Dispatch: A Cannabis-Filled Weekend in the Finger Lakes
A travelogue from Skaneateles, a place you can't pronounce but will never forget.
Update 7/1/26 - This newsletter has been updated to reflect that this preview was part of a pilot experiment and not a formal offering available to guests at this time. (But it probably wouldn’t hurt to express interest! ;) )
Last month, I was among a handful of journalists given an exclusive first look at the future of cannatourism in New York State. Increasingly, that is pointing towards the Finger Lakes as New York’s premier green destination.
Four years since New York’s first legal harvest at Beak & Skiff, the East Coast is finally catching up with its West Coast counterparts like The Clarendon in Arizona, Madrones and Mine + Farm in Northern California, and the Patterson Inn in Colorado, with the bonus of a destination-worthy bucolic backdrop and legendary Riesling. (Hot tip: Pick up the latest edition of “Fodor’s Bucket List U.S.A.” to plan your next trip to New York State with picks from yours truly!).
Beyond being the easiest sell I’ve ever heard in my life, I was shocked, impressed, and intrigued to see that the new resort—Skaneateles Fields Resort & Spa, owned and operated by Woodbine Hospitality—is part of the Curio Collection by Hilton. An AAA Four Diamond Award property piloting an experimental cannabis culinary program? In Upstate New York?! It felt like all my worlds converging. Obviously, it was a yes.
There was one catch though: the grief. It’s still happening. Three months is still pretty fresh, which is something I have to remind myself because my natural inclination is to keep moving forward. If there’s anything I’ve picked up from “The Year of Magical Thinking,” it’s that grief is not linear and random disorientation is the norm, often coming in waves—something that has been pretty damning for me as a writer trying to maintain focus, especially when it comes to articulating anything near and dear to my heart.
I’m typically pumped for a cool press trip, but have been forced to turn many of them down lately because of this. However, seeing as this was the exact moment that I could use an escape rather than sit with discomfort. Beyond the pull of a really good story with a mystery cannabis experience, I convinced myself that the wellness offerings might be useful to help cure a grief-stricken heart with weed, massages, and a private sauna experience, ot the very least, I could try.
A few months ago, I wrote an article about my recent gripes with modern hospitality. Perhaps if I had been to this property first, I might not have been so salty. After all, I live in New York City where I am miserable all the time while living my best life ever, which includes (unfortunately) occasionally encountering and putting up with really terrible hospitality. If exceptional hospitality were still the norm in 2026, I wouldn’t have been complaining.
That’s why I’m raving because the hospitality was exactly the first thing I noticed at Skaneateles Fields. Everything is elevated. Everything is connected. Everything is human and wonderful. A cannabis program would simply offer a sprinkle of kief on an otherwise wonderful weekend getaway. I almost forgot properties could operate at that level, let alone with weed.
Though cannatourism is quietly folding into the norm of hospitality, it’s been tricky as a travel writer how to advise. Mainly because there are so many reasons why someone might want to use cannabis on vacation and how they’re doing it. Though Skaneateles Fields is a cannabis-friendly property, ultimately it is not a cannabis hotel. It’s a luxury resort looking to normalize cannabis use as part of the experience, and doing so organically, sustainably, and with a hands-on education component that will hopefully evolve into more infused dinners and other experiences. It’s laying the groundwork for future integration, which is very exciting.
It’s important to remember that when you consider who the average cannabis traveler is, and whether or not they are newcomer or someone who is functionally stoned most of the day. As someone who errs towards the old head side of the cannabis spectrum, I was curious about how far I could take a weed weekend at the property and local attractions.
It’s safe to say that while you can probably quietly get away with Big Lebowski bathrobe casual, you also shouldn’t be surprised if you find yourself encountering a look of extreme disappointment from a family that has decided to use the side smoking designated exit to unload their car (even if it is fully within your legal right to be using that space to consume!!)
While it’s not said explicitly outright, there’s a certain level of basic etiquette with staying at a fancy hotel unless you are a celebrity trying to outdo Billy Idol and Led Zeppelin. Even then, this is not that place or the vibe. The vibe is more like “cool girl spa weed weekend getaway” with farm-to-table dinners using regenerative grown produce from nearby living soil farm, Tap Root Fields, enjoying a private barrel sauna or relaxing with hydrotherapy services, facial and body treatments, and a massage using CBD topicals from Tap Root Fields’s cannabis brand (shout out to Javier whose hands are so magical that he has a local cult following). Ideally, you should be feeling blissed out rather than in party mode.
But it’s not just bougie — there’s a genuine connection to the land and a sense of place that makes it feel restorative and inspiring. Resorts often get a bad rap for sequestering guests and depriving them of local culture, so I appreciated that Skaneateles Fields is a huge champion of their neighbors and works proactively to support them as part of the experience.
Skaneateles, Iroquois for “long lake”, is the tenth of 11 Finger Lakes from west to east, situated just between Owasco Lake and Otisco Lake. It’s the second cleanest lake in Ameirca behind Tahoe with a landscape shaped by rolling glacial hills, bucolic fields, and picturesque vineyards, making this a well-worn destination for Riesling lovers, leaf peepers during fall foliage season, and the wedding circuit.
Despite hearing the name all weekend, I still can only half-pronounce it. Essentially, it’s “Skinny Atlas.”
The Skaneateles Fields property is only a 30-minute drive from Syracuse Hancock International Airport and 20 minutes from Beak & Skiff. Both are accessible via Amtrak, offering the scenic magic of a train ride that takes 5 1/2 hours without suspended service or union strike vs. a breezy hour-long flight, barring any issues with suspended service, strike, or government shut down. Otherwise, it’s a little under four hours by car. All-in-all, not bad for a weekend getaway, especially when the destination is worth it.
The property offers complimentary shuttle service, so I decided to peek into town before settling in. Skaneateles is quite charming with a picturesque view anchored by a beautiful gazebo along the lake and plenty of benches and green spaces to take it all in. Every shop is an independent, often with a secret back window offering panoramic views.
Shelly Drooz of local gift shop DROOZ & Company was the first to tip me off about Skaneateles. One of the first to carry my book on Hudson Valley and the Catskills in 2020, she was inspired her to open a second location in Livingston Manor, so I had been long overdue for a visit to the flagship. Much like the Catskills location, DROOZ & Co.’s Finger Lakes shop is well-curated with hand-picked original and quirky items that can brighten someone’s day. In the back, an adorable table filled with cannabis-related books leads to a massive window overlooking the lake, offering even nicer views that the main strip.
I enjoyed some local wine from my old friend Dr. Konstantin Frank and a pile of nachos big enough for two (conquered by one) at Bluewater Grill, popped into a gentlemanly maritime store, Sea Culture, along with curated home good store, Nest 58, leather good shop The Local Branch, and treats from Skaneateles Bakery, passing by a fish fry shack and taking a few snapshots along the water before heading back to the resort.
You can still catch a whiff of new paint as the Skaneateles Fields property only opened recently in October of 2025. The resort sits on over 100 acres of pastoral landscape with access to putt golf, a pickleball court, snowshoeing, mountain bikes, several indoor-outdoor year-round pools and hot tubs, bocce courts, a seasonal pool bar, gaming arcade for kids, and five miles of trails are in development that will connect to nearby Tap Root Fields, which will make up the cannabis agritourism programming for the property.
Because this is truly an all-inclusive resort that is a family-friendly, couples-friendly, and solo-friendly place, it’s an ambitious moment for the hospitality, tourism, and cannabis industries alike. As states continue to come online for recreational cannabis at varying speeds, rules, regulations, and restrictions in a post-pandemic world, hospitality operators have had to experiment with normalizing use, education, and etiquette for staff and guests about how to imbibe in a newly legal landscape. And here I am, just a girl in the thick of it all!
As someone who has been smoking weed for a really long time, I sometimes cringe having to explain to people how to be stoned. I come from an era of when you just “figured it out” and weed was whatever you got from some guy’s friend’s roommate’s cousin, then looking up on some shitty message board about the best way to infuse butter to make quite possibly the worst brownies you have ever eaten in your life.
The fact we now have milligrams with precise labels from California being hawked on the legacy market is both a wonderful necessity and a gigantic joke. Weed is still counterculture even as it is becoming increasingly mainstream, and there’s nowhere that felt more special than at a luxury resort in the Finger Lakes reminding me that there are dope people doing cool shit everywhere. It’s hard not to love it.
The recent easing of TSA restrictions to allow for marijuana in carry-on luggage undoubtedly signals toward future national expansion, but in the meantime until federal legalization passes, we’re all just sort of waiting here in legal states for everyone else to catch up. It’s cool that you can now eat some gourmet gummies before bed, but there’s something to be said about doing things stoned beyond walking around your neighborhood’s alley looking sketchy because you need somewhere to discretely smoke or sitting on the couch for another night of Netflix.
People are looking for places to consume and they’re interested in the local goods. What do stoners love? Plants. Good food. Wellness amenities. Comfy beds. Being chill. Not being an asshole. Minding your own business. Walking around in a bathrobe unbothered. At Skaneateles Fields Resort & Spa, you can comfortably achieve most of those aims, understanding that there are also other guests there who may not be partaking so you have to be kind of have to be cool and respectful about it.
Among the non-weed amenities and programming, the property partners with local yoga studio Sky Yoga for heated morning flows, offers weekly spirits tastings from the award-winning Last Shot Distillery and other local distillers on Fridays and Saturdays, and evening campfires with year-round s’mores service. The Spa is definitely worth writing home about, robust with the aromatics of real cedar, a hot tub and cold plunge, Himalayan salt inhalation chamber, barrel sauna, wellness sanctuary, hydrotherapy, and more. (I am still thinking about that spa).
The culinary program is heavily tied to the agritourism partnership with Tap Root Fields. The farm had previously been destroyed from mono cropping before it was revived thanks to the magic of regenerative farming and composting. Chef Esperanza Guzman of the property’s restaurant, Fields Restaurant, does a daily pick up for veg from Tap Root that includes anything from rhubarb and cherry blossoms to seasonal lettuces. Working with Cornell for one of the only cannabis composting program, the farm uses sun hemp as a cover crop growing tubers that can be used in the kitchen, with clover going in next year.
But the farm’s most coveted grow is in its open air greenhouse, housing roughly 900 to 1,000 cannabis plants housed in custom beds using living soil. For an indoor grow, the approach Tap Root is using is very innovative from a sustainability perspective that I hope some of these methods continue to catch on. It still breaks my heart working in an industry that calls itself green and has some of the worst sustainability practices on the planet so some guy can do a gravity bong using a strain called Deez Nutz. Drawing a direct connection between cannabis and veg reminds us it’s all farming and the value of what it looks like when it’s done well.
Whether or not you stay the property, you can book a tour to learn about genetics and sustainability first hand. After, you can visit the Tap Root Station dispensary, which operates on a NY Adult-Use Microbusiness license that allows them to vertically integrate (i.e.; cultivate, process, and sell) cannabis products strictly from their own farm. Even the roisin cartridge vape pens are made using recycled ocean plastics.
Coming full circle, the property hosted Chef Travis Petersen of The Nomad Cook for a special cannabis-infused dinner featuring cannabis and veg from Tap Root Fields. Petersen, a self-taught professional chef, famously developed the cannabis culinary certification training program for the American Culinary Federation. Having attended many amateur cannabis culinary events in the past, it was refreshing to be guided through an exceptional dinner by someone so meticulous about proper dosing and education. Even without being infused, his plates were incredibly sophisticated and it was impressive to see the level of detail he puts into every dish. That’s someone who is genuinely passionate about what they do.
Petersen’s dosing strategy operates on levels so that guests aren’t fighting their way through a randomly dosed item that will give them a full-on anxiety attack or couch lock. What he’s doing is very meaningful, especially as someone who has taken so many risks to make this type of experience so accessible and welcoming. It’s the epitome of hospitality to offer care and safety to travelers who can feel like they are truly guests, not just customers.
Before I left on the final day, I stopped into the property’s gift store, Fields Pantry. I’m a huge fan of souvenir shopping and this place was no exception. Along with cute Finger Lakes branded snapbacks, t-shirts, and sweatshirts were locally-curated goods including chamoy salt and black garlic salt from Tap Root, YesFolk kombucha, hibiscus Bjorn Corn, Fletcher & Lu seed crackers, wines and craft beer, tinctures and skincare, and even cute outdoor kits. I was truly in heaven and did not want to leave.
But one of the biggest flexes of the property is that it’s a resort that doesn’t suck. Believe it or not that is a very rare thing. Don’t get me wrong — a vacation is a vacation — but many resorts are often run so heavily by corporate that they lose the fun and character that many people prefer to seek out in boutique hotels. Having the room for an experimental cannabis program was tremendous, but you can tell that’s a creative philosophy that drives most of the staff who are all hospitality veterans. These people love the industry they work in and the satisfaction of creating a good, memorable experience. It’s never an easy thing to do that, they just make it look that way. I can’t wait for an excuse to go back!
Have you visited any cannabis hotels I should know about? What kinds of cannabis programming would you like to see at hotels? Drop your two cents in the comments!
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