1000 Island Harbor Hotel Weekend Getaway

 


About a month or two ago we asked our middle child, Christopher, what he wanted to do for his fourth birthday this year.  Without skipping a beat, he said “let’s go on vacation”! I just love that he’s already beginning to see the value of quality time with his family and making travel a priority! So we booked the Thousand Islands Harbor Hotel (hosted) in Clayton, New York, for our little birthday weekend getaway!

 

If you remember, we did a similar thing last year around this time at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel. You can read about our experience here


The Thousand Islands Harbor Hotel sits on a beautiful piece of waterfront property that used to be an old snowplow factory.  We love the location because the waterfront is so breathtaking and it is right in the center of the cutest walkable town with a number of restaurants, cafes and shops. 

Thousand Island Harbor Hotel Features: 


Room:

Our room was modern and spacious with a beautiful view of the water and fall foliage. It was so fun to wake up on Christopher’s birthday and surprise him with some presents we brought from home!  We even decorated a little with streamers and balloons to make it special.  The kids enjoyed playing with Christopher’s new toys while Matt & I could enjoy a complimentary Starbucks coffee from the morning coffee/tea station at the end of our hall. 

Dining:

At the hotel, we enjoyed Christopher’s birthday dinner at their signature Sea Grille restaurant.  The food was amazing- we started our meal off with their cheese board, which had something for everyone: crackers and bread for the kids; meat, cheeses, and olives for us.  Matt and I love eating seafood when we eat out because we rarely prepare fish at home, so he ordered the seafood scampi and I ordered glazed salmon. Both were delicious!  Off the kids’ menu, all three kids shared marinated noodles and chicken tenders. We loved the atmosphere because our seats had a gorgeous water view, and, although the restaurant is more upscale, we didn’t feel out of place eating there with our kids.  The best part was when our server came out with a candle in our desert to sing happy birthday to Christopher. I love this age where he was just so proud to have everyone looking at him and couldn’t wait to blow out his candle and then cheer for himself when he finally blew it out! It was just the sweetest moment! 

Amenities:

If you ask the boys, what their favorite feature is at the hotel they would tell you it’s the pool!  Due to Covid, there are restrictions on the capacity at the pool, so we did need to call ahead to reserve our pool time. We took a birthday swim right after dinner and it was so fun for everyone! They even have hot tub which we all enjoyed!! 

*There is also an amazing fitness room on the second floor of the hotel overlooking the water, which I’m sure I would have loved, since most of you know I exercise 5-6 times a week, but this was a weekend for Christopher so I didn’t want to leave him. 


Activities in Clayton 


Thousand Island Boat Tour

Our favorite activity was the Clayton boat tour, which was a two hour guided tour of a number of islands in the area. It was chilly, but they provided blankets and the entire boat was covered with plastic wind protectors and there was also a bathroom on the boat. We had SO much fun seeing so many islands, beautiful mansion architecture, Boldt Castle, a number of lighthouses and foliage. The history and stories behind each of the properties we visited was so interesting and Matt and I really enjoyed learning so much while the kids just had fun being on a boat ride!

River Walk

We loved stepping right out of the Harbor Hotel to access Clayton’s new Riverwalk!  We saw a bunch of people fishing off of the edge and the kids had fun just having an area to run! ***Be careful if you are bringing any Charlie aged toddlers because there is no railing from the riverwalk to the water! 

 

Wooden Playground 

If you have little kids, they will love the wooden playground in town! It was so big and the kids had a blast playing!


Eating & drinks 

A few of our favorite places that we were able to try in town were Koffee Kove Restaurant, Lyric Coffee Shop, Clayton Popcorn Company & Woodboat Brewery. All of these places had a small town feel and prices were very reasonable! 


Tibbetts Point Lighthouse

On our drive home we stopped at Tibbetts Point Lighthouse which was just lovely!  



We enjoyed Clayton and the Thousand Island Harbor Hotel so much that we both commented how fun it would be to come back again in the summertime and maybe stay a few more days to explore everything the Thousand Islands has to offer!! 


*Your can find more of our recent NYS travel on our Instragram @sarahctravels!

Comments

  1. If you come back make certain you visit Thousand Island Park, a National
    Register Historic District on Wellesley island.

    Trude Fitelson
    www.1000islandparkrentals.com

    ReplyDelete

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