Smack in the middle of summer, on a prime July weekend when New York City was serving up its usual cocktail of packed sidewalks, nonstop bustle, and a humidity level that felt borderline personal, I knew I needed out. Upstate New York has no shortage of escape routes—charming inns, boutique hotels, and endless Airbnb gems—and choosing one is always the hardest part. Even as a lifelong New Yorker, I’m constantly discovering new corners of the Hudson Valley.
This time, I wasn’t looking for just a change of scenery; I needed to be fully engulfed by nature. I wanted morning coffee among the trees, a reason to put on hiking shoes, and a weekend that involved a little less screen time and a lot more touching grass. After one of my favorite pastimes—falling down the Airbnb search rabbit hole, of course—my partner and I found ourselves heading to “The Upstate A,” a recently renovated, über-restorative A-frame cabin in Pine Plains that felt like exactly the reset we were searching for.
The second we left the city behind, I felt my shoulders drop. City slickers will know the feeling—the kind of exhale you only get when you trade honking cars for wide, open roads. Just over two hours from Manhattan by car, we made our way to Pine Plains, a charming and ultra-scenic Hudson Valley town tucked right along the border of Dutchess and Columbia counties. (If you’re coming without wheels, take the train to Rhinecliff station and grab a rideshare from there.)
While two people don’t exactly need a three-bedroom cabin, my longtime craving for extra space after nearly a decade of compact NYC living made the decision feel easy. There’s something undeniably relieving about having the proper amount of room to spread out, especially when the space comes with a forest as your backyard.
Directly after the highway’s exit, we were greeted by long stretches of farms and rolling hills. Eventually, the winding street on which the A-frame resides came into view. Located on a quiet acre of land with seemingly endless woods behind it, the cabin appeared just as it did in its pictures: Its wood panels complemented the darker roof, and the front facade was made almost entirely of glass. The house was built back in 1968 but was renovated and redesigned in 2021.