We love a good themed hotel: playful, gorgeous and aimed at pleasing the eye. Hotels with differently themed rooms appeal because it’s fun to stay in a different ‘land’ each time you visit. Even better is a hotel that carries an entire theme for a year, and that’s The Roxbury, where this year’s theme is ‘haunted,’ which makes for a perfect visit as spooky season rears its skeletal head. (Last year's theme was 'bodega,' which must have also been fun!)
Is it any surprise that two Broadway set designers created this unusual hotel? Just a few hours outside of New York City in the town of Roxbury (in the beautiful Catskill mountains), The Roxbury offers guests the choice of 30 rooms and cottages, each uniquely decorated like a film set. Co-owners Gregory Henderson and Joseph Massa, former Broadway set designers, applied their creativity and impressive talent to making The Roxbury a magical playground. The hotel actually consists of two different spaces, the original motel with its whimsically decorated rooms, and a mansion just a few miles away, where children under the age of 14 are not permitted because the historic building is a bit fragile.
Guest spaces vary in their vibe: do you love alien movies set on forlorn lunar landscapes? There’s a room for that. Are you more of a haunted mansion person who wants to catch a wraith out of the corner of your eye? No problem: The Roxbury’s got you covered. Three rooms especially fall in with the haunted theme this year.
One is the Dracula’s Fang Cottage, where you can spend time in Bram Stoker’s world. The interior stone walls evoke a castle, plus there’s a winding staircase, bat sculptures, Gothic candelabras, beckoning hands emerging out of walls (in the bathroom, they double as towel hooks), and blood-red furnishings to give you all the Halloween feels you could ever want.
Another is The Ghost & Mrs. Hicks—a nod to the movie The Ghost & Mrs. Muir—which is said to be haunted by the former owner Mrs. Hicks. According to the hotel’s press release, she “likes to make her presence known,” so book this one at your own risk. It’s decorated in unearthly mint green with Victorian accents and a punched tin ceiling. The wallpaper at first glance seems to be a typical florid design, but closer scrutiny shows alarming images which may provide a clue as to Mrs. Hicks’s demise.
For a lighter take on Halloween, there’s the Cinderella’s Gown cottage. Nestle down for the night with an eye-popping 18-foot ballgown canopy over one of the beds (to be accurate, it’s yellow, so is this Belle’s gown?), a bathroom encased in a three-dimensional pumpkin coach, half-timbered walls to look like Cinderella’s cottage, and a very cool grandfather clock sculpture set at five minutes before midnight.
One more thing to boost this hotel? While I adore themed hotels, sometimes they can be too "busy." At The Roxbury, the rooms are fully but subtly decorated so that the décor doesn’t get in the way of your enjoyment—and you can still find a place to put your luggage.