MAYFLOWER INN

Almost all destination spas look great and give you fine treatments, so that’s not a good reason to spend at least $800+ a night for one. But there are two things at  The Mayflower Inn at 118 Woodbury Road in Washington, Connecticut, that are so outstanding that they’re reason alone to go there: the gardens and the Garden room. And the two are related.

The garden room has to be one of the most spectacularly beautiful sitting rooms of any spa. It’s all white with super comfortable long chaises under a high ceiling facing a window high enough to look out at the panorama of tall trees outside.
Calling it greenery may be the wrong word because one of the things that make the trees here in Washington, Connecticut, so beautiful is that they’re not only green but white and red and yellow not just in the fall but all year round and even the greens are a dozen different shades, all overlapping amidst the dense foliage.

What a place to wait for a treatment. Or to sit and read . Or to just sit.

The gardens throughout the 58-acres of the Inn and spa are just as beautiful. It’s almost a shame to be indoors although, as I said, you can see the spectacular scenery from several vantage points inside but there’s much to offer there, too. Specifically, one of the best spas in the US: indeed, according to Conde Nest Traveler and Travel & Leisure.

The Mayflower Inn has an interesting history. It was originally a boys school, and when one of the kids grew up, he bought the farm. No, I mean the garden (there we go again) and turned it into an inn.

Today it’s a 5-Diamond Relais & Chateau resort with a 5-hole putting green, 3 restaurants, a pool, an environmentally friendly bar, a real bar, and individualized rooms with antique 4-poster canopied beds with Frette sheets. And if that wasn’t enough, two years ago they added this spa with all of its offerings, not just in treatments but in a full program of fitness.

My how the garden has grown!