Looking for a luxury Passover hotel experience less than three hours from NYC? Pesach event planner Mendy Vim offers a unique location for the discerning holiday traveler: the Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs, NY. It’s not every day you can stay in a beautiful historic hotel tucked away inside a state park, surrounded by natural mineral springs–where the water is believed to have special healing powers. Now a Glatt Kosher Passover hotel destination, the Gideon Putnam effortlessly blends its historic character with exceptional service in an inspiring locale.
This national historic landmark, and the only hotel in the park, offers all the upscale amenities you’d expect from a first-class resort with a world-class spa next door. Relax and soak up the natural mineral waters that made Saratoga Springs famous, or take a walk in the 2,300-acre Saratoga Spa State park, home to miles of woodsy hiking and biking trails, several museums, a towering pine-tree forest and gushing mineral springs. There’s championship golf and tennis, a fitness center, tasting tours and bicycling tours, a reflecting pool, horse-drawn-carriage rides, ice skating (in season), the European-style Roosevelt Spa, and wonderful suites and guest rooms that overlook the lush, sprawling view.
Saratoga Springs has long been known as a popular vacation destination; the rich and famous built lush mansions to inhabit for the season; FDR and Hollywood greats stayed here too. Today, the architecture is diverse and gorgeous, and village streets are lined with boutiques and art galleries. There’s a flourishing art district, Italian sculpture gardens, and mineral springs where people still come to taste the water and fill up bottles to take home. Visitors can see the Victorian mansions, visit the museums, tour an American Revolutionary War battlefield, or enjoy terrific Adirondack skiing and snow tubing just 30 minutes away.
For Pesach closer to home, Vim’s Holidays returns for its seventh year to their guests’ perennial favorite location, the Heritage Resort in Southbury, CT. Only about an hour’s travel from the Whitestone Bridge, this full-featured New England resort offers a world of amenities in a rural location while remaining super convenient for travel from New York City or Boston. Mendy’s guests at the Heritage will enjoy its elegant ambiance and the stellar cast of internationally renowned speakers, lecturers, and entertainment. Many familiar faces–Chazzan Nachman Shneider, Rabbi Aaron E. Glatt, Rabbi Dovid Hirsch, and Yoel Sharabi–will be returning to Vim’s Holidays, along with some new speakers and entertainment for an interesting blend of the old and new.
The Heritage is an extensive facility with manicured grounds; spacious and contemporary rooms and suites, many overlooking the Pomperaug River or the resort’s golf course; a challenging par 35 nine-hole USGA-rated golf course, club house, and putting green; two championship indoor racquetball courts; indoor and outdoor swimming pools; outdoor tennis and basketball courts; hiking trails; a full-featured fitness club with sauna and hot tub, daily exercise, and yoga classes; mountain bike rentals; and an on-site spa offering rejuvenating skin and body treatments.
Savor each flavorful moment, from delicious entrees to sinful desserts, traditional Passover dishes to timeless favorites; Mendy’s chefs serve up one mouth-watering dish after another made with the freshest local and regional ingredients. With terrific chol hamoed trips, outstanding programs, children’s day camp, and their 40-year tradition of outstanding service, both Vim’s Holidays locations offer a wonderful Passover experience. For more info call 718-998-4477 or 410-484-5553 or visit the website www.vimsholidays.com.
