Our Stay at Blue Mountain Rest, Adirondacks Region

I discovered Blue Mountain Rest, a cabin rental retreat, through a search engine search for accommodations in the Blue Mountain Lake, New York, area. We wanted to see the Adirondack Museum and decided to stay in the area for a few days. Boy, am I ever glad I found this place! We absolutely LOVED our stay at Blue Mountain Rest!!

The establishment is owned and run by proprietors Lenny and Boka Baglieri. They have maintained a variety of hospitality businesses (Lenny is co-owner of Villa Baglieri in the Catskills area, and Boka has worked as a cook and caterer and ran her own cleaning business for a while). The couple combines their background in the hospitality industry to make Blue Mountain Rest a really, really enjoyable place. Lenny calls Blue Mountain Rest “your home away from home in the Adirondacks,” and we sure felt that way! We already miss the cabin and the glorious Adirondack scenery.

We stayed nearly a week here. I wish we could have stayed longer! Blue Mountain Rest is located on Route 30, a mere 1/2 mile from the intersection with Route 28. The Baglieris offer a variety of cabin sizes for every conceivable visitor. There’s an RV camper, two small cabins that can be expanded into larger units, and a small house that is the crown jewel of the retreat. We were blessed to stay in the small house cabin.

The cabin was INCREDIBLE and everyone felt right at home. This cabin features an entry hall, a full-sized kitchen with eat-in dining room, a good sized living room, two bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths. There’s plenty of closet space. Everything is so cozy. The kids really enjoyed relaxing in the living room with its warm pine paneling and the nice wood fireplace. The place was as clean as a whistle– pristine, actually.

Boka does most of the decorating, and she has a real gift. The decor is tactful and is done in an Adirondack theme. The cabin is so cozy.

The windows offer beautiful views of the forest in the back and Blue Mountain in the front. In the mornings, I sat on the couch watching the mist swirl around the mountain’s peak, slowly burned away by the rising sun. It was so peaceful.

In the backyard, the kids explored the pond and the forest while I sat on the deck. There’s a large area for outdoor cookouts. A barbecue grill was available to us, as well. At night, shimmering white lights lit up the deck railing. It was just so beautiful. The place has a lot of lovely small touches that made our stay very relaxing.

The boys liked looking for frogs and fish in the small pond.

The front yard is pretty.

We were actually scheduled to stay just 2 nights and 3 days, but we loved the cabin so much that we decided to stay another night and day, just to enjoy ourselves. I can’t rave about Blue Mountain Rest enough– it was so beautiful and relaxing.

Here are a few details about the place–

Blue Mountain Rest is open year round, one of the few accommodation places open during the winter in the Adirondacks. Winter sports are very popular in the Blue Mountain area, so Blue Mountain Rest hosts a lot of skiers, snowmobilers, fishermen, and other sportspeople.

The Baglieris offer a huge variety of special packages and deals throughout every season. Currently, there’s the Hiking & Biking package, Whitewater Rafting Special, Teacher Conference Week, a Veteran’s Day Special, off-season special rates and more. It pays to schedule accommodations during this time because you can save 10% to 20% off. Blue Mountain Rest also has a very special Gore Mountain Package for skiers, too. You can check out current specials and deals at the Blue Mountain Rest Specials & Packages page or contact Lenny for information (phone number is below).

Lenny and Boka have plans to expand Blue Mountain Rest. They want to offer small meals or snacks (Boka is from Germany and is a superb cook, says Lenny). I am heartily in favor of this. While we loved our stay at the cabin, it was difficult to find groceries and meals. The convenience store down the street closes at 5:30, and there are no restaurants in Blue Mountain Lake. If you expect to stay at the cabin for any length of time, bring your own groceries. I hope Boka has her food service open by the time we visit again– I’d love to try Boka’s cooking!

Cabins are very reasonably priced. I did some comparative shopping for accommodations in the area and Blue Mountain Rest was the most reasonable, especially for our large family of six (and I even brought my cat with me!). Blue Mountain Rest is also in a great location. The public park on Route 28, with beach and lake access, is a 5 minute walk away. There’s a convenience store nearby. The Adirondack Museum (review of that coming soon!) is only a 3-minute drive down Route 28. The Blue Mountain NYSDEC Fire Tower Trail (see my review!) is only a few miles from the cabin. Nearby Long Lake and Indian Lake (10-11 miles away) have restaurants.

All in all, our stay was stellar and we can’t wait to go again! I highly recommend that you check out Blue Mountain Rest. Tell Lenny and Boka that NewYorkTraveler.net sent you!

Blue Mountain Rest
8821 NYS Rte. 30
Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812
Phone: (845) 236-4071

Note: In exchange for this review, I received a small discount on our stay at Blue Mountain Rest. Be assured that my review is 100% mine, and all opinions, photos, and claims are my honest opinion. We really loved Blue Mountain Rest and recommend it!

Home Away From Home

The kids and I have been watching some outstanding movie and documentaries lately. In particular, we have been impressed with Travel the Road, a television series that ran on TBN and is available as DVDs now. It follows two, and then three, young men who decide to sell everything they have in the States, and travel around the world to dozens of countries to spread the Christian gospel. The men travel mostly to Third World countries but I think they do travel through some swanky European areas and maybe some exotic place like st tropez. They know no other language but English, and their journey is full of deprivation, harrowing experiences, joy and hardship. And lots and lots of passion. It’s really wonderful to watch them on their travels. It’s a learning experience.

When I was a young person, I wanted to do just that– travel the road, be a missionary. I never did become a “real” missionary, but I am more an “armchair” missionary and “backyard” traveler. I decided to start up this blog to keep a journal of all our homegrown travels. I could never be much of a world traveler, but I could still travel, even if I did travel only in New York State. Who knows, I still may travel the world. The most difficult part, I imagine, is finding accommodations. In your own country, you can rely on familiar brands… but how on earth do you go about finding, for example, reputable villas in France? How can you tell by saint topez pictures online that what you see is what you get?

This, I believe, is the beauty behind rental property providers. I have discovered quite a few myself, so should we decide to leave our native boundaries, I have an arsenal of reputable and reliable companies that can offer us good information and deals on lodging, food, and sightseeing. See– I’m all ready to go. I simply lack opportunity (and finances!).

If you own a home and would like to rent it to considerate travelers such as me you can also list your home for rent. I think that’s a great idea– renting your own home, earning a little money from it to enable you to travel further. I’d love to do that!

Anyway, rental properties are the creme de la creme when it comes to holiday accommodation. Make sure you make your plans with a reliable company that has a history of providing outstanding service and listings.

The Unitard is Very Persuasive

Well. Can’t choose with which hotel to stay? Let Unitard help! And he’d say choose none! LOL. Check out this vacation rental commercial video going viral on the Internet:

Yes, he’s quite persuasive, wouldn’t you say? It’s a new commercial from Vacation Rental.org; word has it that it was banned from the Superbowl ad lineup. Hmmm. Wonder why!

Actually, I agree with the Superhero Unitard. Hotels are, generally speaking, too nasty for me. I like the homey bed and breakfasts, but if you are a regular reader, you know that I dislike hotels. I think they are dirty, just by the fact that so many people from all over the world sleep in them. Eww. Better accommodations are vacation rentals: they are usually cleaner, more personable, much more spacious, and now, thanks to VacationRental.org, rentals are widely available for viewing and reserving. I much prefer a rental unit to a small (expensive) hotel. You can search the website for the rental of your choice.

If you insist on visiting a hotel– beware: I hear the Unitard is roaming about Upstate New York or thereabouts.

Finding Places to Live in New York

Believe it or not, people ARE still moving to New York. haha. Here’s hoping that more are moving IN than OUT by now…. but people need apartments and they are definitely difficult to find. Back in my apartment-hunting days, it was tough to know where to go to find one. When I moved to Manhattan, I knew absolutely no one and had no idea where to go for Cheap Apartments in New York; finding a place took a long time. And for Upstate towns, well, I would eventually end up at the local post office, asking the post master if he knew of any rental opportunities (postal workers know everything that goes on in a town). Believe it or not, I did find a few that way! But I’d prefer not to have to do that anymore.

The god news is: we don’t! If you are in need of some cheap apartments in New York, check out the cool website, MyCheapApartments.com. I did a search for Syracuse apartments and found several dozen listings, complete with photos, prices, and detailed information. You may search by location (city, zip code, state), by price, by bedrooms, and by bathrooms. Some listings have beautiful, detailed photos, floorplans, and walkthrough videos. Nice. And landlords, you can list your rental units on the site for terrific exposure. This site is perfect for finding a nice place to live. And Upstate New York is gorgeous! Everyone should live here.