Mountain is five minutes west. Kaaterskill Falls and the Escarpment Trail (some of the most-photographed Catskills landscape, for good reason) are a 20-minute drive south on Route 23A. Hunter Mountain and the Hunter village strip — louder, ski-bro — are 15 minutes east. Phoenicia for dinner is about 45 minutes. Hudson is an hour south if you want a city day.