Saratoga Arms is a family owned lodging property in Saratoga Springs, NY, the town that is home to Skidmore College. This Saratoga Springs luxury hotel becomes a home away from home to many Skidmore parents and relatives as their students pursue their studies. We get to know these parents well over the four years and they become a part of our extended family.

Skidmore graduation 2012 is upon us and it is a bittersweet time for the Saratoga Arms hotel family. We are so happy to see these students graduate, filled with anticipation, enthusiasm and of course their knowledge accrued through their years at Skidmore College. On the flip side, we are saddened to say goodbye to them and the parents with whom we have established bonds of friendship. Skidmore parents are always happy that their student chose Skidmore College for their educational pursuits, because these same parents can come to a town that offers superb dining experiences, exquisite shopping opportunities and access to the arts, not to mention the simple quiet peace of sitting in the living room of Saratoga Arms or reading a book on our wicker-filled Saratoga style front porch.

It brings to mind a graduation song made popular by the Beach Boys from many, many years ago:

There’s a time a for joy
A time for tears
A time we’ll treasure through the years
We’ll remember always
Graduation day

We celebrate with these parents as they beam with pride watching their student accept the hard-earned diploma. We help them breathe a sigh of relief that the tuition paying days, for this student at least, have come to an end. We offer sage advice on packing this student up after four years of student collecting. What do you do with all those beer signs and celebrity posters, not to mention textbooks, scribbled in notebooks and mismatched socks? We offer support as the parents boast of the students’ impending job prospect and encourage the parents of the child returning home to begin the search for gainful employment.

It is a time to say goodbye to these loyal Saratoga Arms patrons. As they wheel their luggage out the door, they offer heartfelt handshakes, warm hugs and promises that they will return to Saratoga Arms and Saratoga Springs. We have been through too many graduations to expect that to be true. Oh we do see a handful of them return, but for the most part we bid them farewell and wish them and their educated student a happy life journey as they return to the four corners of our country and many foreign countries as well. Fortunately, every year there is a new incoming crop of wide-eyed Skidmore freshmen and their apprehensive parents, and so the family circle at our Saratoga Springs hotel continues.

Congratulations to all of our Class of 2012 students and parents …you did it! …job well done! …we will miss you!

A time for joy and a time for tears…

Saratoga Arms is an award winning historic 1870 Downtown Saratoga Springs Luxury Hotel, offering intimate charm that no large Saratoga Springs hotel can match. You can read the original blog post here A Time for Joy and a Time for Tears…..

Saratoga Arms is located just across the street from the main venue of the Saratoga Dance Flurry. We have hosted some Flurry regulars almost from the day we opened our doors. Those that attend are a hearty good-natured bunch with colorful costumes, assorted dancing shoes and well loved musical instruments. According to their website the mission of the Dance Flurry is defined as “connecting and inspiring (people) through traditional music and dance”. Their core values are dedicated to supporting music and dance from diverse cultures and creating a community that encourages social interaction.

In 2006 on Dance Flurry weekend we had a devastating ice storm. The whole town was without power, many of the guests had already checked in for their weekend of dancing fun. In upstate New York when you lose power you lose heat and lights and hot water. Our staff scrambled to find flashlights and lanterns to assure the safety of the guests in our three story Saratoga Springs hotel. It was a hoteliers’ worst nightmare, but the Flurry folk turned it into an adventure full of laughs and camaraderie. Unfortunately the event planners had to cancel the Dance Flurry weekend and when the weather had improved, we sent our good-natured guests home still smiling to return again the following year. When they return we all reminisce with a smile, remembering the year of the ice storm…

This year the Dance Flurry takes place on the weekend of February 17, 18 & 19. Our regulars are already booked in at Saratoga Arms and we look forward to seeing them again. It is a fun weekend to let your hair down, put on your dancing shoes or tune up that old guitar and meet a great group of people who love to sing, love to dance and live to keep the music alive. You can join in or watch from the sidelines but I invite you to come for that one bright spot in our dreary wintery month of February, you might just become one of our Dance Flurry regulars!

Saratoga Arms is an award winning historic 1870 Downtown Saratoga Springs Luxury Hotel, offering intimate charm that no large Saratoga Springs hotel can match. You can read the original blog post here February Dance Flurry Weekend in Saratoga Springs.

Our city has a big Winter Weekend coming up and Saratoga Arms, Saratoga’s luxury hotel is right in the middle of it all! The weekend of February 3-5, 2012 is designed to fend off those winter blahs.

Something’s Brewing at Saratoga Arms, the city’s finest boutique hotel. We are hosting the first of four Ultimate Bed and Brew Weekends beginning Friday, February 3. With the craft beer enthusiast in mind and a nod to beer and food connoisseurs, Saratoga Arms together with the Olde Saratoga Brewing Company and Sperry’s Restaurant, has designed a package that from start to finish will give you a beer experience that you will talk about for a long time to come. Participate in a behind the scenes tour of our local brewery with beer samplings and end with a gourmet beer pairing meal under the direction of Master Chef Dale Miller at renowned Sperry’s Restaurant. This Saratoga Bed and Breakfast has it all planned out just for you. Meet other beer enthusiasts and sample homebrewed or regional craft beers. Take home specially selected souvenirs of the weekend and maybe a six-pack of locally brewed beer.

We have Beer Weekend guests from last year who had such a great time that they are returning this year with friends and neighbors. They plan to make it an annual event.

As an added bonus this same weekend is the 14^th Annual Saratoga Springs Chowderfest and Winter Festival. On February 4^th more than 35 fabulous local restaurants throughout the city will participate in putting forth their very best chowder recipes for you to sample and judge. There will be wine tastings, live music and plenty of photo ops. Post your pics on our facebook page. See what’s in store in the video below:

Come for the chowder and stay for the beer or the other way around…just come. It’s two events wrapped up in a great winter weekend in Saratoga Springs. Saratoga Arms has a room ready for you and of course there is the breakfast…. ah the breakfast, homemade muffins, hot-from-the-kitchen omelets… but that is for another blog for another day.

Saratoga Arms is an award winning historic 1870 Downtown Saratoga Springs Luxury Hotel, offering intimate charm that no large Saratoga Springs hotel can match. You can read the original blog post here Chowder and Beer…Meant to be together in Saratoga Springs.

Photo by Tom Dimopoulos from the PostStar

The famous song Bye, Bye Miss American Pie says bye-bye to Saratoga Springs, NY legend and lore.

For years upon years Saratogians have proudly laid claim to the origins of Don McLean’s famous 1960’s hit song American Pie….go ahead, I’ll wait while you hum along and then try to get that brain worm out of your head.

The story was that Don McLean, after a night of imbibing in local “spirits” had written the lyrics to the song on a napkin in a small Caroline Street bar called the Tin & Lint. So convincing was this tale that the owners of the bar had a plaque made to commemorate the booth…the seat…the very location was it was purported to have happened.

The song was later said to have been first performed at a Small Coffee house, Caffe Lena, owned by a local Saratoga Springs legend in her own right, Lena Spencer. Don McLean did have a soft spot in his heart for Lena Spencer, who had encouraged him early on in his music career, and he went on to perform American Pie and many more songs over the years in that tiny coffee house. But laying claim to the first public performance of the famous song is alas, also not true. According to the legendary performer, the song came to life in Philadelphia, PA; the closest Saratoga Springs can come to that is a one-way street named Phila Street. American Pie was first performed at Temple University and while many still regard Caffe Lena as a Temple of sorts, it must give up that claim to fame.

The American Pie brain worm still lives in the heads of many Saratogians who stubbornly refuse to believe that the seat in the corner of that little bar on Caroline Street in Downtown Saratoga Springs, NY was not where “drove my Chevy to the levee and the levee was dry” sprang to life one not-so-sober night in the 1960’s.

♪♫ Bye, Bye Miss American Pie ♪♫ from all of us here at our Saratoga Springs Hotel in beautiful Saratoga Springs, NY.

Book a stay at our Saratoga NY Hotel and mention this blog and we will send you home with a fresh homemade American (Apple) Pie.

Saratoga Arms is an award winning historic 1870 Downtown Saratoga Springs Luxury Hotel, offering intimate charm that no large Saratoga Springs hotel can match. You can read the original blog post here The Day the Music Died…In Saratoga Springs, NY.

There are over 50 venues of entertainment, from musicians and singers to magicians and Santa himself, there to delight old and young. Our Saratoga Springs Hotel always has a caroling group on the front steps. And many dress in traditional Victorian outfits for the evening.

The shops stay open and many locations serve free hot beverages and treats. It is a wonderful way to start your holiday season.

Amy and Sheila, the Smith sisters from our Saratoga Springs Bed and Breakfast, dressed as Victorian ladies during last year’s streetwalk. Take a peak at their experience.

Saratoga Arms is an award winning historic 1870 Downtown Saratoga Springs Luxury Hotel, offering intimate charm that no large Saratoga Springs hotel can match. You can read the original blog post here Saratoga Springs Victorian Streetwalk Turns 25.

We have tabulated our list of the 10 things you might not know about the Saratoga Lip Dub…interesting behind the scenes morsels, a little idea of who these people are, and just a few reasons why Saratoga Springs is a great place to live and a better place to visit. Our list is in chronological order. So as you watch, read our list and follow along.

1. Shauna Sutton, Deputy Mayor of Saratoga Springs, had the “Hey Soul Sister” lyrics taped to her back for anyone behind her to read. She is located at the beginning of the video at the Saratoga Springs City Center, dressed in a blue suit.

2. The folks seen crossing the street from the City Center to the Stewarts Ice Cream cow are actors from the Saratoga Shakespeare Company, a great summer theatre in Congress Park.

3. The porch of Saratoga Arms was filled with many, many, many family members, friends, neighbors, classmates and members of Saratoga Pride.

4. The large wagon filled with garden fresh vegetables (the woman was singing into a zucchini) was from local farms that participate in the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, just voted the 2nd best medium sized farmers market in the country.

5. The Victorian Era dressed people walking across the street participate every year at the Saratoga Springs Victorian Street Walk. The Street Walk will be held this year on Thursday, December 1, 2011.

6. No people or animals were injured during the making of this video. The boy on the stretcher was an actor and we have a wonderful city hospital. :)

7. The white t-shirts and people holding beer steins represent the annual Chowderfest and our citywide Brewfest. And remember, Saratoga Arms offers Ultimate Winter Beer Weekends!!

8. What is the poster of the crazy-haired lady with all of the squigglies? Why, it’s the Saratoga Springs Annual First Night, a New Year’s Eve event with music all over the city…and fireworks at midnight.

9. I have looked but I have never seen a human slot machine or life sized dice at the Saratoga Casino and Raceway.  I’m still looking though.  What would be the return?

10. Over 1,000 people attended the finale in historic Congress Park. What a great way to spend a summer afternoon.

Saratoga Arms is an award winning historic 1870 Downtown Saratoga Springs Luxury Hotel, offering intimate charm that no large Saratoga Springs hotel can match. You can read the original blog post here Top 10 Interesting Tidbits About the Saratoga Lip Dub.