Tiny house review: a look inside both Getaway House glamping locations in NY’s Catskills

/ easyjourneys

About two hours northwest of NYC sits the small, trout-fishing mountain town of Roscoe, NY, where Donald Trump Jr. has a house he can retreat to as a restorative balm on his stressors.

So too, now, can you. This is where tiny-house campground company, Getaway House, recently opened its second New York location.

If you’ve not heard of Getaway House you can check out its site here, but basically they have tiny houses set up in outposts around the US:

It’s usually from $150 (weekdays) to $300 (weekends) per night to stay at one of these tiny houses in the woods, but when they first open new locations they offer discounted nights.

I booked two nights at the Eastern Catskills location for the intro price of around $100 per night when they announced its opening in August 2019.

We liked the first stay so much that I booked two more nights at the Western Catskills location in October 2020 when they announced that one’s opening with an intro price of $150 per night.

Pros?

  1. You get all the adventure of going camping, with all of the comforts of staying in a hotel.
  2. You can spend hours cooking and eating around your campfire, then shower off the smokiness before bed.
  3. Quiet and solitude. You check in and out without seeing anybody (they send you the code for unlocking your door), and Getaway does a good job of setting up the campsites so that you don’t have to see much of your neighbors.
  4. The main attraction of these tiny houses is the massive window that the bed is nestled up to. It really does make you feel like you’re lounging in the woods.
  5. If you have a question about your stay you can text Getaway (if you have service) and they respond quickly.

Cons?

  1. It’s pretty expensive for a camping trip. Although, glamping is never cheap.
  2. It’s possible you won’t have any cell service, as was the case for us at our Western Catskills stay. This could be a positive though if you want to disconnect but can’t resist your phone.
  3. It’s peaceful but not secluded. When I was booking my first trip, Getaway’s site made it look like we’d be in the only tiny house in the forest, with no neighbors for miles. It wasn’t until the week of our trip that we received a map of what we realized was a campground. They do a much better job now of clearly portraying that reality on the Getaway website.
  4. You don’t get to select your campsite. Our first cabin looked out upon nothing but trees, which was awesome. At our second cabin, it was right by the campground entrance, right across from the staff building, and the view out of the main window included another cabin on a ridge above us. Bottom line is that some campsites are better than others, and which one you get is luck of the draw.

How are the amenities?

Each cabin has everything you would find in a hotel, including towels, bedding and a hot shower, in addition to kitchen essentials like salt, pepper, olive oil, utensils, cookware, a stove, a minifridge, etc., although at our second stay there was no tea kettle, so we prepared our coffee by heating water in a frying pan and pouring it into the Chemex that we brought from home.

Our second cabin (Western Catskills) did not have any food other than the standard free smores kit, while at our first stay (Eastern Catskills) there was a basket with food for purchase that included soup and pasta for about the same price you’d pay in a grocery store.

Photos?

Here are some photos from our first stay, in early March 2020 at the Eastern Catskills outpost —

Here are photos from our second stay, in February 2021 at the Western Catskills outpost (side note, this one happened to be an accessible cabin, so the bathroom was bigger and the entrance was a ramp instead of steps)–

The staff building across the street from our campsite.
A road near the campground.
Another section of the campground.

Which Catskills location is better?

The sites at the Eastern Catskills location seemed more spread out and private, but the actual campground and locale of the Western location was more mountainous and interesting to us.

Eastern Catskills– Near South Cairo, NY, this campground felt a little bit like an empty plot of wooded land in a rural neighborhood. It’s about a 20-minute drive from the famous Kaaterskill Falls, which has a hiking trail that was snowed over when we visited in early March.

Western Catskills– This location is about a 15-minute drive from Roscoe, which is an idyllic mountain town with a few different restaurants to eat at and a country store with all the food and firewood supplies you might need. The campground is next to Pepacton Reservoir, which was partially frozen over when we visited in mid-February. A recent snow blanketed our campsite and ruled out all the local hiking options for us.

Is there a loyalty program?

Yes. There’s info about it here.

Is it worth the price?

For us it was well worth the price in the $150/night range, but I don’t think I would ever splurge on one of those $369 nights.

Current rates at the Eastern Catskills outpost:

Getaway does offer a 15% discount to healthcare and military folks.

They also now have an interesting option to buy packs…of nights…which could save you hundreds if you’re able to commit:

Is there a referral bonus?

Yes, you can get $25 off your first stay with a referral. Message me or comment below with your email if you’d like my referral, although that’s not the reason I wrote this post.

Also, for Nashville people, Getaway just announced discounted nights on the opening of a Nashville outpost (must book by March 25 to get the discount). Here’s a screenshot of an email Getaway sent this week about the April 29th opening of the outpost:

Questions?

Feel free to comment below!

*Update 2022: We visited the outpost near Houston, TX, and it wasn’t nearly as magical as the visits described here.

52 thoughts on “Tiny house review: a look inside both Getaway House glamping locations in NY’s Catskills”

  6. Hello! I would love to snag that referral code if you don’t mind 🙂 thank you so much! This post was extremely helpful.

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  7. Pingback: Fire ban, bugs, & sluggish AC make for glitchy glamping at Getaway House’s Houston outpost | easyjourneys

    • Hello! I would say the Eastern location gives you a better chance of not having any other cabins within the view from your cabin’s large/main window, although the campground is very flat. However the Western location had more variation in elevation, so if you were to get assigned a cabin near the top, you might be able to score a nice view (we were at the bottom so not sure). The cabins in the Western location just seemed to be a lot more packed in together, while the Eastern location seemed more spread out. If I were to return I would probably choose the Western outpost since it’s newer, although the hiking opportunities seemed better from the Eastern location.

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  11. Could you send me the referral link please? I am going to NY for Christmas and would love to do this to decompress before returning to work! Thanks for the feedback!

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  15. Hi great post, do you mind sharing the code!
    What would you think Is better for the Catskills locations come November time? I know you mentioned East is more flat but was the view decent? Seems like the west view is better pending your site right? I’m surprising my gf for her bday so wanted to choose best one!

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    • Sent! As far as east vs west— the east one looked completely flat to me, but if you’re cool with views of straight up forest then that one is totally fine and seemed more secluded than the west one. If you’ve never been to Kaaterskill Falls then I’d go with the east location so you can check that out.

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  19. Hi! Thanks so much for this info, so helpful as I plan our getaway and decide between eastern and western! Would love a referral code too!! Thanks again!

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  20. Hi! Thank you for the informative article. I’m going to book a trip in January 2023 for the Eastern Catskills. Can I please have your referral code?

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  22. Hi, thanks for all the helpful tips.
    Me too, i’m not sure wich should i choose, the eastern or the western….
    So the eastern the cabins are more spreaout? Is it really that flat ??
    Im still unsure…..
    Could i please get your referal code?
    Thanks!

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    • Sent! Also, a better option for savings if you’re planning a winter getaway is a promo they emailed out this week (pasting here): “use code RESET2023 to save 20% on your January or February escape.
      Offer valid until 1/8/23.” You wouldn’t be able to use this on top of a referral code unfortunately.
      For us the eastern location definitely seemed much flatter, although the spread out feeling may have been just because we couldn’t see other cabins out of our windows for that particular campsite. I would recommend the western location since it’s slightly newer, unless a visit to Kaaterskill Falls is important to you.

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