Hemlock Neversink is a 230-acre resort in the Catskills built on a premise that sounds like a gimmick until you read the activity calendar: summer camp, for adults. The property just announced its biggest expansion since it opened in 2023, headlined by a 53-foot Alpine Tower strung with climbing walls, cargo nets and suspended challenge-course elements. Add beekeeping workshops, Mahjong weekends and a spa with an indoor pool and a steam room, and you have a place engineered for guys who remember being twelve with a paddle in their hands and would like to feel that way again.
What Do You Call Your "Guys Trips"?
Hemlock is a 16-and-up property, and the new programming leans hard into skills you pick up rather than boxes you tick off.
- The Alpine Tower stands roughly 53 feet and opens this summer with climbing walls, cargo nets and suspended challenge-course elements.
- Honey and Hive runs guided honey tastings on the first Saturday of each month and hands-on hive workshops on the third.
- The property hosts its first dedicated Mahjong Weekend from August 7 to 9.
- A resident goat sanctuary anchors the guided goat hikes, which have become one of Hemlock's signature activities.
- Select Family Weeks open the resort to all ages, with the next one running December 20 to 27.
I went to summer camp as a kid, and I remember it the way most guys my age do, as the best two weeks of the year. What I like about Hemlock Neversink's Adult Summer Camp is that it hands the whole thing back to you with no permission slip required and a cocktail by the fire pit instead of a cup of bug juice. That is a more interesting pitch for a weekend with the guys than another resort where the biggest decision of the day is which pool chair to claim.
Climb the 53-Foot Alpine Tower
The Alpine Tower opens this summer, a freestanding timber structure standing roughly 53 feet with climbing walls, cargo nets and suspended elements lifted straight from the challenge courses at high-end summer camps. Several people can work different faces of it at the same time, which is the detail that matters for a group. Nobody stands around waiting for a turn.
It is also the strongest argument for pointing a bachelor party or a group of work colleagues at Neversink, New York instead of the usual golf resort. A tower like this produces the one thing a good guys trip needs, which is a story where somebody froze halfway up the cargo net and somebody else did not.
Honey Tastings, Hive Visits and a Mahjong Weekend
Hemlock has gone all in on hobby travel, and the beekeeping track is the one I would sign up for first. Honey and Hive is led by resident bee expert Donna DeFalco. On the first Saturday of each month, Bee-licious turns guests into honey sommeliers for an afternoon, tasting through honeys that shift in flavor with the local flora and the season. On the third Saturday, Hive Harmony goes hands-on with beeswax wraps and propolis products, and when the weather cooperates you suit up and look inside an active colony.
Mahjong is the other addition worth watching. Hemlock hosts its first dedicated Mahjong Weekend from August 7 to 9, with instruction from Mahjong Clara out of Chappaqua, New York, and the following weekend, August 14 to 16, Return to Self brings in Nadia Murdock for a program built around movement and reflection. Both are the same bet: that a group will travel for a skill they can take home, not just a room they can sleep in.
Goat Hikes and a Spa for the Slow Days
Not every day at camp is a climbing day. Hemlock keeps a resident goat sanctuary, and the guided goat hikes have turned into one of the property's signature experiences. That is the kind of detail that sells a Catskills weekend to a group that would otherwise spend the whole planning thread arguing about tee times. Seasonal garden workshops, lawn games and fireside gatherings fill in the hours around it.
The spa is the other half of the pitch, billed as one of the best in upstate New York, and the piece that matters for a group is the steam room and sauna after a day on the tower. Dinner is at Bittersweet, the farm-to-table restaurant on the property. Hemlock also sells a Spa Day Pass to people who are not staying over, which is the tell that the spa was built to stand on its own rather than as an amenity checkbox.
This is the point where the whole concept clicked for me. It works as a guys trip in upstate New York, and it works just as well as a romantic getaway. Heather and I have done enough foodie weekends to know that a property with a serious restaurant, a real spa and 230 acres of trails is a hard combination to beat.
Family Weeks and the Father-Son Trip
That covers two of the three trips this place can absorb. The third one caught me off guard. The 16-and-up policy is the entire reason the adult-camp framing holds together, so it is worth knowing that Hemlock sets it aside a few times a year. Select Family Weeks open the property to every age group, and the next one lands December 20 to 27 over winter break, with kids 15 and under staying free.
For guys with kids, that is the version of this trip worth circling on the calendar. A father-son week in upstate New York where your kid climbs a 53-foot tower, you both hike with goats, and neither of you touches a screen for a few days will outlast most of what a family vacation budget usually buys. Same property, different assignment.
Hemlock Neversink Gives Adults Permission To Play Again!
"We often describe Hemlock as an adult camp," said Sims Foster, co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality. "There's something special about giving people permission to play again."
Hemlock is one of four Foster Supply hotels clustered in Sullivan County, alongside The DeBruce, Kenoza Hall and the Arnold House. That opens up an option worth planning around: a group that wants the camp experience but also wants one properly serious dinner can split a long weekend across two of the properties. If you want the Alpine Tower and the first Mahjong Weekend in the same trip, August is the window to book.