At 6 Catskills Resorts: Retro Design, Modern Comfort and Games, Lots of Games

Picture yourself on a sojourn in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Would your preferred game be Pac-Man, pickleball or backgammon? The answer could determine where you stay. Then again, with the variety of games on hand at nearly every one of the Catskills’ newest wave of stylish resorts, there should be more than one option that tickles your fancy.

The influence of New York City, Brooklyn in particular, has been palpable in the Catskills — about 100 miles northwest of the metro area — for years. About a decade ago, indie hotels like the Graham & Co. in Phoenicia and Foxfire Mountain House in Mount Tremper imported urban cool to the country with their Moroccan poufs, Tivoli radios and linen bedding. When Scribner’s Catskill Lodge debuted in 2016, its loftlike rooms and farm-to-table restaurant cemented Brooklyn’s presence.

But the Catskills’ legacy as a resort destination extends much further back. It was where one of the country’s earliest resorts, ‌the Catskill Mountain House, made its home in 1824, followed by hundreds of others. A resurgence swept the area from the 1920s through the ’60s, when it became known as the ‌borscht ‌belt‌‌, owing to the number of sprawling hotels there that attracted members of New York’s Jewish community.

Now, once again, there’s an influx of new inns. While many are attracting families, others are targeting a younger audience drawn to a contemporary aesthetic that also evokes earlier eras, and curated travel “experiences.”

Those experiences might involve, in the winter, a “sled menu” of five different sled types that you can take to the local hills, as Hotel Lilien in Tannersville offers. In warmer months, visitors at the new Eastwind Oliverea Valley can take guided walks to forage for spruce, then sit at the bar and taste its infusion in a handcrafted cocktail. And there are so many games — from Scrabble to shuffleboard — at these new hotels that you’ll want to make sure you don’t‌ miss out on the epic fly fishing, rock climbing and hiking the Catskills are known for.

“The Catskills were always great,” said John Flannigan, founder and chief executive of Wylder Hotels, which opened the Wylder Windham in 2022, noting that the Hamptons and Jersey Shore have gotten too pricey and traffic-clogged. The situation, he said, “kind of naturally created a renaissance in the Catskills.”

A renaissance that has excited many and left others wary.

“There are pressure points,” Lisa…