Overlook Lodge at Bear Mountain

The restaurant food was incredible, and the rooms were really comfortable. It’s a lovely spot to relax or have fun, with beautiful mountains, a lake, and nature all around. The infrastructure is impressive too, and everything looked well built and maintained.

There wasn’t any staff at the lodge while we were there, at any time of day. For help, you have to drive to the inn’s concierge desk on the other side of the lake. It’s basically a no-frills place to sleep, though our lodge had a nice little balcony and sitting area. The price seemed reasonable, but this isn’t the Bear Mountain Inn. Also, when you leave, you can only turn right, so to head north you have to turn around at the inn.

LYDIA was such a sweetie, a local employee for 40 years, and a real beauty. The area is stunning, and the shop has lots of Bear Mountain gear, jewelry, stickers, plushies, mugs, clothes, and hats. Great place. The carousel is only open on weekends.

The staff were very helpful, and the carousel is beautiful for events. As a wedding venue, this place works really well. Staying overnight is another story: $245 a night feels far too high for what’s basically a 1970s-style hotel with a lot of problems. We were in the Overlook, so maybe the main lodge is nicer, though it only has 16 rooms. The shower went cold pretty quickly and had very low pressure. There were no glasses in the bathroom, just a request to use the paper coffee cups. The heating system was amazingly complicated, the stairwell was very cold, and the doors to the stairs were noisy. There’s no elevator in this hotel. The main lodge exterior badly needs new paint.