This story is part of the Great Bagel Boom, a Bon Appétit series celebrating the vast creative expanses of bagel culture across America—because yes, you can find truly wonderful bagels outside of New York now.
What’s Your Upstate New York Style?
10.08.2023 - 22:55 / forbes.com / Art Center
When Billy Joel sang about a “New York State of Mind” he was talking about going home to the Big Apple.
But the rest of New York offers a totally different state of mind, especially the vibes exuded by those Upstate vacation destinations – the Catskills and Adirondacks.
Despite their shared history — both highland areas are “blue line” reserves established in the 1880s to protect New York City’s water supply and make sure that New Yorkers would have spaces that remained forever wild — there are distinct differences.
Which one of them matches your outdoor adventure style?
Just a two-hour drive from Midtown Manhattan and a little more than three hours from Philadelphia, the Catskills are an easy drive for more than 26 million people.
Modest hotels began to sprout in the 1890s, but local tourism didn’t reach fever pitch until the 1920s with the celebrated Borscht Belt and resorts that lured Jewish vacationers.
As portrayed in Dirty Dancing and other films, the Borscht Belt was renowned for outdoor fun, youthful romance and stand-up comedy. Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield and Mel Brooks were among the headliners.
By the 1960s, the Catskills summer holiday scene was in steep decline. Just in time for the psychedelic Sixties to roll around.
The Woodstock Music Festival in the summer of 1969 elevated the region back the forefront of American pop culture, a status that endures today via a steady stream of concerts in the Catskills.
History’s all-time greatest music fest famously didn’t take place in the town of Woodstock — which didn’t have a venue that could accommodate half a million people — but 60 miles away on Max Yasgur’s Farm in Bethel.
And Bethel is where the legend endures at the Funky Museum of the Woods and the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on a bluff overlooking the original festival site.
Their amphitheater hosts a year-round slate of music acts, with Rod Stewart, Shania Twain, James Taylor, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss among those who took the stage in the summer of 2023.
Smaller musical venues are scattered throughout the Catskills, including live tunes in a historic 1850’s church at the West Kortright Centre in East Meredith, the Coffeehouse Concert series at the Walton Theatre in Walton, and live Broadway tunes at Forestburgh Under the Stars.
When you’re not rocking out, the Catskills offer plenty of other ways to get your adrenaline pumping, from mountain biking Pearson Park or the Huckleberry Trail to fly fishing around Roscoe (“Trout Town USA”), rock climbing the Gunks, or hiking part of the 357-mile (575 km) Long Path Trail.
You can also get quite a workout exploring all 500 acres of the Storm King Art Center, one of the world’s largest outdoor sculpture museums and home to
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