Help me treat my wife to a nice trip in the Northeast this weekend.
March 9, 2010 2:49 PM   Subscribe

Where do I go with my wife, in reasonable driving distance (100-ish miles by car, but I'm flexible), to take her on a nice two day vacation this weekend? I'm in Brooklyn, NY and I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I'd be happy not to spend a huge amount of money, more quaint and cool than super-luxury, but once again I'm flexible, I'd happily spend 500-700 bucks from Friday to Sunday to make sure she had a nice time, some spa treatments, a fancy meal, a cool little town. Any specific recommendations for hotels, inns or B&B's are very welcome, it's a last minute plan, which I know can be more difficult to sort out. I've sorta run out of my usual options for this kind of thing and I'd love some inspiration. As always, I thank you in advance.
posted by Divine_Wino to Travel & Transportation around New York, NY (14 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Northampton MA is a nice small town (good food, cool shops, lots of live music) although perhaps a bit far. Jim Thorpe PA is closer and has some similar qualities on a much smaller scale.
posted by Fiery Jack at 2:57 PM on March 9, 2010 [2 favorites]


Lambertville, NJ and New Hope, PA are two artsy, B&Bish, spa-ish, shopping and gallery-drenched towns that are directly across the Delaware River from each other. I grew up on the PA side near New Hope, and lived in Lambertville a couple of years ago. It's only about a 2 hour drive from Brooklyn. This weekend is a special open gallery event weekend in New Hope. There are a lot of B&B's directly in the downtown area of Lambertville, which is literally a moment's walk across the river from New Hope. Some good restaurants, two breweries, nice nature if it's warm, decent people.
posted by bunnycup at 3:17 PM on March 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


the mohonk mountain house might work.
posted by kimyo at 4:04 PM on March 9, 2010


Seconding New Hope.

(And Northampton, although it's a bit far -- about 3 hours drive from New York if I recall correctly. And also Western Massachusetts can still be cold this time of year, which is really the last thing you probably want.)
posted by madcaptenor at 4:59 PM on March 9, 2010


Princeton NJ might be worth a try. Closer and a pleasant college town.
posted by Fiery Jack at 5:29 PM on March 9, 2010


Less than one week's notice might make it hard to pull off a B&B, but I stayed here during a wonderful and romantic weekend in the Finger Lakes region of NY. The proprietors were great, and the drive was not bad at all from where I am in northern NJ.
posted by inmediasres at 6:23 PM on March 9, 2010


LOVE Mohonk Mtn House. A Lakeside Victorian room with fireplace & veranda is worth the splurge. Very romantic! Great trails.
posted by sequin at 6:55 PM on March 9, 2010


Just came here to tell you Lambertville, NJ, but someone beat me to it. So, seconding that. It's a wonderful place.
posted by sickinthehead at 8:27 PM on March 9, 2010


Oh, this is so weird. I'm just mentioning this because I literally saw this like a day or two ago on NY1, and I mainly remembered it because really liked the name of the bed and breakfast: Bee and Thistle

It sounded like the sort of place you'd want to go to if you were looking for a quiet couples' weekend. The two-day package came with a bunch of stuff like dinner, champagne, spa treatment (I'm guessing it'll be like a massage type of thing) and tickets to a museum nearby. And there's a special pricing going on through April (deets in the link of course). I don't know what kind of town Old Lyme, Connecticut, is though, and I don't know what you guys are into.
posted by kkokkodalk at 8:06 AM on March 10, 2010


Stay in the Bronx, sort of...

Seriously. City Island for a weekend can be great. Le Refuge Inn might be just what you're looking for, if you can get a room on short notice.
posted by paulsc at 9:42 AM on March 10, 2010


Beacon, NY or Saugerties, on the other side of the river, are close, good drives (long enough to have a nice conversation, but not too long), and have good food / interesting stuff to do. Both have quaint little b&b's. Miss Lucy's in Saugerties also has TREMENDOUS food.

Up in the Catskills, a little further, I'd recommend Phoencia. There's the Emerson Resort & Spa which looks LOVELY. And you're near Sweet Sue's in Phoencia, which has the best pancakes in the world. There's very little cell service up there - that can be a plus or a minus.
posted by micawber at 10:37 AM on March 10, 2010


Response by poster: I found a nice place in Buck's county, she's happy. I thank you all for your excellent answers, which I will refer to in the future. You are all wonderful people.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2010 [1 favorite]


Feel free to MeMail me if you want to now anything about Bucks.
posted by bunnycup at 3:45 PM on March 10, 2010


OH GOD, I have wanted to stay at Barley Sheaf my entire life. I have spent years refreshing their pictures, wishing someday to treat myself to a weekend there. Amazing, fantastic, incredible choice.
posted by bunnycup at 3:47 PM on March 10, 2010


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