How we planned an upstate New York getaway

Because we're two people who have spent a considerable amount of time in the "middle of nowhere", Scotty and I thought our trip to New York should include some exploration of what lies beyond the city. Scotty also reminded me that if others in the city wondered about that too, I would be able to tell them. He's so helpful, right?

To begin our pre-New York City adventure, Scotty and I consulted one of our favorite travel resources: a map. In this case, a well-loved USA road/ parks map. There's something about a geographic visual that helps me "get it" so much more than an explanation; I probably still wouldn't understand where the heck Juneau is without one.

In this case, we simply found the island of Manhattan (appearing very deceptively as a peninsula) and then looked for the nearest block of green on the map, indicating a national or state park. Our next stop was Mapquest for route and driving time approximation. 

The Catskill State Park, often referred to as "the Catskills", is a two and a half drive away from Newark International Airport. We were basically being forced to land there, as opposed to landing closer to the city at either JFK or LaGuardia airports, because Alaska Airlines doesn't fly to the other two and we had opted to use air miles. But as it turned out, landing in Newark actually would put us a bit closer to the Catskills and let us escape some city traffic. Here are a few maps for your geographical viewing pleasure (found here):

Catskill Park area

New York State

When considering the destination our side trip, we were also intrigued by the Adirondack Park, but at a nearly four-hour drive north of Newark, we opted for the closer Catskills in the interest of time. Hopefully someday, we'll get there too because I've heard it's amazing.

After pinning down our destination, it was time to consider lodging. At first, the idea of needing to pack a tent and gear in order to camp seemed almost insurmountable, considering that I was also packing everything I would need for seven weeks. I momentarily wondered if maybe we should book at nice comfy hotel or b&b, perhaps with a pool and breakfast included. Fortunately, that wasn't what my partner had in mind this time, and since my checking account agreed, we looked for campgrounds. 

We searched online for "camping the Catskills" and found the New York State Parks web site as the number one result. In it, we clicked on camping and followed a link to New York State Park camping reservations on Reserve America.com. This web site is run by a private company that maintains an excellent database of campsites across the U.S.

Because Scotty and I did not know the area whatsoever, we used their map feature to select campsites near our target destination town of Woodstock. For a place so symbolic to American culture and history for its part in musical, social and political revolution, I almost couldn't believe I hadn't been there before. And so, since we would be in the area, it was a definite stop.

But first we had to go to Newark.

The flight from SEA to EWR lasted just over five hours. We left Seattle at 9 a.m. and arrived in Newark at 5:15 p.m., including a time change loss of three hours. We had anticipated that by the time we got there we would be hungry and tired; what we didn't expect was that we might have wanted to get in our rental car and drive anyway. This was the view from our hotel room at the Newark Airport Marriott:

Despite its highway view, the Marriott (booked on Orbitz because we didn't want to take a chance with Hotwire this time) was a decent, comfortable place to stay. And we had a chance to eat dinner and relax and weren't forced to set up a tent in the dark. Mission accomplished.

I'll be back soon with more about our trip to Woodstock and Phoenicia, a little gem of a town, as well as to introduce the lovely Woodland Valley Campground. In the meantime, happy Friday!