The Best Family Reunion Venues Near New York City (That Aren't Hotels)

Planning a family reunion near New York City, most people start with a block of hotel rooms. It is the obvious choice, and for a reunion it is rarely the best one. A hotel is built for strangers: your family ends up spread across floors and corridors, the pool is shared with everyone else staying there, and the only room big enough for all of you is one you book by the hour.

The alternative is a rental built for groups: a building, or several, that your family takes for the weekend, with a bed for everyone, a kitchen that can feed them and a table that seats them all at once.

What to look for

Before you compare places, get clear on what your reunion needs. The questions that matter most:

• Beds, not just floor space. How many people are coming, and is there a real bed for each of them? Count beds, not “sleeps up to”.
• One table. Can the whole family eat together in one sitting, or only in shifts?
• Every age. Toddlers, teenagers and grandparents want different things. Look for something for each of them, indoors as well as out, in case it rains.
• Getting around. Is there a bedroom on the main floor for the grandparent who finds stairs hard?
• The drive. Close enough that nobody has to fly, far enough that it feels like going away.
• Who else is there. In a hotel, everyone. In a rental, the building you book is yours.

Resorts and rentals

Large resorts such as Woodloch and Kalahari are good at what they do, and plenty of families love them. But at a resort you book rooms in a building other guests are also staying in, and the pool and the dining room are shared with everyone. A resort also schedules your day for you. At a rental you take the building, and the day is yours to plan, which for a reunion is most of the point.

Hilltop Castle World

Hilltop Castle World is four separate buildings, the Castle, the Mansion, the Farmhouse and the Lodge, on one private 130-acre hill in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains. It is two hours from New York City and Philadelphia by car, two from Newark and an hour from Scranton. You can book one building or any combination; between them they hold 39 bedrooms and sleep 92.

• The Castle: 18 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, sleeping 44. Three outdoor pools in the courtyard, a 72-seat theater, two bowling alleys, an arcade, a full-size indoor basketball court, indoor mini golf, a toddler room and a dining room that seats 48 at once.
• The Mansion: 11 bedrooms sleeping 26, with an outdoor pool, a 38-seat theater, an indoor hot tub room, a sauna, an arcade, an outdoor basketball court, two kitchens and a 32-seat dining room.
• The Farmhouse: 7 bedrooms sleeping 16, with a heated indoor pool that is open all year, a sauna, a billiard table and a table that seats all sixteen.
• The Lodge: 3 bedrooms sleeping 6, with a games room downstairs (ping pong and an arcade basketball hoop) and a screened porch over the valley.

Across the hill run 4 miles of private walking trails, an easy loop of a mile and a half and a moderate one of two and a half.

The buildings are a short walk apart: about a minute from the Lodge to the Mansion or to the Castle, about two from the Farmhouse to the Castle. A family too big for one building can take two or three and still sit down to dinner together. The friends and family page shows what each combination sleeps and what comes with it.

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Something for every generation

The little ones. The Castle has a toddler room with child-safe play equipment. Every building has a Pack ’n Play, and there are highchairs; tell the team when you reserve, so they are ready for you. Families are welcome with guests of any age, and children two and under do not count toward the guest total. The person who books must be 25 or older.

The teenagers. Bowling, the basketball court and the arcade at the Castle, the PlayStation and Xbox room at the Mansion, and the Legend of the Lost Kingdom: a treasure hunt through twelve hidden rooms built into the Castle, which comes with the building.

The grandparents. A ramp leads into the Castle, and most of it is on the main floor, including two accessible bedrooms, 6 and 14, with grab bars in their bathrooms (the theater and the games downstairs are down a flight of steps). The Mansion, the Farmhouse and the Lodge each have a bedroom that suits someone who finds walking hard. If anyone in the family has a particular need, talk it through with the team before you book.

Nobody has to cook every meal

The kitchens are built for a crowd, but nobody has to spend the reunion at the stove. Hilltop’s vendors come to whichever building you are in, and you book each one directly with them:

• Cuisine Rustique, the caterer, brings buffets to your building and sets them up and clears them away: breakfasts, lunch bars, themed dinners and cocktail-hour platters.
• Ernie sets up a portable bar wherever you want it and runs it for the evening.
• Thaddeus runs group games built to get people talking: Family Feud, Jeopardy, murder mysteries and scavenger hunts.
• The Outside Institute leads walks through Hilltop’s woods with a naturalist.

The bottom line

For a reunion near New York City, skip the hotel block. Find somewhere your family can take for itself, with a bed for everyone and a table for all of you, and spend the weekend together rather than in corridors. If you are not sure which building or combination fits, the team is a message away on the contact page, and our frequently asked questions cover check-in times, minimum stays and the rest.