I love New York City but, to maintain a smidgen of sanity, sometimes I just need a break. New Yorkers cooped up through the summer of Covid and looking for a brief reset, should consider The Time Nyack. Oh, and there’s a pool!
Earlier this year, as the winter grays were giving me the blues, I packed an overnight bag, rounded up the boyfriend and headed to the village of Nyack. Little did I know that it would be one of my last hotel stays of 2020.
Just 50 miles from Midtown Manhattan, Nyack is a sweet little town, right on the Hudson River. Among the galleries, shops and surprising variety of restaurants, Nyack has added a hip boutique hotel in the last few years.
The 133-guest-room hotel (including 10 suites) is housed in a former factory, turned recording studio, turned lifestyle hotel. It’s a sexy property, with nods to its industrial past and a bordello-chic design. The hotel walls are adorned in a trippy wallpaper that reminded me of a Rorschach inkblot test. Don’t worry, the result was an unexpectedly fun night.
I love hotel rooms! Our bedroom in the city is narrow and dark and impossible to temperature control. So, any chance to stay in a loft-style hotel with eleven-foot ceilings is a little taste of heaven for us. Our room at The Time Nyack opened into a private terrace with views of the Hudson River in the distance and a supply of fresh air that is not available in the city. And our bed was enormous. Also, I like big beds and I cannot lie.
In the evening, we dined at The Grille, the hotel’s restaurant serving Modern American Fusion favorites to accommodate the diverse tastes of hotel guests. With sincere apologies to my vegetarian friends, the Porterhouse for Two was delicious. And, yes, I shared it… sort of.
After dinner, we decided to stay home–and by home, I mean the hotel bar (currently still open and following appropriate Covid guidelines). I must say, we had a blast. Our nightlife go-tos in NYC are almost exclusively gay so this crowd presented the rare anthropological study. Was the lady-on-lady bumping a performance for others or a freedom of expression? Was the cute bear at the bar gay? Can hairy, thick, straight boys be called bears? We made friends and sustained multiple hours of continuous sipping that kept us lovingly loopy. And I must say, as the two very-clearly-gay-boys-at-the-straight-bar, we felt completely comfortable.
The aftereffects of the evening included reenacting Madonna videos in the hallway:
The next morning we toured the town, visited the Edward Hopper House (the childhood home of the famous artist and a must see) and stuffed our faces at Strawberry Place, an old school diner with delicious pancakes.
Though we visited in winter, right now is the perfect time to book. The outdoor pool and lounge will remain open exclusively to hotel guests through September 30, with limited hours and capacity.
To book your stay, visit The Time Nyack website.
And to learn more about the town, check out VisitNyack.org.
There are various ways to reach Nyack, we chose Metro North from Grand Central Station to Tarrytown, then a 15-minute Uber from the Tarrytown train station to The Time Nyack (about an hour total travel time).
