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When we say, “all-inclusive” in the Catskills, we mean more than just amenities

You know how sometimes you go on "vacation" and end up spending half of it waiting for everyone to agree on what to do, what to eat, where to go — and then waiting in line once you get there?

Well, we'd like to commiserate with you, we really would, but the truth is we just don't have that problem. When you stay at one of our Catskills all-inclusive family resorts, you find out pretty quickly that you need only wait for the sun to rise. After that, just pick a direction and go.

Sure, there are decisions to make: swimming pool or lake? Hiking or mountain biking? Canoe or kayak? Golf or tennis? Ping-pong or shuffleboard? Movie on the lawn or live band under the tent?

You know what, never mind that. Do it all. You don't have to cook or clean. You don't even have to leave the resort for most of these if you don't choose to. You have time because time is what we give you. Time to breathe. Time to be together as a family — and also time to let each member of your family wander away too, because not everybody likes the same stuff all the time, right?

Be a Free Range Kid

Sunny Hill Resort

Remember what it was like to be what the folks at Sunny Hill Resort call a "free-range kid" in the summertime? When the only rules after you hopped up from breakfast were to check in for lunch and make it home for dinner? You haven't forgotten what it was like before your little ones arrived on the scene, when you could stare down that stretch between lunch and dinner and say, "I've got nothing to do but whatever I feel like doing?"

That's what staying in an all-inclusive resort means. You're just here. You can plan not to plan. You don't even have to get in your car unless you want to. Heck, you don't even need a car to get here. We're two hours north of New York City, and if you ask nicely, we might just send somebody to pick you up from the train station. The families who own many of these resorts used to do it in horse and buggy, after all, so a car pick-up is no bother.

Year-Round Family Fun

Winter Clove Inn

This is what we do, and after generations of doing it — our own Winter Clove Inn is the oldest single-family-owned inn to be found in the U.S., as a matter of fact — we've learned how to take all those pesky little details of vacationing off your plate and replace them with home-cooked meals.

Now, maybe you're thinking, if some of these all-inclusive resorts have been around for centuries, does that mean I'm roughing it? Well, no. You may not find many televisions around, but we like our Wi-Fi as much as the next, and anyway, we're pretty sure you won't want to be glued to a screen. In fact, we're willing to bet that more than once you're going to look down at your phone and wonder, how am I still at 90 percent?

We've seen people meet here as toddlers and then asked the resort to host their weddings 20 years later. But it's not just nostalgia that keeps people coming back for generations. The fact is, nobody wants to leave this place behind for too long.

Of course, except for us lucky few who get to live here, the outside world does inevitably pull you back. But when it does, it's comforting to know that when you return to the Catskills, you're coming to a place that feels like home, and to people who think of you as family.