The Hamptons are all well and good, but New York’s real high society – the really old money – has always turned to the Adirondacks for its lakeside holiday homes.
Five hours drive north from Central Park, the Great Camps are lavish wood lodges built for the likes of the Astors and the Rockefellers, and the style that stemmed from their glory days has now filtered down to a whole fashion and interiors look. The Adirondack Chair, with its low seat, flat arms and rounded fanned back, is a beautifully designed piece of garden furniture, while Ralph Lauren is believed to have taken the inspiration for his rustic ad campaigns, with roaring fires, log cabins and plaid throws, from the Point, once the Rockefellers’ holiday home and now the most sumptuous resort in all of the Americas.
The 11-room Point (+1 518 891 5674, thepointresort.com, £670 a night), crammed with wall-mounted antlers and star-spangled mountain-life Americana, changed ownership at the start of the year for a record sum. But nothing’s changed – Manhattan socialites still come here by private jet for the kind of all-inclusive, wonderfully OTT service that you’d only find in the private home of a billionaire with good taste. At the Point, guests dine en famille in tuxedos on haute cuisine in the Great Hall, while a trek in the woods comes with lashings of champagne.
Most of the accommodation in the Adirondacks is high end, but not all of it is punishing on the wallet. The Point’s sister hotel, Lake Placid Lodge (+1 877 523 2700, lakeplacidlodge.com), recently rebuilt after a fire, starts at £180 a night, while Whiteface Lodge (+1 518 523 0500, thewhitefacelodge.com, from £219 a night) is as chic as its rivals, with a contemporary restaurant, Kanu, that looks as good as its food tastes.
When it comes to budget options in the area, camping under the stars is an option well worth considering for the simple overwhelming natural beauty of the area (adirondacks.com). Alternatively, you can check in at the Sagamore (+1 518 644 9400, thesagamore.com) for as little as £115 a night, but there’s no expense spared on facilities spread across the resort’s own 72-acre island, from the rock-climbing wall and mini golf to the Wapanak Castle, where you can rent all six bedrooms, should you want to. Wherever you stay, when autumn brings the golden and fire-red leaf-changing season, the scenery is priceless.
