Choose your concert, tell us what kind of weekend you want, and we'll build a Catskills itinerary around it — where to eat, what to do, when to head to the venue, and a few places most visitors miss.
Five questions
A weekend planned the way a local would plan it.
The recommendations come from the guidebook the owner of Victorian Lake Oasis keeps for guests — small places, mostly independent, several of them easy to drive past. No account, nothing saved, free.
1Event
2Dates
3Who
4Interests
5Pace
Step 1 of 5 · Event
Bethel Woods weekend planning
The western Catskills, in practical terms.
What this planner does
You pick your show, your dates, who's coming and how hard you want to go, and it builds an hour-by-hour Catskills weekend around the concert. The show time is the anchor: everything before it is scheduled backwards from your departure for the venue, so nothing lands in the window where you should be leaving. Recommendations come from the guidebook the owner of Victorian Lake Oasis keeps for guests, which is why they skew toward small, independent, locally loved places rather than whatever ranks highest on a review site.
Where to eat before a Bethel Woods concert
Eat earlier than you would in the city — kitchens out here close earlier and some are seasonal. Cochecton Pump House serves seasonal food and drinks out of an old pump house; the Cochecton Fire Station does food and drinks in a converted fire station; The Laundrette in Narrowsburg has the Delaware River in front of it. La Cigogne, also in Narrowsburg, serves French food and stays open late, which makes it one of the few real options after an encore.
What to do before the show
The area rewards not driving much. Lake Huntington has kayaks, paddleboards and swimming in the warm months. Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery in Callicoon pours cider flights on a hill worth the drive. The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance in Narrowsburg runs gallery shows and the annual Riverfest. On Saturday nights, ARTS NEST puts on live entertainment right on the lake.
Where to stay near Bethel Woods
There is very little lodging at the venue itself, which is why the weekend usually gets planned around where you sleep. A whole house works better than separate rooms for a group of four to eight: one kitchen, one fire, one place to come back to after the show. Victorian Lake Oasis is eight minutes from Bethel Woods on Lake Huntington, with three bedrooms, five beds, private lakefront and a year-round hot tub.
How to spend Sunday in the Catskills
Keep Sunday to one good thing. Breakfast at Dutton's Tyler Hill Diner just over the Pennsylvania line, a walk through Callicoon or Narrowsburg, and then the drive home. Check-out at most rentals is mid-morning, so pack the car first and make the last stop on the way out rather than doubling back.
