tourist hotel berkshires

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” - Henry David Thoreau

• Sanford Suite
• Archer Suite

TOURISTS is a hotel and riverside retreat inspired by the classic American roadside motor lodge, set on the banks of the Hoosic River in the Berkshires city of North Adams. Our 46-room property is a union of design and nature, home to woodland trails, riverbank vistas, sculptural installations, and more. Using common, organic materials, your room is both haven and trailhead, connecting you with your vacation self and serving as a basecamp for adventure.

Activities at TOURISTS

On property.

Hikes, yoga, crafts and more on our 80-acre forest campus.

Sing for Your Slumber

Our signature live music series. All are welcome.

One of the world's most dynamic centers for contemporary visual and performing art set in a sprawling 19th century factory.

Mount Greylock

Celebrated by Thoreau, Melville, and others, it's the highest point in Massachusetts at 3,489 feet. Accessible by hike or drive.

Internationally renowned art collection and research center, in a 140 acre pastoral setting.

APPALACHIAN TRAIL

"Three modern girls, each with a heavy pack, march bravely out from Blackinton on the winding forest track...at the start of the old Long Trail." – 1933

The Cascade

A short, beautiful forest amble tracing Notch Brook in North Adams to a cascading waterfall.

The Northeast's premiere tree-to-tree adventure park set in a 1,400-acre forest preserve.

Ashuwillticook Bike Trail

Rail-to-trail running 11.2 miles from Adams to Lanesborough. Outstanding views of scenery and wildlife.

Cricket Creek Farm

Family owned, grass-based cow dairy in Williamstown, with farm store featuring award-winning cheeses.

Hairpin Turn

Completed in 1914, a spectacular scenic vista overlooking North Adams and the Hoosic River Valley.

Berkshire Rivers Fly Fishing

Year-round guided boat and wading trips and casting lessons to fishermen of all skill levels in Western MA.

Zoar Outdoor

Guided whitewater rafting and kayaking trips on the Deerfield River

Windsor Lake

Just above downtown North Adams, with a legacy of outdoor fun - swim, boat, fish, bbq, playground.

Erected on Whitcomb Summit by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in 1923 honoring those who lost their lives in World War I.

Natural Bridge

America's only natural white marble arch. Walter Fähndrich's Music for a Quarry plays at twilight.

50-acre former dairy farm now home to the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.

Linear Park

Splash spot in the Green River for families with playground and picnic area.

SAVOY Mountain State Forest

Glacial lake surrounded by tall pines and 50 miles of hiking trails.

Hancock Shaker Village

750-acre living history museum with authentic Shaker buildings, exhibitions, and family events.

The Taconic Range

“They abound with springs and streams of water, and are everywhere covered with woods...” – 1809

The Hoosac Range

"With a complex of phyllite, quartzite, and granitic bedrock, it defines the eastern flank of the valley." – 2014

Berkshire Outfitters

Canoes, kayaks, bikes, skis, and everything else for your outdoor excursions.

Mohawk Trail State Forest

6,000 lush acres of mountain ridges, gorges, and woods teeming with wildlife.

The Airport Rooms is our neighborhood cocktail lounge and restaurant . Join us for dinner in the dining room, drinks in the lounge, or upstairs in one of our four private dining rooms. Parking is available in the hotel lot.

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Our Lodge is open to all for breakfast, all-day snacks, coffee/tea, cocktails, wine, beer, and boozeless bevs. Visit our calendar for upcoming guest chef pop-ups and other happenings.

• Breakfast menu
• Snacks menu
• Beverage menu
• The Airport Rooms menu

BREAKFAST Thur-Mon (7:30-10:30a)

ALL-DAY SNACKS Thur (3-9p); Fri-Sun (12-9p)

THE AIRPORT ROOMS Thur-Sun (5-9p)

Got a gathering in mind? Book a room block while you're here. Or better yet, t ake over the whole hotel. Weddings, retreats, dinner parties, and parties parties happen here too.

Let's talk. Follow the link below to get things started.

SUBMIT EVENT REQUEST

Introducing our purpose-built, hand-crafted cabins. Explore our first model, The Starling, during your next trip to the hotel. Visit the link below to learn more.

Savor the Berkshires in all their glory. This summer and fall, stay 4+ nights and we'll cover 1 night's sleep. That's four nights for the price of three. Some restrictions may apply.

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• Restores and protects natural ecosystems and wildlife

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How Wilco’s Bassist and His Friends Turned a Berkshires Motel Into Tourists, a Dream Summer Getaway

What once was a one-star hotel in north adams, massachusetts, is now an eco-friendly lodge with a james beard award–winning chef where everyone is welcome..

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Tourists opened on July 30, 2018, in the Berkshires.

Photo by Nick Simonite

Between Mass MoCA and Tanglewood—the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—North Adams, Massachusetts, has become an epicenter of art and music in New England and a popular weekend getaway for people living on the East Coast. But the small town’s history as a summer destination goes back to when the Mohawk Trail, the first U.S. scenic byway, opened in 1914, drawing a generation of newly mobile travelers through the Berkshires.

Now, one of the midcentury motor lodges located on that historic road has reopened as Tourists , a brand-new, 48-room resort from John Stirratt, the bassist from Wilco, Ben Svenson, from the design-led development company Broder, as well as a diverse group that includes Brooklyn Magazine’ s founder, the former chef of San Francisco’s Bar Tartine, and a local brewer from North Adams.

Airport Rooms and Tourist Home, 861 State Road, North Adams, MA. Operated by Virginia Stevens for 50 Years between 1944 and 1994, the 1813 Farmhouse undoubtedly had a long history of hospitality even before those years, in a place that has always attracted visitors. The simple sign TOURISTS, placed by Virginia and others on the Mohawk Trail beckoned motorists to stop and stay a while. #berkshires #mohawktrail A post shared by TOURISTS (@touristswelcome) on Jan 21, 2018 at 5:45am PST

The group was inspired to name the hotel Tourists after finding a vintage sign on the property while they were renovating it.

“It was a word that spoke to the history of this region in particular,” Svenson told AFAR. “A lot of what we’re trying to do is to tap into an economy that really moved the needle in North Adams not so long ago. There has been a huge tourism legacy here and we wanted to tie into that past and remind people all it has to offer.”

Using the foundation from a midcentury motor lodge, the 48 rooms at TOURISTS have been rebuilt from the ground up.

Even though the midcentury Redwoods Motel was still operational when they bought it, the one-star motel was in such a state of disrepair, the team decided to keep the foundation but rebuild the rest from scratch to create an eco-friendly hotel with a minimalist vibe that Stirratt describes as an “austere luxurious experience.” Designed by architect Hank Scollard, a protege of MASS MoCA architect Simeon Bruner, the rooms have built-in king beds, high-vaulted ceilings, and picture windows looking over the forest behind the hotel. To further bring the outdoors inside, the LEED platinum eligible-hotel also has an advanced air circulation system that brings fresh air into each room every hour. Some rooms come with bunk beds for families, and all of them include outdoor space via semi-private patios or private decks with outdoor showers.

A new hotel is about to blow minds. Follow @touristswelcome to see how. Opens July 30. Thanks @stirratt2 for having me. #morethanahotel #experience #theberkshires #summernights #getaway A post shared by John Dolan (@johndolanphotog) on Jul 1, 2018 at 5:05pm PDT

While Stirratt had been coming to North Adams for years to play at Tanglewood, he and the rest of the team had to convince chef Cortney Burns, formerly of San Francisco’s Bar Tartine and Duna , to move out east to head up the food program at TOURISTS. For now, Burns cooks the lighter fare that is served at the lodge and deck bar, but in early 2019 she’ll open the hotel’s restaurant, LOOM, in a church-like structure on the property that used to be the home of a Welsh temperance society.

In addition to the restaurant and the hotel, two other structures on the property have been repurposed into centralized spaces for guests. A 1962 ranch house now serves as the hotel’s lodge, where guests can drink coffee in front of the fireplace in the morning, enjoy a snack in the evening, or spend time outdoors on the patio that overlooks the pool. The 1813 farmhouse, just a short walk away, has been transformed into a cocktail lounge and live music venue.

Stirratt also convinced his friends from New Orleans Airlift , an artist collective famous for building pieces of playable architecture, to come out last summer and build the Chime Chapel , which he describes as a “little nest stage out in the woods” behind the property where he plans to host shows throughout the summer.

In addition to organized shows at the Chime Chapel, Stirratt says he plans on luring friends in bands out to Tourists while they’re touring the Northeast.

“We like this idea of off-hand musical performances,” Stirratt said. “The real magic has happened with these accidental musical combinations that you just can’t plan. We’re looking for more magic like that.”

Tourists opened on July 30, 2018. R ates average $195 per night.

>> Next: The Sweetest Small Towns to Visit in the U.S. This Summer

Designed for the 21st-century traveler, the Tourists hotel maintains a rustic look that intertwines with a mid-century interior that is surprisingly contemporary. Surrounded by the greenery of the Berkshires, it has a forest waiting to be explored and trails perfect for a morning walk or run. It’s close proximity to the Appalachian Trail makes it the perfect place to come back to and enjoy their outdoor sitting area, the lounge, and comfortable rooms. With 48 rooms available, you’re spoilt for choice especially after finding out that there’s something special about each room’s design and features.

The Canopy and Ramble rooms are visitor favorites. They have stunning views of the river and woods plus are much more private. If you happen to visit in the summer you’ll like the outdoor shower and salt-water pool at this mountain-resort. Vegetarian meal options are available and it is also wheel-chair accessible. A yoga pavilion is on-site but if you prefer to go it alone then meditation in the forest is an option. Sculptural installations are a feast for the eyes along with the riverbank vistas. Room service is available if you enjoy the indoor delights such as requested massages and comfortable bedding. This includes free WiFi, air-conditioning, a fireplace, Flatscreen TV and yes, even a minibar.

If skydiving is on your bucket list then get ready to tick it off. A simple 0.4 miles is how far the Berkshire Skydiving spot is. In the afternoon, travel about 2.1 miles to Marion Ave which houses the Cascade Falls. They’ll be a refreshing site before coming back to the hotel for a warm and tasty dinner. Hikers can find themselves just 4.4 miles from Tourists at a special place called Mount Greylock. The drive up and the views are stunning especially during the fall. They even have a huge tower to view everything from! If there’s still some time, you can schedule a private guided hike at the hotel. Forest bathing is available too.

Discover the Berkshires

Tourists Hotel

A Modern Berkshires Retreat: Channeling the charm of classic motor lodges and set alongside the tranquil Hoosic River in North Adams, TOURISTS seamlessly integrates cutting-edge design with nature's allure. Dive into an immersive Berkshires experience with trails, art, and a room that feels like a serene escapade.

• Phone: 413-346-4933
• Location: 915 State Road, North Adams, MA 01247
• Visit Website

North Adams, MA 01247

Tagged: North Adams , Towns

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Tourists Welcome

Big Things Are Happening in the Berkshires

North Adams, Massachusetts was an industrial town. Then it became a museum town. With the recent opening of Tourists, it can now call itself a cutting-edge boutique hotel town.

The first thing we wanted to ask Ben Svenson is why he named his hotel after the dirtiest word in travel. Tourists. Mutter it under your breath and you evoke the image of a destructive cultural viking, rolling through town as part of an unconscious horde, erasing what feels special about the place. In an ideal world, we would never be rampaging tourists, and always enlightened visitors . Interested travelers . Or, as the mayor of one overrun Italian city requested, “temporary cultural inhabitants.”

The founders of Tourists , an exciting new hotel in the Berkshires, have no use for such euphemisms.

Here in North Adams, Massachusetts, they’ve reclaimed the word. On the site of what was once the ’60s-era Redwood Motel, a group of partners came together with the goal of creating a self-contained 18-room clubhouse. But the project grew, and mutated, and drew in surrounding properties, and by the time it opened in 2018, this former motel on the banks of the Hoosic River featured all the ecological wonder of the Berkshires, coupled with high-end amenities and a visual sensibility inspired by the celebrated design oasis of Sea Ranch, California.

20 years ago, this would not have been the hotel you’d expect to find here. North Adams is a city that was long synonymous with the decline of American manufacturing. These days, it’s better known for hosting the largest contemporary art museum in North America. Svenson’s answer to the question — why Tourists ? — spans both of these realities.

But first, the literal answer. The history of tourism in the northern Berkshires goes back at least a hundred years, with the construction of the scenic Mohawk Trail in 1914. During the trend’s heyday in the 1940s and ’50s, road signs sought to lure tourists from their scenic drives to restaurants and lodging. As he got to know the space that would become Tourists, Ben Svenson, part of an impressive group of founding partners, found one such old, faded wooden sign.

It displayed a single word, and you can guess which one. “That was a convention from the Mohawk Trail,” Svenson explains, “to have this word Tourists with an arrow.” And considering all the connotations of the word today — vikings, selfie sticks, etc. — “it just felt so radical.”

They named their hotel Tourists (well, technically they named it Tourists Welcome), but the sign isn’t the only reason why. North Adams is a city that’s by all accounts still in the process of revival. In 1985, Sprague Electric — a massive complex of buildings that headquartered the city’s major employer — closed, devastating a city where it employed, in some cases, multiple members of the same family. Just a year later, the community saw a path forward. The project, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), would take up residence in the abandoned buildings of Sprague Electric and, hopefully, provide a big enough draw to revive the city. After a grueling march through fundraising struggles and political courtship, MASS MoCA finally opened in 1999.

And while the museum wasn’t, as some had hoped, a “silver bullet” to economic revival, it has, over time, made a significant difference. As Joseph Thompson, founding director of MASS MoCA, put it in an interview last August, “The last five years, there’s a new vibe in town, and you can see it and feel it. Younger people are moving to town. There are new restaurants opening up all the time. There’s been probably twenty-five million dollars just in hotel investment.”

As we put it when we first added Tourists to Tablet shortly after their opening: “The Berkshires are undergoing the sort of revival that travel trend pieces are made of.” The pandemic has only illuminated the importance and the capability of cultural institutions to power an economy. Annual attendance numbers at MASS MoCA have reached 300,000 in the past, with gawkers and enthusiasts drawn by the biggest names in contemporary art, and the artists drawn perhaps by nothing so simple as the sheer quantity of space. In Building 5, home to one large gallery exhibit at a time, artists build giant, awe-inspiring pieces from scratch. See one of these pieces and you get a sense of the scale of this museum, and how it might anchor an economy.

“The art and the way that we make it here in collaboration with artists is more akin to filmmaking — in which there are artistic directors and lighting and sound and there’s obviously a creative director, the artist,” said Thompson in the documentary about his institution, Museum Town . “There’s a whole slew of people who are coming together to make a very complicated work of art.”

In short, an art-powered economic engine. Undoubtedly, it’s an engine that brings tourists, and brought Tourists, too. “Tourists does not exist without MASS MoCA,” affirms Svenson. Nearly every founding member of the hotel group came to know North Adams through the museum. In the case of John Stirratt, bassist-turned-hotelier, the connection is the Solid Sound Festival, a massive event at the museum every other summer headlined and curated by his band, Wilco.

North Adams has become more and more of a museum town since the arrival of MASS MoCA, a community of artists and temporary cultural inhabitants both. Still, there’s a divide between the museum visitors and those who’ve lived here for decades. “This is a funny place to have a very high-end hotel,” admits Svenson. And here we have another reason for the name. “Just to call a spade a spade felt interesting.”

It’s a self-awareness that grows from a desire to close the distance between the disparate elements of North Adams. “We had a growing conviction that people were coming here and not sleeping here, because they didn’t have a place that spoke to them,” says Svenson. “If you could connect those dots of getting the visitors of MASS MoCA to actually sleep here, you could not only create a business that was dynamite, but employ a bunch of people whose prospects were not so great for employment in the area.”

The visitors of MASS MoCA definitely sleep here. Why wouldn’t they? We love to feature restored motels on Tablet. This one’s different. “If you do what I do for a living,” says Svenson, a developer, “the first thing you do is introduce yourself to your neighbors.” On his rounds, he found that most of them wanted to sell, a sign of where North Adams was at the time. Before long, 30 parcels of land united to create 55 acres (now over 80) of what one reviewer aptly described as “something of an adult summer camp compound.” Walking trails pepper the campus (aided by a wooden suspension bridge built over the Hoosic River).

Peppered across the compound: a saltwater pool, various sculptural installations, a lodge for dining, and a cozy space called the Airport Rooms. Svenson and partners stumbled upon this last structure, created from a ’40s-era rooming house, in a state of mid-century suspended animation. “John said when he saw the Airport Rooms, he said, ‘oh my God, it’s like a Hollywood prop house,’” remembers Svenson. “It was like, Brillo Pads from 1952 still in their packaging.” Today, it provides a purposely intimate, too-small venue for live music and cocktails. It’s among the features most missed in this age of open air and six-foot distances.

The broken-down Redwood Motel, meanwhile, was replaced by another warm, stylish, and hip little hideout. Svenson wanted the experience of the rooms to feel like you had direct contact with the outside world. Keeping the features of the motel they enjoyed — namely, your own door and that comforting sense of repetition — they added their favorite creature comforts. Back decks, outdoor showers, and “bay windows the size of a full mattress.”

Then there’s that striking white oak siding. This is where Svenson really lights up. “That’s completely taken from Sea Ranch’s design principles of finding a locally sourced, natural material that does not require treatment and will last a long time,” he explains, a little giddy. “Sea Ranch was all about creating buildings that were basically so integrated into their setting that they could visually disappear — and increasingly so over time, as the buildings become aged in a way that’s almost part of the woods. Tourists was an attempt to do that.”

“They had redwood. For us, we found white oak.”

After COVID forced the closing of the hotel and the museum, both are currently reopened with the appropriate adjustments. Thanks to its ample outdoor space and private entrances, Tourists has found itself better positioned than many hotels to offer a comfortable escape. An art and adventure program they began in 2019 was a particular godsend for guests as some of the usual attractions around the city were shuttered. If you were there now, you’d find seasonal activities — fire-building classes and snowshoeing — along with some they’ll keep year-round. Take a guided hike into the woods, an art walk around North Adams, go stargazing and eat s’mores, or visit the outdoor exhibits at The Clark (the other renowned art museum nearby).

And if you were there right now, you don’t have to think of yourself as a tourist. But really, you are one. And if that feels confrontational to you, Svenson’s sure you can handle it.

“I believe our audience likes to be challenged,” he says. In fact, the name is almost a conceptual art piece in itself. “It’s like if you opened a supermarket and you named it ‘food,’” he says. “There’s something really kinda funny about that.” ▪

  Book Tourists on Tablet Hotels.

Photo credits: Peter Crosby , Nick Simonite , Nicole Franzen , R’el Dade and Marcus Lloyd

Tourists Welcome: A Rustic Oasis in the Berkshires

“We thought that it would be kind of funny to call a spade a spade,” says Ben Svenson, lead partner and visionary behind Tourists , a new hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts. “We like the challenging nature of taking a word that has a negative connotation and being forced to reconsider it.”

It seems like everyone is reconsidering North Adams lately, from visitors to the increasingly popular Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) to the buyers behind the rise in single-family home sales. Tourists, which opened in July, puts the city and its surrounding areas firmly back on the map.

The five partners behind Tourists—Svenson; brewery owner Eric Kerns; chef Cortney Burns; John Stirratt, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning band Wilco; and founder of Brooklyn Magazine and Northside Media Group Scott Stedman— describe the 48-room property as a post-Airbnb hospitality experience with modern design elements contrasting artfully with the woodland trails, riverbank vistas, and sculptural installations that surround the hotel. A 1962 ranch house that stood there previously has been repurposed into the hotel’s central lodge, which Stedman calls the “community living room, a place to congregate casually and share time with friends or meet new people.”

“We celebrate the idea of leisure travel as a tourist, embracing the most remarkable aspects of a region,” he continues. “North Adams is such a spectacular and unusual convergence of art and nature, and we felt that being a tourist here is a really remarkable experience. We wanted to create a brand that exemplifies that.”

915 STATE ROAD

NORTH ADAMS, MA

Tourists is a new hotel in the Berkshires, for art and other lovers

Art aficionados slot The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art high on their bucket lists for good reason. A vast art and performance space housed in a former 19 th -century textile mill complex, MASS MoCA specializes in large scale immersive installations. For example, during my recent visit, I was able to admire Liz Glynn’s The Archaeology of Another Possible Future , the five-part exhibition spreading across 30,000 square feet. Visitors begin by wandering among the “analog caves” of reclaimed forklift panels, then through shipping containers which stand as “relics of a global economy in acute transition,” then up scaffolding towers where 3D printers produce usable pieces of hardware, to end in “the post-industrial vacationland” where hospital stretchers, modified into lounge chairs, recline under tanning lamps. Glynn’s project, which invites viewers to ponder “What happens to stuff, and the people who make stuff, in the age of an increasingly virtual, dematerialized economy?” is ambitious both conceptually and physically. And it’s just one of the many works at MASS MoCA that could be displayed in few, if any, other settings.  

Museum goers can easily spend an entire day there, but — even if they planned to visit the nearby Clark Art Institute, valued for its French Impressionists, the next day — they’d have a ways to go to find a hotel that complemented the art experience they’d just enjoyed. T he Southern Berkshires, home to towns like Stockbridge and Great Barrington, has long catered to visitors, but there simply hadn’t been a hotel in the Northern Berkshires that would appeal to the kind of folks, say, who’d happily drive three hours from Manhattan to view Jenny Holzer’s LED light projections. That’s changing.  

Enter Tourists, a hotel and retreat on Route 2 in North Adams, newly renovated and expanded from the slowly dying Redwoods Motel. With 48 rooms, Tourists has the expected luxuries — a pool and deck bar — as well as the unexpected, such as a suspension bridge spanning the Hoosic River, leading to fifty acres of hiking trails.  One trail leads to a yoga/meditation deck. Another leads to “The Chime Chapel,” an outdoor sculpture of playable windchimes, created by the New Orleans art collaborative Airlift. Yet another path links to the Appalachian Trail, so hikes can extend beyond the fifty acres, perhaps even to Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. Greylock’s distinctive silhouette, covered in snow, looked like a great white sperm whale to Herman Melville and inspired Moby Dick .   

The name “Tourists” came from a giant wooden sign the hotel’s creators found in the derelict Redwoods. They kept more than just the sign; the aesthetic at Tourists is moto-lodge chic. A “camp out” feel reigns, from the cedar-clad lobby to the coffee served in retro Stanley thermoses, to the guest rooms’ high-end toiletries redolent of — could it be — Vic’s Vapo Rub?  James Beard Award-winning chef Cortney Burns’ “sweet bite” menu includes the ingredient “spruce” before the more familiar “chocolate chip cookie,” and “sumac” modifies “granola.” Burns’ high-end restaurant, LOOM, currently under construction in an old church on the property, won’t be finished until winter, but one can enjoy her playful “jar food” starting July 30, when the hotel opens.  Remember sitting around a fire at sleepaway camp , grilling hot dogs on sticks, potatoes in tin foil, making apple pie in a tin can? Burns’ jar of fermented butternut squash and sesame dip served with spelt porridge bread was indeed consumed around a fire at Tourists — though that might be the only similarity with my years of Camp Singing Hills cuisine.

Perhaps the uniqueness of Tourists has less to do with details of design and more to do with the spirit of its creators.  The origin story captures this well: Several years back Scott Stedman, founder of Northside Media, was chatting with a friend of a friend at a Chicago party.  When their talk turned to passion projects, they discovered they both harbored the dream of creating a resort. They exchanged ideas on hospitality, discussing how hotels shape travelers’ desire to engage with their locale.  The guy Stedman was talking to? Turns out it was John Stirratt, the bassist for Wilco, who has seen a hotel or two in his time. “You gotta meet my cousin Ben, a real estate developer,” Stedman told Stirratt. So cousin Ben got on board; and Ben’s brother, Eric; and Eric’s brother-in-law, Dana, and so on. Eventually there would be eight partners, which they’d need to pull off the buying of twenty-two different parcels in North Adams, an area Stirrat had first fallen in love with when performing at the Solid Sound music festival in 2010.  

How does this spirit of serendipity and creative collaboration play out on the ground?  Consider that the Tourists team used the hotel’s soft opening not as an opportunity to reward investors or charm travel industry insiders, but to bring poets together.  Good-time guru Stedman (who does NOT seem like the head of a successful marketing company, and that’s a compliment) invited five poetic co-hosts — Jeff Gordinier, Dan Chiasson, Sandra Beasley, Jana Prikryl and myself — to invite poets we admire for a poetry-pop up retreat, free of charge. Poets NEVER turn down anything free of charge.  We recited poems about booze standing on picnic tables at cocktail hour, capturing perfectly, says Stedman, “the inebriated joie de vivre of Tourists.” We recited poems, ours and others, at the chime chapel under the stars, around the fire with our jars of food, and while being led by a local forager through the woods. I can’t imagine that treating 35 thirsty poets and partners of poets to a free vacation is sound investment strategy. Which is exactly why Tourists might be on to something. The place has mojo that comes from participating in the gift economy. It’s launching into the world on the turbo jets of love.

So maybe visitors who come to Tourists in order to visit MASS MoCA should consider booking more than one night. Otherwise, they might be so lured by the charms of the hotel that they forget to visit the museum.  

915 State Road

North Adams, MA 01247

(413) 346-4933

touristswelcome.com

Beth Ann Fennelly is Poet Laureate of Mississippi, and most recently the author of Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (W. W. Norton) .

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A New Hotel Comes to the Berkshires, Challenging the Catskills for Coolest Mountain Escape

By Christina Pérez

Judging from photos, you might expect it to be nestled amongst a remote thicket of trees. Or, at the very least, set back from the road by a couple hundred feet. But nope. Tourists , a just-opened 48-room hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts , is shockingly close to a busy thoroughfare, and right across the street from a commercial shopping center. At first glance, the hotel might also appear a little plain—not much more than a strip of seemingly windowless buildings covered in fresh wood panels that reflect a golden glow in the afternoon sun. But that's all part of the plan.

"Surprise and nostalgia, that's what we were aiming for," says Tourists' Eric Kerns. "We wanted to take the concept of the classic roadside motel and turn it into something new."

On that front, Kerns and his partners—an affable all-star crew that includes Wilco's John Stirratt, Brooklyn Magazine 's Scott Stedman, Broder development firm's Ben Svenson, and James Beard Award-winning chef Cortney Burns of San Francisco 's Bar Tartine—have certainly succeeded. Which is actually saying quite a lot. Because while the word nostalgia gets thrown around a lot these days—and many hoteliers have capitalized on the millennial traveler's addiction to kitsch and Instagram by snatching up 1950s roadside motels and retrofitting them with a click-bait mix of hammocks, cacti, and Pendleton prints—a Motel 6 for the Urban Outfitters set Tourists is not. Instead, it's sleek, subtle, and refreshingly grown-up.

By Hayley Maitland

By Alex Kessler

That's not to say visitors won't be compelled to snap photos. They will. But what they'll be capturing is much more legitimate than what's on offer at your average picturesque, newfangled motel. The first hint? A pair of tan Mario Bellini Camaleonda sofas that anchor the lounge in the refurbished 1960s ranch home that serves as the hotel's de facto lobby. The home—one of the only original structures the team kept after purchasing a decrepit motel, its neighboring 1813 farmhouse, and the 55 surrounding acres—has been stripped down to the studs, its warm wood walls left bare, its peaked ceiling lit softly by frosted pendant globes. A towering fireplace looms at its center, a stand-up piano along one side. It's a striking room by all accounts—the kind that promises twinkly evenings and impromptu acoustic sets from Stirratt and his network of visiting musician friends—but it's those low-slung leather sofas that really let you know what's up. Because as unassuming as those modular poufs may seem, they're obsessively coveted by architect fiends with a penchant for '70s Italian design.

"The Berkshires is an insane, world-class arts hub—there's MASSMoCA, The Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, the Williamstown Theatre Festival—and we really wanted to reflect that," explains Stedman. He and his partners tapped an impressive roster of talent to collaborate on aesthetic and vibe: architect Hank Scollard and landscape architect Reed Hilderbrand; Spartan Shop 's Julie Pearson, who decorated the guest rooms in a laid-back mix of neutrals and patterned indigo; and Lisa Reile, an alum of Austin's legendary Bunkhouse Hotel Group (The Saint Cecilia, The San Jose, Hotel San Cristobal , who serves as hospitality consultant. Together with the founding partners, they've created a rich tapestry of modern ideas and sneaky details that add up to thoughtful design, and really good times.

To start, the original motel structure was demolished down to the foundation and replaced by airy structures that are LEED platinum eligible and filter in fresh air hourly through a ventilation system that's hidden beneath each room's built-in king-size beds—eliminating the age-old motel annoyance of sleeping under an overzealous AC. The interior is all lean minimalist, with vaulted ceilings, pale wood panels, and sprawling picture windows outfitted with cushion-covered daybed perches. The televisions in each room are tucked away, too; a pretty panel of cloth was custom-sewn to fit over each flat screen. A small radio on the desk is tuned to a short wave FM station playing a Stirratt-curated mix of mood-enhancing soul and folk. Railroad-striped denim robes hang from the hooks in the bathroom (a nod to Bunkhouse) and a wealth of Ursa toiletries line the bathroom shelves. Fuzzy rainbow-striped towels provide inspiration for impromptu dips in the saltwater pool, or—for the more adventurous—in the Hoosic River that flows below the hotel's newly-built suspension bridge. A portable lantern perched on the nightstand encourages sunset chats and night-time strolls, and each room has sliding glass doors that lead to an outdoor shower and lounge chairs on a wide back deck.

But perhaps the most surprising thing about Tourists is this: once checked-in, it's completely possible to forget that this beautiful escape is, in fact, a roadside motel. And not just because the well-insulated rooms shield from traffic noise, but because each room's windows only allow for views of the property's wooded expanse out back. A meandering vein of back walkways is accessible beyond each room's patio doors, offering unfettered access to the river, pool, farmhouse, bar, lodge, and main deck; the nearby Appalachian Trail is even accessible from those paths, as will Burns's forthcoming restaurant, Loom. In short: over the course of a stay at Tourists, tucked away in the forest, you might not ever see the main road.

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A Minimalist Haven In The Berkshires That’s Perfect For Family Adventures

Tourists hotel, in North Adams, is comfortable, affordable refinement at the intersection of art and nature.

Driving through the Berkshires on my way to a weekend-long poetry festival called Saturnalia at the just-opened Tourists hotel a few years ago, I had the visceral feeling of sinking into the past while climbing ever higher through forested hills. I’d never been to the Berkshires — the beautiful and historic highlands of Western Massachusetts. “Berkshires” was mostly just a word that floated around in my head with vaguely positive properties. It was the New England of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, and, later, Edith Wharton, all of whom worked and wrote and thought under the influence of its landscape. And it was the New England of manufacturing boom times that ultimately left behind acres of abandoned textile mills, factories, and warehouses in its towns and along its rivers.

North Adams, Massachusetts — where Tourists is located — is, in many ways, the epicenter of the subsequent effort by curators, artists, investors, and locals to revitalize the region through art and cultural institutions with the power to draw visitors from all over the world.

Most emblematic of that effort is The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) — housed in a former industrial complex of 26 buildings over 250,000 square feet. The gallery spaces are almost mindbogglingly huge — with rotating and permanent exhibitions featuring major (and sometimes interactive) works from Laurie Anderson, James Turrell, and many more, as well as performances — and performance art — throughout the year.

Tourists is in the spirit of that kind of revival — in 2018, a group of entrepreneurs and local artists that included Wilco bassist John Stirratt, opened the arts-centered boutique hotel on the site of the old Redwood Motel. It now encompasses some 50 acres of surrounding forest, trails, and historic buildings that guests are free to explore.

While Tourists is routinely listed among the finest hotels in the world , it’s surprisingly affordable (rooms start at $199) — and all of its communal spaces have the warmth of a beloved lodge that’s been long-settled at the confluence of nature and design. It’s the kind of place that creates long-haul devotion and intergenerational fandom.

The interiors of the hotel’s 46 rooms are all clean concrete lines, built ledges, original plywood furniture, and big windows that face the rolling green of the former motel courtyard. Down the hill is a heated pool, and beyond that, a suspended footbridge that connects the hotel property to miles of trails, along which the hotel hosts expert-led foraging trips and other seasonal events.

To me, Tourists felt like of a minimalist-maximalist paradise: the mind-focusing minimalism of my room against the maximalism of the lush green world right outside my window. As Tourists puts it: “Your room is both haven and trailhead, connecting you with your vacation self and serving as a basecamp for adventure.”

That adventure might be culinary: Food trucks, distilleries, breweries, and finer fare are all around. (Tourists serves drinks and food in their Airport Rooms, located in the renovated 1813 farmhouse next to the hotel.) That adventure might be art: whether you go to MASS MoCA, the Clark, or one of the many galleries in town. Or the adventure might be what we typically picture: a climb to the top of Mount Greylock, the great whale-like hill that Melville studied as he wrote Moby-Dick from his desk in nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Tourists is the perfect launching pad — or the perfect family retreat. I still think about my time there, especially now as a parent to a toddler, as the perfect refuge — a place to think, a place to relax, a place to work. We need to get back there.

Room With A View

There’s a variety of rooms at Tourists — from $199 to a little less than $500 per night. Some are multi-room suites, while others offer studio-like simplicity; they all offer some unique feature — from outdoor showers to hidden bunk beds for kids — and all come with direct, private access to the outdoors.

North Adams is at the top of the Berkshires, close to the New Hampshire border — but most destinations are within an hour’s drive, including towns like Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and Lenox, and institutions like Tanglewood , Jacob’s Pillow and Ski Butternut .

Tourists is roughly 3 miles from MASS MoCA , 3 miles from the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, home to Williams College, and close to Mount Greylock — you can drive to the top, weather permitting, or set off on a moderately challenging 6.2-mile round-trip hike to the summit. There are plenty of shorter hikes to tackle on Mount Greylock, too.

This article was originally published on Oct. 26, 2023

Tourists Welcome: The Hip Berkshires Escape Everyone’s Talking About

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Sometime in the second half of last summer, we started to see photos of an intriguing new inn in the Berkshires, cheekily named Tourists , popping up on our Instagram feed. One week, a creative director we know posted snapshots of her guest room there, with its de rigueur plywood bed and alluring practical minimalism; another week, a photographer we follow on the platform was there, enticing us with shot after shot of idyllic scenery, twinkling outdoor dinners, and impossibly stylish interiors.

We were enamored with what we saw, but then fall came and we turned our attention from summer escapes. Well, it’s now July again, and we find ourselves once again dreaming of the hotel.

There are good reasons that creatives flocked to Tourists almost as soon as it opened last summer. For one thing, it came with serious street cred: Joining the hotel’s lead partner and designer, Ben Svenson, was an A-list investor group of creatives and foodies, including John Stirratt, of indie rock band Wilco; Eric Kerns, co-founder of Bright Ideas brewery; Scott Stedman, the founder of Brooklyn Magazine ; and Corey Wentworth, formerly of Boston’s Flour Bakery.

For another, it’s perfectly situated. Tourists has all the perks of its Berkshires location (trailheads are on the property), and it’s just a seven-minute drive from MASS MoCA. And then there’s its spare (but not spartan), elevated (but not fussy) style that gives it such fresh appeal. It’s camp for discriminating adults.

See for yourself.

Photography by Nicole Franzen , courtesy of Tourists .

For more on the Berkshires, see:

• Architect Visit: Aging in Place in the Berkshires, Modern Barn Edition
• The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA
• Shopper’s Diary: Germain in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

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Moscow or St. Petersburg – Which Russian City Is Better?

June 4, 2017 by Bino 7 Comments

As two of the most popular tourist destinations in Russia, most travelers who visit the world’s largest countries end up making their way to both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Both cities have a wealth of attractions, including palaces, churches as well as exciting culinary and nightlife scenes. But what if you find yourself able to visit only one – should you visit Moscow or St. Petersburg? Alternatively, if you have time for both, in which city do you spend more days?

During a recent trip to Russia, I had a similar problem deciding. My trip allowed me to visit both cities but I was not sure in the beginning whether I should stay for more days in Moscow or St. Petersburg. As such, the comparison I am going to do here applies both to those trying to allocate the number of days between the two cities as well as those who have enough time to visit only one,

As Russia’s capital, the city serves as the financial center of the country. The city is highly cosmopolitan. You will find a large number of people from all around Russia here and even people from the former Soviet republics. Moscow also has a noticeable expat population and you’ll find various types of eateries here from Japanese to French as well as Italian – the latter which local chefs do very well.

a view of the kremlin over the moskva river

While the city sits firmly in Europe and plenty of the surrounding architecture are certainly typical of the continent, Moscow can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming (and clogged), not to mention polluted due to the smoke coming out of the cars. There are plenty of highways circling the city to reach areas outside the central core. Moscow is definitely one of the great cities of the world.

• Moscow is one of the world’s largest cities and you won’t get bored here. There are plenty of districts from which to explore. Personally, I love the area surrounding the Patriarshy Ponds filled with plenty of charming shops and hip restaurants.
• If you decide to spend more time or devote your entire time in Russia to Moscow, you’ll be pleased that there are plenty of day trip and excursion opportunities from here. The towns around the golden ring, i.e. Suzdal, Vladimir, Sergiev Posad, etc are either a car or train ride away and can easily keep you preoccupied for a couple of days.
• The city is not as touristy as St. Petersburg and that’s a good thing. I visited the Kolomenskoye Park for example, which houses a UNESCO World Heritage Site, without encountering the tour groups I typically see in St. Petersburg.
• If the hipster culture interests you, you’ll be pleased that you have plenty of options in Moscow. The most prominent is Flacon , a short walk from Dmitrovskaya station.

the izmailovo kremlin – one of the places you should include in your moscow trip

• Overall, I found Moscow to be more expensive – both in terms of hotels, food as well as transport. The Russian capital is frequently ranked as one of the most expensive cities in the world. All it takes is a visit to the iconic GUM shopping mall to see the astronomical prices.
• If you are visiting Moscow independently, you might find getting by via public transport a bit confusing. When taking the metro in particular, the signs are all in Cyrillic so it’s helpful to learn a bit of the alphabet in order to familiarize yourself with the names of the places. If any consolation, some of the stations are among the most beautiful subway stations in the world.
• While both Moscow and St. Petersburg have less charming Soviet style buildings, you’ll find more in Moscow – being once the capital of the Soviet Union.
• There are no shortage of sights in Moscow but many of them are scattered all around the city. Interesting places in the outskirts include: Kolomenskoye Park, the Izmailovo Kremlin, Novodevichy Convent and Flaocon. But these are at different directions from the center.

Where I stayed in Moscow: I found the InterContinental Tverskaya Moscow to be conveniently located. It’s within a short walk from at least 3 metro stations while the Red Square is just down the road. Service overall is fantastic compared to other Moscow hotels and vacation rental options and there are good deals to be had during weekends. You can also compare the best prices for hotels in Moscow HERE .

St. Petersburg

view of st. petersburg from st. isaac’s cathedral

Established some 300 years ago by Peter the Great, St. Petersburg probably ranks among the most visually appealing cities in Europe. Almost any building in the central core for example can be considered as a tourist attraction. The city is one of the great touristic cities in Europe – hosting plenty of daytrippers from cruises around the Baltics or Scandinavia.

inside the church of spilled blood in st. petersburg

• The city is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with plenty of classical and baroque architecture. Peter the Great spared no expense in hiring the best architects from Western Europe when he established the city.
• St. Petersburg is relatively cheaper than Moscow. Uber rides between most points within the city center don’t go beyond $5.
• Many of the tourist attractions are concentrated within the center so it’s fairly easy to walk from one attraction to another or take a short cab ride.
• The city derives a good part of its income in tourism and you’ll find plenty of signs in English and even in other foreign languages. While I was there, I saw many restaurants and shops displaying signs in Chinese.

outside the hermitage

• While you will find daytrip opportunities in the form of Petrograd as well as Catherine Palace, they’re significantly less than if you choose to base yourself in Moscow.
• St. Petersburg can get quite touristy and you could find the crowds a bit maddening and you might even need to queue for a long time to enter. It’s possible to purchase tickets for some attractions online but others are available only on the spot.

Where I stayed in St. Petersburg: I was pleasantly surprised by the Crowne Plaza Ligovsky . Some of the rooms are styled like a palace with engravings on the walls. Fresh juices were served during breakfast – something relatively unheard of for a 4 star hotel. Best of all, it is located just across Galeria, one of the biggest shopping malls in St. Petersburg. You can also check out some other hotels and compare the best prices HERE for St. Petersburg.

Where to go if you could choose only one city?

Both Moscow and St. Petersburg are great in their own ways. However, if your stay in Russia is very short and barring any other limitations, I would suggest going to St. Petersburg instead. My reasons are as follows: St. Petersburg is quicker to navigate. You can finish most of the main attractions within a couple of days by focusing on the city center and perhaps visiting the area north of the river. In contrast, Moscow is quite spread out. The city is so much more than the Kremlin and Red Square that it will take you more days to really see the city. It would be better to visit Moscow next time when you have more days to spare.

If you have enough time for both cities, where should you allocate more days?

On the other hand, if you have more time to visit both cities and are deciding where to allocate more days – I would suggest allocating more days for Moscow. Other than the extra time required to see the city outskirts, you could also use the extra days to arrange excursions to the cities in the Golden Ring. Also check out my suggested one week itinerary for Russia . Alternatively, you can also consider venturing to Russia’s third capital, the multicultural city of Kazan if you have time.

Tips for Russia

• Know the Cyrillic alphabet  – the local alphabet is not difficult and is actually quite fun to learn especially after you learn how many words sound the same in both Russian and English! This will help greatly when you navigate metro stations and read shop signs.
• Travel insurance – If you are going for a simple eating trip near your home country, travel insurance may not be needed but for Russia which is quite far and rather exotic, I decided to purchase one. I bought from  this provider which has a higher than average medical coverage and compensates you for things like accidents and lost items at a relatively cheap price.
• Buy metro cards – Getting the metro cards in cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg will save you lots when it comes to transport cost and is far more convenient than buying tickets on the spot. For places that are not covered by the metro, you can consider ride-sharing apps like UBER.

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Hi, my name is Bino and I started I Wander around 15 years ago with the aim of sharing about some of my personal journeys and experiences, hoping that the information may benefit readers like yourselves. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Alternatively, you can also email me at b i n o (at) iwandered.net. You can follow I Wander on Facebook , Telegram , or Instagram . Also, if you liked this article, please feel free to SHARE or RETWEET

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August 31, 2018 at 7:19 am

I’m researching whether to choose Moscow or St. Petersburg and this helped me decide. St. Petersburg it is. Thank you!

January 5, 2019 at 6:53 am

I have been to moscow and lived there for a while i only find out that in moscow people are so aggressive and not friendly at all. If you don’t kniw the Russian language then it means you would be in problems. People don’t like to help others. if you can’t find any address don’t ask any one they will not answer you.time is money for them they don’t waist time for you.

May 24, 2019 at 12:03 pm

That’s surprising! Me and a friend spent a week in Moscow without knowing a drop of Russian and everyone was so friendly and helpful to us. Sorry to hear your experience wasn’t too good 🙁

November 7, 2019 at 3:10 pm

Really??? You were extremely unlucky…

February 1, 2019 at 8:46 am

Im 17yrs old and i am being offered full scholarship in senior high in russia. I am told to select moscow or st petersburg. Thank you for this, i might pick st petersburg.

November 5, 2019 at 2:08 am

Thank you for all the helpful information. There are a lot of blogs comparing the two cities, but your info is really concise and practical.

I will plan to visit both but spend a bit more time in Moscow (if I can afford the hotels!!).

What time of year were you in Russia? I would like to go during the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.

November 7, 2019 at 10:37 am

Hi, I was there in May.

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Benedict Hotel&Spa

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• Excellent 11
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• All languages ( 14 )
• Russian ( 14 )
• English ( 0 )

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BENEDICT HOTEL&SPA