To summer visitors Lenox, 130 miles (209 km) west of Boston, 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Albany NY and 144 miles (232 km) north of New York City (map), is synonymous with Tanglewood, the spacious estate on the town's outskirts that has been for decades the summer performance center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Tanglewood Concerts

Each weekend Lenox fills to capacity with music lovers from Albany, Boston, Hartford, Montréal, New York City and beyond.

They come to enjoy the town's refined ambience, to stay at inns that were built as summer mansions, to tour the Berkshire Hills, and to enjoy other cultural diversions in nearby towns such as Lee, Pittsfield and Stockbridge. More...

Lenox's appeal is almost as bright mid-week (Sunday through Thursday nights). Tanglewood offers many smaller concerts by up-and-coming musicians. Lodging mid-week is much easier to find, and a lot cheaper when you do find it.

Transportation

Tours

Various companies organize guided tours of the Berkshire Hills including its many art museums, Tanglewood concerts and other attractions. Taking a tour makes your life easier on a visit to the Berkshires. More...

Car

The Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) passes by Lee, where you exit and follow MA Route 8/US Route 20 north to Lenox. From Williamstown, follow US Route 7 south. See below for driving distances.

Intercity Bus

Peter Pan Bus has daily routes between New York City and Williamstown MA stopping at Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox and Pittsfield MA; and between Albany NY and Springfield MA stopping at the same Berkshire towns. Springfield has bus connections to Worcester, Boston, Hyannis (Cape Cod MA) and Providence RI. More...

Regional Bus

Local buses run by the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority connect Berkshire County towns and resorts with one another. More...

Train

A few Amtrak trains between Boston MA and Albany-Rensselaer NY stop at Pittsfield, from whence you must take a local bus or taxi to Lenox. Trains between Montreal QC and New York City also stop at Albany-Rensselaer NY. More...

Plane

The nearest airports with regular service are Albany International Airport at Albany NY and Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks CT (north of Hartford).

Boston's Logan International Airport is 133 miles (214 km) east of Lenox, a 2.25-hour drive or 3-hour and 45-minute Amtrak train trip, then a local bus or taxi.

Distances from Lenox MA

Albany NY: 43 miles (69 km) W, 1 hour

Boston MA: 130 miles (209 km) E, 2.5 hours

Hartford CT: 75 miles (121 km) SE, 1.5 hours

Lee MA: 5 miles (8 km) SE, 10 minutes

New York City: 147 miles (237 km) S, 3 hours

Pittsfield MA: 7.5 miles (12 km) N, 15 minutes

Williamstown MA: 28 miles (45 km) N, 50 minutes

Worcester MA: 92 miles (148 km) E, 1.75 hours

What to See & Do

Lenox makes a fine base for all of the Berkshires' attractions, including its theater, dance, concerts, art museums and nature walks. Here are all the things to see and do in Lenox.

Tanglewood Music Festival

Since 1934, the number-one summer activity in Lenox has been the Tanglewood Music Festival, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Over 50 concerts—by full orchestra, chamber groups, and soloists in recital—take place during the Tanglewood season, including the famous weekend BSO concerts.

Over 50 concerts—by full orchestra, chamber groups, and soloists in recital— take place during the Tanglewood summer season, including the famous weekend Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts.

The number-one summer activity in Lenox MA is, of course, the Tanglewood Music Festival, which takes place on the Tanglewood Estate, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Lenox along West Street (MA Route 183; map).

Since 1934 the concerts have been held in July and August on the grounds of Tanglewood, a fine estate about a mile west of the center of Lenox out in the Berkshire Hills.

The main concert venue is the amusingly-named Koussevitsky Music Shed, a simple but spacious hall capable of holding an entire Mahler-sized symphony orchestra and 5,700 concert-goers—some "shed!"

The Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood...

Many chamber music and ensemble performances and solo recitals are held in the award-winning Seiji Ozawa Hall on the Tanglewood campus.

In addition to the seasoned musicians from the BSO, there are performances by the young and extremely promising musicians who attend the Tanglewood Music Center for study and advanced training.

Maestros Seiji Ozawa, former music director of the BSO, and the late Leonard Bernstein of the New York Philharmonic, were once among this young up-and-coming elite.

For the full schedule, see the BSO website. Also, buy your tickets on the BSO website! Some websites may try to sell you bogus tickets at inflated prices. Be sure you're buying directly from the orchestra! More...

How to Plan Your Visit

With up to 15,000 people doing the same thing, some planning is required to get the most from your Tanglewood experience. Here's the information you need to plan your visit to Tanglewood: tickets, timing, traffic, picnics, where to sit.

A Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at Tanglewood is among New England's prime summer cultural activities, which is why up to 15,000 people may arrive along with you to enjoy the concert. With such a crowd, and thousands of cars and buses, it takes some planning. Here's how to do it:

Tickets

Tickets are sold for seats inside the 5,700-seat Koussevitsky Music Shed and for admission to the spacious lawn.

Sitting in the front part of the vast Music Shed, you can hear the authentic sound of the orchestra unamplified. In the back part, the sound is amplified by loudspeakers. On the lawn, the music is conveyed by loudspeakers.

Especially for performances featuring famous soloists and conductors, and the most popular musical works, you should buy seats in the Music Shed well in advance, as they may sell out.

Lawn tickets can usually be bought at the gate on the day of the concert. You may buy a lawn ticket and upgrade it to a seat in the Music Shed on the day of the concert if seats are available in the Music Shed.

Children aged 17 and younger can get free lawn tickets on the day of the concert (up to 4 tickets per family). Children under 5 years of age are not admitted to the Music Shed, and should use the rear half of the lawn.

Tickets are sold online at tanglewood.org, or by phone from SYMPHONYCHARGE (tel. 888-266-1200 or 617-266-1200), or at the box office at Tanglewood.

Beware Fake Ticketsellers!

Beware of bogus ticket sources! Some unauthorized websites will sell you "tickets" that are fake and invalid. Purchase your tickets only from the authorized sources mentioned above.

Handicap Access

Parking, wheelchair service, listening devices, etc. are available at the Main Gate. Call 888-266-1200 or TDD/TTY 617-638-9289 for more information.

Food & Beverage

The Tanglewood Café, Tanglewood Grill and other food outlets are located on the Tanglewood campus. Concert-goers who buy lawn tickets usually bring their own picnics, sometimes elaborate, with tables, chairs, wine glasses, etc. No food or beverage (except water) is allowed in the Music Shed, but you can eat whatever you want on the lawn.

Tanglewood Lawn Tips

If you prefer to listen on the lawn rather than from a seat in the Music Shed, follow these guidelines:

—Don't plan to arrive at Tanglewood in time for the concert, plan to arrive in time for a picnic, then the concert. Parking, tickets, and finding a good spot on the lawn are all easier that way. The l-o-n-g stream of cars filling the parking lots will begin 3 hours before concert time.

The crowded lawn outside the Music Shed on concert day.

—Preferred spots on the lawn are in the shade of one of the trees (particularly the massive old oak) or, for the best sound quality, as close to the Shed as possible. (Farther out on the lawn you hear only the speakers, not the orchestra itself.)

—Regular Tanglewood concert-goers bring folding chairs, umbrellas for protection from sun and rain, blankets to spread on the grass, even small tables for their picnics. Lawn chairs are available for rent ($5) from booths beside the lawn. Alcoholic beverages are (unofficially) tolerated if consumed discreetly, without any disturbances.

—Plan to picnic and chat before the concert, and to listen quietly during the concert. Even on the lawn, respect for the music, the performers, and the audience, is expected and appreciated.

Lenox Mansions

Walk or drive around Lenox, Massachusetts to see sumptuous mansions, even small castles, nestled in fine parks and copses of trees.

Once occupied for a few months in summer by commercial and industrial magnates and their families, many of Lenox's mansions are still in private hands, enjoyed by an ever-widening circle of the descendants of the original builders.

Most of Lenox's fine houses are not open to the public, so you must settle for tantalizing looks from the sidewalk.

Ventfort Hall

Built in 1893 for Sarah Morgan, sister of financier J P Morgan, later used as the exterior set for the movie The Cider House Rules, this brick-castle Gilded Age mansion was saved from demolition and restored to become a museum of the era when the income tax was nonexistant and financial fortunes were huge. Located only a half mile (800 meters) from the obelisk in the center of Lenox, it's an easy way to have a glimpse of Lenox in its Gilded Age. Programs, performances and special exhibits add to its attraction. More...

The Mount

The Mount (tel 413-637-1899) is a grand house and gardens planned by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton. You can tour the house, and watch a salon drama based on Ms Wharton's life and works, June through October, Tuesday through Friday. The Mount is located just south of Lenox, at the junction of US 7 and MA 7A. More...

Shakespeare & Company

For three decades, Shakespeare & Company has brought to life the Bard's best in the Berkshires, with memorable performances by a company of more than 150 artists. More...

Church on the Hill

Walk to the top of the hill on Main Street (US 7), north of the town center to see the Church on the Hill, a very fine New England Congregational meetinghouse (church) built in 1805.

Pleasant Valley Sanctuary

For a beautiful hike through a thousand acres of Berkshire countryside, find your way to the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, northwest of Lenox. Follow the signs, or take MA 7A north to West Dugway Road, then West Mountain Road (map). Pay the admission fee (dawn to dusk daily, closed Monday), and set out on the 7 miles of nature trails to explore native Berkshire flora and fauna.

Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum

At 10 Willow Creek Road in Lenox (map) you can find out about local railroad lore, poke around in a New Haven Railroad caboose, watch a complex model railroad run, and see railroading videos. Nostalgic excursion trains run from the museum on a 15-mile route connecting Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington. The museum is open weekends and federal holidays only from late May through late October. More...

Touring the Berkshires

Lenox can be your base for visiting other Berkshire towns and their attractions, such as the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in neighboring Lee, Massachusetts, music concerts beyond Tanglewood, theater performances and more. Look at the pages on other Berkshire towns to see what's available. More...

Where to Stay

All lodgings in or near Lenox are filled to capacity on every summer weekend, be they luxurious mansion inns or budget motels. You should make lodging reservations far in advance if you hope to stay overnight anywhere in the Berkshire Hills on a weekend in July or August.

The first thing to know about hotels, motels and inns in and near Lenox is that rates skyrocket on Friday and Saturday nights in summer, but are lower on other nights of the week.

The reason, of course, is Tanglewood, which draws thousands of visitors to Lenox and surrounding towns on summer weekends.

Also, many of Lenox's charming, luxurious inns will not accept one-night reservations on summer weekends. You must reserve a minimum of two nights (Friday and Saturday). Even so, most hotels, motels, inns and B&Bs will be fully booked, perhaps days or weeks in advance, on all summer weekends.

Off-season (that is, when Tanglewood is not in session), rates drop dramatically, and you may be able to stay in a multi-million-dollar 5-star mansion for the price of a 3-star hotel.

Inns in Lenox

Inns right in the center of Lenox, walking distance to everything, include the 4-star, 13-room Kemble Inn and Restaurant, in a former mansion only a mile from Tanglewood. The 4-star, 19-room Rookwood Inn is equally convenient, as is the 4-star, 14-room Hampton Terrace Bed and Breakfast Inn.

Want to go way upscale? That would be Wheatleigh, the 5-star, 19-room super-luxury estate on 22 acres (9 hectares) a mile and a half (2.4 km) from the town center. More...

Hotels & Motels

The richest concentration of budget motels is a few miles north of the town center along US Route 7 (Pittsfield Road) clustered near the Pittsfield-Lenox town line (map), a drive of 5 minutes or less. They offer low to moderate prices for adequate to comfortable accommodations.

Some of these hotels and motels have addresses in Lenox, others in Pittsfield.

The rooms are comfortable and convenient, if uninspired, and—like all Berkshire lodgings—their rates double or even triple on Friday and Saturday nights, but for other nights, they offer the best value for money in the region.

The closest motels to the center of Lenox are the Econo Lodge and the 3-star, 59-room Days Inn Lenox.

A few miles farther north along US Route 7 are four moderately-priced motels all together. Perhaps the best for comfort and value is the 3-star, 92-room Yankee Inn in Lenox just south of the Pittsfield town line, with a variety of rooms and rates, an indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and fitness room. Right next to it is the more expensive 3-star, 79-room Hampton Inn & Suites Berkshires-Lenox. Across the highway on the east side is the 3-star, 36-room Howard Johnson Lenox.

Just a bit farther north, the 2-star, 20-room Lenox Inn is smaller and closer to the road, but still tidy, with an outdoor swimming pool, and even lower prices. If it's fully booked, try the 2-star, 18-room Wagon Wheel Inn.

If you find no availability at these places, try the 50-room Quality Inn or the 57-room Comfort Inn Pittsfield, both in the center of Pittsfield, or look for hotels in Lee or another Berkshire town.

A Bit of History

At first the colonial settlement at Lenox was called Yokuntown, after a Native American chief, but the name was later changed to honor an English lord—Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond—who was sympathetic to the American Revolutionary cause.

Although small industries have at times appeared in the town, it has been predominantly rural and agricultural, and has remained unspoiled.

In the 19th century business tycoons (including Andrew Carnegie) came to admire the tidy farms and streets of Lenox as the perfect place for a summer's retreat, and many of them bought up farms for this purpose.

They transformed the simple farms into splendid estates complete with huge summer mansions.

Many of the mansions are still standing for visitors to admire, and even stay in, as lots have been converted to beautiful—even palatial—inns and resort hotels.

More Information...

The Lenox Chamber of Commerce has a Information Center off Main Street in the town center (map).

Lenox Chamber of Commerce
12 Housatonic Street (map)
Lenox MA 01240-0646
info@lenox.org
Tel: 413-637-3646

Public rest rooms (toilets) are available not in the Chamber of Commerce office, but rather in the Town Hall directly across the street from The Curtis, the big red-brick building at Main and Walker streets, in the town center by the obelisk monument. Enter by the door on the left side, by the Fire Department.