FOUND's 2025 getaways

Best Upstate hotels, The Six Bells, Palm House, Nick & Toni’s, Manoir Hovey, The Weston, best Vermont hotels, MORE

Dec 26, 2025

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ABOUT FOUND • Getaways

FOUND is deeply interested in getaway destinations within driving distance (or a quick flight) of New York City. That means the Hamptons and North Fork, Hudson Valley, the Catskills, Litchfield County, the Jersey Shore, the Berkshires, Vermont, Nantucket, and Maine. What do the regulars eat and drink, where should you stay and shop, and, to take this to its logical end — what about buying a second home of one’s own there?

Beyond the world of weekend escapes, FOUND closely tracks airports, particularly NYC-area airports, and the need-to-know intel that can make or break a trip. From time to time, special correspondents file reports from destinations like the French Riviera and barely touched edges of the Sonoma coast, because there are some experiences that transcend this mortal plane and beg to be shared.

Here, after a word from our sponsor, some of our best Getaways reports from 2025, including a bonus fresh Upstate Hotels Nines (keep scrolling!). As we stow your bag, make yourself comfortable.

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GETAWAYS • Upstate

Far, far away

In June, three years after opening her Cobble Hill homewares store of the same name, Audrey Gelman opened The Six Bells Countryside Inn in Rosendale, New York. At the inn, as at the store, quilts are an art piece, cottage-core is a lifestyle, and (almost) everything can be bought.

Rosendale is a tiny Catskills hamlet filled with the makings of a modest hippy town, you know the kind: a well-curated vintage clothing shop, a bookstore, a cafe/market that sells lentil patties and tempeh. The Six Bells offers an almost startling contrast. The lobby (which also functions as the hotel’s store) features a large mural on the ceiling depicting a map of an entirely different hamlet: the fictional place of Barrow’s Green. Whispers of this fake town inform the entire place. Individual rooms are named and decorated for the fictional characters who live there, and a map waiting on our bed called out area landmarks like a psychotherapist and a butcher, which all turned out to be fictional. It’s hard to differentiate the fixtures of Gelman’s imagination from what actually exists in the area, but I suppose that’s the point.

We stayed in Mildred’s Plum, a second-floor room inspired by the “award-winning plums” grown by a “resident” of Barrow’s Green. It’s cutesy to the max, and spacious for an inn. Mixing patterns can be a little dizzying, but charming if this is what you’ve come here for. On the patchwork quilt that dressed our bed was a leather-bound folder containing all the hotel information, a shopping catalog, and a set of stickers with tiny houses on them and below the line: “Take me home.” Practicality takes a back seat to commercial opportunity here. For example, what didn’t the welcome booklet include? The wifi code.

Throughout the hotel, the spaces really do look as good in person as they do on Instagram. Distinctly different in color and character theme, most rooms at The Six Bells have a seating area and writing desk not large enough to do laptop work on (but big enough to write a letter home by candlelight). There are also a couple of two-room suites for those traveling with kids, who are lovingly accommodated in the hotel with a playroom on the main floor.

The playroom and the shop (an adult playroom?) are really the only “amenities” at the hotel. But the surrounding area is filled with walking and hiking trails, plus the slightly larger town of Accord, which has gems like Accord Market, Arrowood Farms, and Skate Time Roller Rink.

The hotel’s restaurant, The Feathers Tavern, takes up most of the downstairs, and is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, and brunch Saturday and Sunday. Breakfast is included for overnight guests. The food is meaty, hearty, and delicious, similar to that of the British and Alpine countrysides from which the hotel draws inspiration. Dinner notably featured a showstopping bread basket, with sour cream biscuits, tiny butter shaped like corn on the cob, and a bundt cake.

At bedtime, we heard the music coming up from the downstairs tavern bar and the muffled voices of other guests returning to their rooms, which was one of the only signs we had of them during our 24-hour stay. Otherwise, the surroundings are eerily quiet. We drifted to sleep peacefully on an extremely comfortable mattress, stripped of any consciousness of the town around us. The Six Bells does precisely that: it takes you out of any familiar space and transports you into a “storybook” world. It’s one part genius, one part sad.

On our way out, I was tempted to buy a throw pillow, one with ruffled edges and daisy print. I resisted the urge, until upon check-out, I received an email asking if anything caught my eye, with a link to their webshop. Well played, Gelman. Well played. –Sylvie Florman, 08/15/25

→ The Six Bells Countryside Inn (Rosendale, NY) • 435 Main St • wknd from $350/per night.

GETAWAYS • Palm Beach

High bar

The entrance to the new Palm Beach hotel Palm House isn’t well marked, and there isn’t really a lobby. The first room you’ll encounter is more like a lounge for the bar, a stone sculpture that lights up the right side of the room, partitioning it off from the restaurant just behind it. It’s gorgeous, but we’re not there quite yet.

First, we need to check in at the discreet podium in the corner, where a lone worker usually stands greeting guests. We arrived at this scene on New Year’s Day, barely a month after the hotel opened on the site of what was once the Heart of Palm Beach hotel (which had been closed for 17 eventful years). It’s the first U.S. location in the Iconic Luxury Hotels portfolio, which numbers a half dozen luxe UK properties and one in Venice.

The anti-fast casual vibe they’ve cultivated here is what we want from our getaway hotels, and it’s tricky to get right. Arriving as we did, after a flight delay in our travel wear with carry-ons on our shoulders, into this elegant, pasteled room, is a jarring transition. And as we waited to sort out a minor issue with our rooms, we felt it.

But once we were settled, Palm House’s ample charms warmed in the Florida sunshine. The lighting is exquisite, the hallways are lined with art, and the rooms are sumptuous, with plush bedding, two-sink bathrooms, and excellent showers. The staff — valets, bartenders, pool servers — is accommodating and gracious.

It’s a half-block walk to the guarded public beach and also to town. La Goulue is on the corner, the famed Worth Ave. five blocks south (though we favored Surfside Diner, Buccan Sandwich Shop, and West Palm’s The Blue Door on this trip). It’s not the kind of resort where the guests are held captive onsite.

The renovation included an upgrade of the moderately sized pool with expertly tiered pink loungers and daybeds. There’s an event space behind the outdoor bar, which wasn’t open on this early visit (but will be for friend-of-FOUND Brad Inman’s Livelong Experience in March). The Dining Room at Palm House serves Japanese-Peruvian cuisine (“Nobu-style”), the sushi and Japanese A5 Wagyu set against patterned-tile walls.

But that bar. It’s a work of art and a prime perch for taking in the local scene in all of its over-the-top glory. Over pre-dinner cocktails, we watched newly arrived hotel guests check in, recalling fondly that time when we hadn’t yet crossed over into the sunshine. –Josh Albertson, 01/17/25

→ Palm House (Palm Beach, FL) • 160 Royal Palm Way • 79 rooms • Rates from $1260/weekend night.

GETAWAYS • The Hamptons

Eastern peak

In the late ’80s, East Hampton was still a quiet fishing town with limited dining options, but early interest in good food was there. On weekend afternoons, the post-beach crowd flocked to Fierro’s Pizza by the old A&P for cheesy slices and chewy garlic knots. Later, some would drop by Ina Garten’s black-and-white-tiled Barefoot Contessa to pick up imported cheese and coffee (the profound aroma of freshly roasted beans hit you the moment you walked in) for the next morning.

As for restaurants, in 1988 and thereafter, the buzziest place to be was the newly launched Nick & Toni’s. I was too young to dine at Nick & Toni’s at the time, but I understood that it was an adult restaurant — and that it was special. In the years since, I’ve dined there many times, and still feel a sense of adultness to be able to dine at Nick & Toni’s.

On a Thursday night over the July 4th weekend, the restaurant was unsurprisingly busy. Many larger groups and families were having an early dinner (my reservation was at 630p), and servers were carrying bottles of wine and lush salads, jetting from table to table to keep up.

The food has always been rustic Mediterranean-Italian, with a focus on seasonal ingredients prepped in a wood-fueled hearth. (Nick & Toni’s has its own one-acre garden that supplies much of its produce). The restaurant, largely refreshed in 2013, is broken up into several small dining rooms with white walls, blonde wood accents, bistro chairs, and large rust-colored tiled floors.

After sitting down with my husband, I picked up the wine list and was immediately impressed — and surprised — by how reasonably priced the bottles were, with a strong focus on French and Italian expressions. I was especially delighted to spot the elusive Château des Tours Réserve (a coveted bottle from the iconic Chateau Rayas estate in the Southern Rhône Valley) listed at $255, and promptly ordered it.

We had a great dinner. Nick and Toni’s iconic zucchini chips are cut tissue paper-thin and fried, and the wood-fired focaccia is golden-edged, plump, and chewy (I just wish it was served warm). You may have heard about the rich and creamy-tasting red shrimp coming out of Montauk — an ingredient that’s steadily been making its way onto NYC menus. At Nick & Toni’s, the simple preparation highlights how delicious this local crustacean can be, dressed only with olive oil and lemon, crowned with a delicate nest of crispy fried leeks.

Since opening, Nick & Toni’s has always offered house-made pasta. The campanelle — a ruffled, twisted shape — is tossed in a bright sun-dried tomato and basil pesto, topped with a half-round of burrata, finished with microplaned toasted almonds. There’s always a daily local catch — whole local sea bass, this night — stuffed with lemon rings and thyme, roasted until its skin is blistered in that wood-fired oven. It’s dishes like this that encapsulate the simplicity of great summer dining in the Hamptons, all grown up. –Kat Odell, 08/22/25

→ Nick & Toni’s (East Hampton) • 136 N Main St • Daily from 530p • Reserve.

GETAWAYS • Quebec

Other people’s getaways

On the shores of Lake Massawippi in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Manoir Hovey isn’t really an NYC getaway. Montreal, definitely (1:30 by car). Quebec City (2:30), too. Tucked just over the Vermont border, it also qualifies for Burlington (two hours) and probably Boston and Portland (both four hours).

But summer circumstances had us pointed in that direction last month, and we took advantage by taking three nights at the 51-room, family-owned resort. Sometimes, to really get away, a trip to someone else’s getaway is what’s called for.

Blissfully, we didn’t recognize anyone at the pool. Many of them were speaking French, and so we couldn’t even recognize whatever troubles back home they may have been trying to leave behind. Instead, we focused on the scenery and accommodations, both spectacular.

Home to most of the rooms, the classic main house opens onto the meticulous gardens and the pool, which in turn reveal a panorama of the lake below. Newer structures on the property include Le Spa, thoroughly modern and exceptional, and the Lakeside Pavilion, which opened last year with a dozen rooms and suites. There’s a clay tennis court on-site, and paddleboards and kayaks launch from a small beachfront onto the seven-square-mile lake.

Our room’s comforts, particularly the spacious bathroom, belied the manoir’s lived-in bearing. French doors in the back revealed a small patio steps from the garden, and just to the right, Le Tap Room Bistro, the more casual of the two onsite restaurants. We ate dinner there on the deck, and inside at the more formal Le Hatley, too. Both were far better than required, though in the glory of the lake summer in this part of the world, we preferred to be outside.

In the afternoon, we made it to the town of North Hatley, just down the road, for lunch at La Cie Vilandré. It, too, was better than it needed to be. But having gotten this far, we didn’t really need it at all. –Josh Albertson, 09/05/25

→ Manoir Hovey (North Hatley, Quebec) • 575 Rue Hovey • Rooms from $700 (Sept wknd).

GETAWAYS • Vermont

Fireplace season

In my trips to Vermont, too often, I’ve had to sacrifice an obsession with eating excellent food in favor of any desire to vacation in a Fragonard landscape. At The Weston, no such sacrifice is required.

At the end of our five-hour drive from the city, my husband and I were greeted in the Weston parking lot with iced tea in cut-crystal glassware, garnished with herbs from the garden a few feet away. From the outside, The Weston looks like any other quaint New England bed and breakfast. Then we were shown to Suite 8 — nearly a thousand square feet of museum-quality paintings and furniture complete with two working fireplaces and Green Mountain vistas outside every window.

Our room felt like it belonged in a Gilded Age townhouse, but we were five minutes away from endless hiking, swimming, and boating. The blend of country convenience and decadent environs makes sense when you consider that The Weston is run by the family behind places like The Carlyle and the Beverly Wilshire. Every detail is fully realized, from the bathroom layout (double sinks, double showers, massive soaking tub with a view) to the chocolate espresso macarons in the parlor that rival ones you’d wait in line for at Ladureé.

But as I said, this sort of setting usually comes at the cost of an on-site restaurant featuring anything better than a menu straight out of a 1990s CIA textbook. But our first dinner at The Left Bank was so good, we returned for every single meal of our stay. It is the single best hotel restaurant I’ve dined in. That’s in large part because chef Bretton Combs works directly with staff farmer Antoinette Kessler to create a constantly changing menu based on whatever’s coming out of the on-property 50-acre, four-season farm.

Farm-to-table isn’t a played-out trope here, it’s the backbone of what makes this a destination-worthy hotel and not just a really nice place to stay. Every guest is invited to tour the farm with Brett and Antoinette to help decide what’s for dinner. So we spent our mornings among the radishes and tomatoes and our afternoons hiking and swimming before lounging in our suite with a pile of books. Each night we headed down to the restaurant’s patio where we ate vegetables we’d selected paired with La Garagista’s funky Field Study ferments and premier grand cru Chardonnay from Chassagne-Montrachet.

This fall, they’re adding a 2,300-square-foot bakery to their culinary arsenal. And, for those gearing up to Ski The East, note that Okemo is a 15-minute drive away, and Stratton a little more than twice that. –Carina Koeppicus, 09/26/25

→ The Weston (Weston, VT) • 630 Main St • Fall rates from $686/night.

GETAWAYS • The Nines

Hotels, Vermont

The Hermitage Inn (West Dover), husband-wife owned w/ elevated dining, $375

Setu (Brattleboro), wellness and meditation retreats w/ spa services available, $650
Twin Farms (Barnard), luxury health and wellness in the woods, $7500
The Weston (Weston), 9-room boutique, best-in-class restaurant, intel above, $686
The Pitcher Inn (Warren), clever (not kitschy) themed rooms and very good restaurant, across from Warren Country Store, intel here, $1016
Shelburne Farms Inn (Shelburne), on 1400 acres as part of educational nonprofit, $350
Blind Tiger (Burlington), boutique hotel in brick mansion walking distance to UVM campus, $335
Trapp Family Lodge (Stowe), large suites and Austrian charm from a family that would know, $1009
AWOL (Stowe, above), Scandinavian vibes featuring A-Frame cabin suites, short drive from the mountain, $603 –09/25/25