Mount Washington looms over The Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, N.H. Photo Credit: Handout
By ALISON GREGOR Special to Newsday February 11, 2010 6:17 PM
The 19th aeon was a cardinal era for travel, back the railroad companies hoped to allurement affluent and affecting travelers to some of the emptier aerial expanses of North America.
Many of the admirable lodges out West were complete by the railroad companies in countless architectural styles, but there additionally are amazing Northeastern resorts of this era. Those not absent to blaze or the confusion of time are now appointed civic celebrated landmarks, and the arduous ambit of these almost-extinct breed of auberge - magnificent, age-old and carved out of asperous wilderness areas - still allure guests gluttonous celebrated resonance and a best bequest to addition era.
21ST CENTURY LODGESYes, these lodges accept served some of the country's wealthier and added genteel families for generations, and abounding alike accept - save us! - a dress code, forth with sometimes treacly tea parlors and aged sitting apartment abounding of overstuffed ottomans.
But what is absent in accessibility is fabricated up for in character. Anniversary arresting admirable amazon has a story; anniversary survivor in what was already a arena abounding of resorts offers a different experience. Here we attending at five.
Mohonk Abundance House, 1000 Abundance Rest Rd., New Paltz, N.Y., 845-255-1000, mohonk.com
RATES. From $510 a night bifold occupancy, includes meals
THE SETTING. This circuitous family-owned Victorian abode sits aloft a abundance in the Shawangunks, amidst by pastoral valleys with a appearance of six states in the distance.
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THE APPEAL. While some lodges strive for an arty opulence, this lodge, with its architectural collection of styles, offers a soothing, attentive experience, reconnecting those who break with the simple pleasures of a esplanade airing or a row about the still amnion of arctic Lake Mohonk. Built in 1869, the 265-room lodge, with its active breadth and Victorian maze, sits amid 26,000 acreage of aboriginal forest. Apartment are alluringly decorated, some with balconies or fireplaces.
DINING. The academic Mohonk Abundance Abode restaurant serves American book in assorted alveolate dining rooms. Three commons circadian additional afternoon tea are included in the allowance price.
AMENITIES. The abundance house, which is about bustling, has calm and alfresco pools and tennis courts, a fettle center, salon and spa, Scottish-design golf advance and a bank bathing beach.
ACTIVITIES. If you choose, your vacation at Mohonk can be action-packed. Besides aimless to the Sky Top Tower, the abundance abode includes such activities as boating, midweek golfing, tennis, movies, dancing and, in winter, ice skating, cross-country skiing and snow tubing are included in the price. Some activities are extra, such as fly fishing, horseback benumbed and weekend golf.
WHAT'S NEARBY. You'll acquisition abounding arbitrary shops in New Paltz, additional restaurants, and a appropriate beverage pub. The State University of New York nurtures its acting talents, and the school's affected productions are first-rate. Try a bout of celebrated Huguenot Street, dotted with bean homes.
Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, 1 rue des Carrières, Québec, Québec, Canada, 418-692-3861, fairmont.com/frontenac
RATES. From $199 a night
THE SETTING. Added of a turreted alcazar than a lodge, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac has perched on Québec's accomplished bank overlooking the St. Lawrence River back 1893. Advised by New York Society artist Bruce Price, who created abounding residences in Newport, R.I., the château is acclaimed for its sumptuousness, and added a 20-story axial belfry in 1925.
THE APPEAL. Added than 600 apartment alter in their admeasurement and views, with some a bit small. All are cautiously appointed, some with fireplaces and marble fixtures, and a abundant amphitheater reflects the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The château has hosted ability and celebrities, from Queen Elizabeth and Ronald Reagan to Alfred Hitchcock.
DINING. The château has three restaurants. At the academic Restaurant Le Champlain, archetypal French and Québécois dishes fabricated with bounded aftermath are delivered by waiters in acceptable French costumes. Try caribou medallions and amateur foie gras with a candied but circuitous bottle of Sauterne.
AMENITIES. Broadband Internet, some in-room hot tubs, an calm basin and a bloom club. You can try a beating at the spa or appointment the affected St-Laurent piano bar. While Le Champlain serves a abounding afternoon tea, there additionally are shops at the château's base.
ACTIVITIES. Tours of the deluxe auberge are offered.
WHAT'S NEARBY All of Old Québec is appropriate alfresco the courtyard. You can appointment the animate shops, restaurants and clubs of the three capital day-tripper streets, or escape all that into the winding, cobblestoned byways lined with blithely black homes and cathedrals.
Omni Mount Washington Resort, Route 302, Bretton Woods, N.H, 603-278-1000, omnihotels.com
RATES. From $179 a night
THE SETTING. The Mount Washington, with its red flag-topped spires, is such a monstrously admirable hotel, some accept it to be the afflatus for Stephen King's atypical "The Shining." Though not, in fact, true, it ability able-bodied accept been. Located at Mount Washington's base, the auberge is so large, and its engineering so avant-garde at the time it opened in 1902, that it has its own column office. It's additionally a admirable archetype of Spanish Renaissance Revival architecture.
THE APPEAL. The resort drew the Boston and New York high band to its 200 rooms, anniversary with a ablution (a aboriginal in the country), and French Renaissance-style Great Hall and Gold Room, which served as a armpit of the Bretton Woods accounts acceding in 1944. Abounding of the stylishly active apartment accept abundance angle and the auberge has afresh undergone a $50 actor restoration.
DINING. Mount Washington has dining options galore. The best academic is the octagonal dining allowance with Tiffany bottle and aerial windows with advantageous abundance views. It has a circadian alteration card of New England specialties, such as auto lobster ravioli with scallops and shrimp. The Cave provides antic ball in a above 1930s speak-easy.
AMENITIES. Wireless Internet, a ample spa, calm and alfresco pools, a gym and tennis courts.
ACTIVITIES. In winter, Mount Washington offers a ample resort for decline skiing and a Nordic centermost with afar of paths for cross-country skiing. There's additionally ice skating and snow tubing. In summer, tee up on the 18-hole Donald Ross golf course, advised in 1915, or go horseback benumbed or for a adequate circuit in a carriage. There's additionally hiking, fly fishing and abundance biking, amid added activities. The auberge itself offers some shops, an arcade and playgrounds.
WHAT'S NEARBY. Some of the best activities in this breadth are outdoors, such as the Mount Washington Cog Railway, which chugs three afar up the west ancillary of this aerial mountain. There's additionally Storyland for children. The Bretton Woods awning bout lets you bisect treetop zip curve and high-flying abeyance bridges.
Skytop Lodge, One Skytop, Skytop (Canadensis), Pa., 800-345-7759, skytop.com
RATES. From $325 a night bifold occupancy, includes meals
THE SETTING. This Dutch Colonial bean manor, with its gambrel roofs and arresting chimneys, opened in 1928 and overlooks the alluring Skytop Lake on about 5,500 acreage of aboriginal forestland in the Pocono Mountains.
THE APPEAL. From the time one strolls up to the lodge's rocker-lined balustrade and into its mahogany-paneled accessible rooms, one is transported to addition era of advantage and aristocracy - or stuffiness, depending on one's point of view. The 125 bedfellow apartment in the abode are quiet and adequate with a aesthetic English-style decor.
DINING. Rates accommodate three commons and several dining options accommodate the Windsor Room, area gentlemen are asked to abrasion jackets at black meals. Archetypal American cuisine includes such dishes as pork tenderloin with smoked Gouda mac and cheese, whiskey barbecue booze and succotash.
AMENITIES. An calm pool, fettle room, spa, golf advance and admirable gardens.
ACTIVITIES. Skytop offers affluence of activities, abounding of which are included in the allowance price. They accommodate decline skiing, cross-country skiing, ice skating and snowshoeing in winter. In summer, boating, tennis, hiking, shooting, fishing, backyard games, archery and paintball. There's an calm mini-golf advance and aggressive wall.
WHAT'S NEARBY. Skytop is perched on a plateau three afar from Canadensis, a apple with antiques food and added shops. If you can't accumulate active at the resort, there is the Mount Airy Bank nearby.
The Greenbrier, 300 W. Capital St., White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., 800-453-4858, www.greenbrier.com
RATES. From $275 a night
THE SETTING. The Greenbrier, a sprawling circuitous in the Allegheny Mountains with a archetypal Georgian mien, is one of the oldest resorts in the country, basic as a retreat area bodies "took the waters" at a sulfur bounce in 1778. The Greenbrier has hosted 26 U.S. presidents.
THE APPEAL. Greenbrier is now a anxiously maintained resort on 6,500 acreage with 721 rooms, all active in the active floral-patterned chintzes of the country's aboriginal autogenous designer, Dorothy Draper. Known contemporarily for the immense fallout alembic on-site created to accumulate Congress animate in the accident of nuclear attack, the Greenbrier offers tours of the shelter. The hotel's new buyer is said to be advance in awakening the facilities.
DINING. Any auberge with 10 lobbies will acceptable accept an array of restaurants and cafes: Greenbrier has eight. The Capital Dining Room, with august columns and angled windows, requires a anorak and tie. Greenbrier has its own comestible school; the book is categorical and thoughtful. There's additionally a steakhouse, sports lounge, cafes and a bar.
AMENITIES. Calm and alfresco pools, a spa and bloom clinic, cine theater, fettle center, three golf courses, bowling alleys, abounding flush shops, a museum, an art antecedents - and its newest amenity, a bank with table amateur and (soon) poker tables.
ACTIVITIES. It's difficult to brainstorm article that can't be done at the Greenbrier. There's hiking and horseback benumbed on area abstemious with trails, skeet shooting, tennis, a golf academy, white-water rafting, off-road driving, boating, falconry, an Alpine Belfry to climb, carrying rides, ice skating and wine tastings.
WHAT'S NEARBY. If you are agog to do some skiing, try visiting aggressive resort The Homestead in Hot Springs, W.Va. Or analysis out adjacent Lewisburg. Besides actuality home to the arresting Absent World Caverns, it additionally has a 235-acre celebrated commune with 18th aeon barrio address the scars of Civil War battles.
By ALISON GREGOR Special to Newsday
