We recommend you drive here — so you have maximum independence for getting to the closest towns (Gouverneur is 12 miles away, Canton 20, Potsdam 30…and Ottawa, Canada is about 1 1/2 hours, bring your passport). If you cannot drive here, we will arrange to pick you up from the airport, train or bus stations, and we will make sure you have an opportunity to get to town at least once or twice a week.
The Boardinghouse is about a seven-hour drive from New York City; ditto for Boston. Buffalo is about four hours southwest of us. If you live in the Hudson Valley, I can tell you it takes a little under five hours to drive door to door to my best friend’s home in New Paltz.
St. Lawrence County is not a tourism destination—aside from the St. Lawrence River/ Thousand Islands at the edge of the county, which attract visitors in the summer months. Farming and higher education are the major industries. Hundreds of Amish families have moved into the county in recent decades because land is reasonably priced, and because we are far-removed from large population centers. If you’re driving here, once you enter the county, be alert for Amish buggies, as well as deer and other wildlife.