THE APPLEWOOD INN AND RESTAURANT
Visualize a place that relaxes, a place that surrounds you with apple orchards, redwood groves and berry farms, a place where freshly baked apple and berry pies waft to the nostril until you just have to have a slice. Visualize beautifully decorated rooms, each unique unto itself with fireplaces, down comforters, fresh flowers, baths and showers au deux; you are visualizing The Applewood Inn and Restaurant. Add to this six-acre Shangri-La a lovely hillside pool and spa, an onsite vegetable and herb garden, a superb dining room featuring an experienced chef, performing his magic with superb dinner menus and delightful included breakfasts, and a dining room with the romantic ambiance of Paris and Rome. Dinner reservations are required, and relaxed attire is very acceptable.
It’s situated just a few minutes from award-winning wineries, golf courses and antique shops, and depending on the season, you can take part in the pressing of the grapes and the apple harvest. The mustard festival in February and March is an experience only found in the area.
Planning a wedding or meeting? This could well be the place. Children and pets are regretfully not accommodated. Call the Applewood Inn at (707) 869-9093 for information.
LA RESIDENCE INN
Need a hideaway with all the luxurious amenities of a first class hotel, but with the flavor of a French-styled country inn? La Residence Inn rooms fit the bill. Sitting on two acres of glorious heritage oak and redwood trees is a converted mansion built by a river captain in 1870, and across the spa pool and the mini vineyard is a French style barn. Twenty-six rooms house finely redecorated, luxurious, comfortable rooms. Each is decorated and has tasteful antiques scattered throughout. It seems each time you turn around there is a surprise: a lovely period antique lamp, an armoire from another era, an inviting fireplace with logs and matches in place and very readable books. French doors open out to a verandah that overlooks a lovely garden add to the romantic setting. The modern touch is a CD player in each room with a collection of disks for every taste.
In the evening before going to dinner, the affable innkeepers serve wine, cheese and delicious hors d’oeuvres on the dining room’s verandah or by the fireplace – depending on the weather.
Call La Residence Inn, 4066 Howard Lane in Napa, at (707) 253-0337 for reservations. Rates include a full breakfast and the hosted evening wine offering. Fine restaurants and wineries are nearby for your convenience.
Other than being a wonderful romantic hide-away this is also a great business meeting venue.
GAIGE HOUSE INN
Here is a friendly luxury inn that has just about everything from an inviting hammock slung under a huge heritage oak, where you can listen to the tinkling of Pumpkin Creek a few feet away and smell freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, which are available 24 hours a day. Can you ask for anything more?
Here are 23 guest rooms with a modern Asian flair. Sheets are ironed right on the bed before luxurious pillows and blankets are thrown over the great antique four poster bed that dominates some of the grandly decorated one-of-a-kind rooms. Freshly squeezed orange juice and the pungent imported premium coffee comes with the gourmet breakfast in the morning prepared by a professional chef, created in a kitchen that would make Martha Stewart swoon. Then there is the sincere, caring attitude the innkeepers show their guests, which adds to the warm feeling of the property. Prima Spa Services is available. All this and more is available at the incomparable Gaige House.
Located right in the middle of and near everything in Sonoma and Napa County in the Village of Glen Ellen at 13540 Arnold Drive. There are more wineries and state parks minutes away, than anyone could possibly visit in a week. Hike, balloon, horseback ride, watch an olive oil press in action, relax at a spa, visit Jack London’s home, visit antique shops and book stores; there is something for everyone in this delightful setting.
At the end of the day return to the Gaige House for a premium glass of wine before going out to dinner at one of the fine restaurants a short walk from your home away from home. That’s it, you really feel like you are at home at The Gaige House.
Call the Gaige House at (707) 935-0237 for information.
HOTEL SAUSALITO
Just a hop skip and jump from San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge sits the quaint little town of Sausalito. Seems everybody knows about Sausalito – but one thing everybody doesn’t know about is the delightful Hotel Sausalito.
Built around 1916, it was rumored to have been a bordello in its early days. A refuge for the prohibition traffic including Baby Face Nelson in the ’30s and a hangout for writer and actor Sterling Haydon and his flower children buddies in the ’60s and ’70s. “If walls could talk,” well they would be muffled since a renovation a few years ago, when designers, engineers and artists redesigned the whole place. The Hotel Sausalito stands now as a shining, bright, fresh, boutique hotel that looks and feels like a transplant from the French Riviera.
Uniquely different in so many ways, the hotel features stained cement, shattered glass, mosaic mirrors, tile treatments and hand forged wrought iron – just a few of the elements used to create the overall effect. All the furniture is handmade. The beds are hand forged wrought iron, made with designs created by the architect. The mosaic mirror frames in the newly decorated bathrooms are done with recycled shattered glass. The walls and elevator are hand faux painted in soft relaxing colors that still give off an air of sophistication.
This is the definitive romantic getaway spot. There are 16 cozy rooms with a subtle whimsical touch and the bathrooms are large with showers that hold two. And San Francisco is just a long bridge span away. Call the Hotel Sausalito at (415) 332-0700 or (888) 442-0700 for more information.
For a romantic getaway close enough to just about make a tank of gas go the distance, these intimate, delightful locations can’t be beat.
