Dream Weekends 2005: Glendorn

Glendorn, a Relais & Chateaux property built for the oil-rich Dorns during the 1930s, offers luxurious accommodations, fine dining, and activities in the style of the great family “camps.” You can step back into an era of rustic luxury—for a price.

Rates begin at $598 and include gourmet meals and a good dose of pampering. Rooms feature Aveda bath products, fine linens, twice-daily housekeeping, fresh fruit, and a bottomless cookie jar.

The Big House, the heart of the estate, includes the dining room and four elegant guest rooms. Twelve cabins are tucked in the woods. Glendorn has 41 wood-burning fireplaces; each suite or cabin has at least one.

Dinner is a five- or six-course event. A typical meal might include a salad of heirloom tomatoes, fennel, and olives; turbot with Burgundy truffles; and vanilla blueberry crème brûlée.

Bottom line: Like being a guest at a wealthy friend’s country home.

Glendorn, 800-843-8568; glendorn.com. Rates begin at $598 a room for two people and include three meals a day. Pets welcome for an extra fee.

This article first appeared in the April 2005 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.