Collective Governors Island

Amazing experience, well managed and the staff were so friendly and accommodating. I’d love to come back.

We just stayed at the gorgeous Glamping property of collective retreats on Governors Island last week. Our stay, and experience overall was outstanding. The setting is unbeatable; with tents in the foreground and lady Liberty and the south of Manhattan for a backdrop! It’s breathtaking both day and night. We opted for a journey tent but we would upgrade to a tent with our own private bathroom next time. The facilities were spotless though! The little extras like breakfast delivery, s’mores and campfires at night, glamorous details in the room…all left us wanting to come back again. We were so impressed by the level of service the staff provided. It’s clear that Evan runs a tight ship when every single staff member you engage with is helpful professional and absolutely lovely. Namira checked us in on arrival and even brought breakfast to our tent the next morning! We hope to be back again this season before they close in November. If you are reading this, you must try this wonderful experience for yourself.

Comfortable Stay I stayed in the Outlook Villa for my solo trip. Overall it was nice and comfortable. Service was very good and the villa was beautiful. I had a few issues but it didn’t impact my vacation time. Twice I had people enter the villa without checking. I know it’s a relaxed atmosphere but it did freak me out that despite having the privacy button on, people still entered. The wifi is not strong in the actual villa. It kept dropping and I ended up hot spotting to my personal phone.

Overall a subpar experience We booked the journey family tent, months before arriving we were assured there were working air conditioners in the tents so booking in August would not be a problem. The day we arrived it was 95 degrees - the large journey tent had an AC unit in it that was not properly setup so it was pushing hotter air into the tent and the small children’s tent only had a fan - so it was a sweat lodge at best and utterly unusable. We went to get my children and ice waters and had to ask multiple staff for help who responded that they were working another event and the bartender would be there soon - again, all we wanted was water. There was also a dead rat the size of my shih tzu in the middle of the walkway directly outside the dinner tent. There was no shade anywhere and again, it was 95 degrees - we almost left as quickly as we came. We went to take showers to cool down and the knobs on the showers would fall off making it impossible to change the water temp. At the smores camp fire rats were literally as bold as squirrels and i had to chase them away. I have lived in the city for 13 years and never seen anything like it. I have been in a safari tent in the literal African bush that was able to provide shade, working ACs and no rodents - its a shame that Collective Retreats claims to be luxury but clearly cannot deliver.

I should really start leaving reviews because I’ve been in the hotel business for almost 20 years and travel a lot. Nonetheless here is my first! I’ll give you the positives and the negatives, with a very honest opinion. Some of the negatives of Collective Governor’s Island are outside their control, others aren’t. I booked 2 tents for my wife’s birthday: one for us and one for our close friends. We stayed two nights… Friday to Sunday. POSITIVES - The views are incredible. Do yourself a favor and take in the late-night views. Nowhere else will you get this view of NYC, Jersey City, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Incredible. - The tents are spacious. We have done a bunch of TENTRR trips (RIP TENTRR) and the size of the Collective tents is awesome… So much room to move around, ample seating, etc. - The beds are comfortable and they did a nice job making up the tent like a typical hotel service. - The bathrooms are also nicely appointed considering this is, at its core, camping. - Pickup was flawless. They were waiting for us as we were told and our guide Rihanna was very friendly. - The food is hit or miss, but don’t miss the cheese platter and prawns. We ate two meals… the first night I had the lamb chops. I am a foodie: we eat out 3-4X a week and travel often. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and preparation of the lamb. The cheese boards and prawns were amazing. We ordered many during our stay. The second night I had the whole fish for two. It was decent at best. Lacked flavor and buried in tomatoes. Just a bit more caper and salt and some more crisp on the skin and it would have been perfect. - Governor’s island is beautiful. Take a walk around the loop if you stay. - The proximity to the island’s spa is wonderful. We got day passes and spent 5 hours on Saturday. I’d review the spa separately… it was nice but very overcrowded in the afternoon and food was bland. NEGATIVES: - I arrived to the room and found ear plugs on the nightstand. I thought this strange given the location. When it came time to sleep I realized why…. There is a party boat that passes by every 45 minutes or so until 2AM and OH MY GOD… the ear plugs are useless. It’s like having a subwoofer under your bed. I can guarantee this barge is pumping at 10X the legal decibel level for after 11pm. But who do you even call about this? The police, the coast guard? So you can forget a peaceful night’s sleep if you come over the weekend. Of course, this isn’t Collective’s fault but you should be aware. The City should do something about this boat. It’s ridiculous. - Similarly, the tourist helicopters around New York are the rats of the air. Dozens of them flying low overhead literally all day long. The city should crack down on these invasive machines. Not only are they dangerous, but they’re insanely noisy. We were really fed up with them very quickly. Again, not Collective’s fault but you should be aware that this will not be a peaceful place t