The May Edit
a new hotel opening in Coronado, we’re recommending an “Americana Staycation” this summer, and where to see the total solar eclipse in August.
Well, we’ve arrived at the true whiplash shoulder season here in New York. Last weekend it was 90 degrees and then dropped fully back to 55 and drizzly. Going from the heat turned up directly to the A/C blasting is an annual experience, and we are IN IT. School is still going strong here for another month, which seems at odds with the rest of the country, but still, summertime is right here and we are here for it.
What we published this month
This month our most popular post was this behind-the-scenes banger about a real Italian itinerary with pricing included. We also started a new series interviewing locals about their favorite spots. It’s called Start Here, and you can start here with our first one, in collaboration with our friend Steph Daily about the little California gem, Encinitas.
What we booked in May
May looks like: Europe, Europe, and well, Europe. Ok, with maybe a little bit of New England tossed in.
Julia
Couples trip to Italy (Rome, Florence & Tuscany; one of our favorite classic routes)
Couples trip to New England (Newport, Cape Cod & Martha’s Vineyard)
Honeymoon to Sicily (Country House Villadorata and Minareto)
Anniversary trip to Claridge’s London
Family trip to Greece (Athens & Santorini)
Bryce
25th Anniversary trip to France
Spain (Malaga) and Portugal (Algarve) for a a sojourn between golf trips
Ibizia couples trip
Family trip to the UK and France
Hotel Opening: Baby Grand in Coronado
Coronado has had the Hotel Del for 136 years and, really, not much else worth noting on the boutique hotel front. That changed two weeks ago when the Baby Grand opened on Orange Avenue, and it is definitely worth a look. The vibe is: all-in, maximalist, completely committed to its own vision, and has what we would call the most interesting rooms on the island.
The property comes from Consortium Holdings, the same group behind the Lafayette Hotel in North Park, which picked up San Diego’s only Michelin Key last fall. The Baby Grand is the follow-up act, and … they did not play it safe.
Even if you don’t stay there, Fallen Empire should be on your radar. It’s a hidden champagne and oyster bar accessed through the lobby via an interactive sculpture. Find the right one, press it, and a concealed entrance reveals itself. Inside is a mirror-walled room with crimson velvet banquettes, Murano glass chandeliers, and a bar painted with a scene inspired by Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa. The menu is Kumamoto oysters, scallop crudo, uni tartare, and grower Champagnes. It opens nightly at 5 PM and reservations are required. We recommend to book before you arrive.
Night Hawk, the outdoor restaurant built where the parking lot used to be, runs an open-fire Greek kitchen with rock-formed booths, a two-story waterfall, and a canopied bar under a Murano palm frond chandelier. Open daily from 11:30 AM, with weekend brunch from 10 AM.
For rooms: the Terrace Suite has private outdoor space above Orange Avenue with views toward the Pacific. The standard Baby Grand room runs from $428 on a May weekday and climbs through the summer. The Petite starts at $389. Every room has an iridescent clamshell headboard, mural-covered walls, a mirrored in-room bar cabinet, and bathrooms that occupy nearly half the room’s square footage, with clawfoot soaking tubs and a glass-enclosed shower tiled floor to ceiling. This is not a subtle spot and we like it that way.
The Case for an Americana Summer
Airfare is expensive right now; we’re hearing it from all of our clients. So. Here’s our little pitch for an American Staycation this summer.
The lookbook is something like: white clapboard, wide porches and seafood eaten outside. Rustic cabins, but also Nantucket reds and plenty of ice cream at every meal.
The Classic: White Elephant — Nantucket, Massachusetts
If you have been to Nantucket and stayed anywhere other than the White Elephant, we are not judging you, but we are curious. The property sits directly on Nantucket Harbor, all shingle-style architecture and navy stripes and feels like breezy, sun-bleached luxury. The Brant Point Grill does clam chowder and lobster rolls that cannot be topped. Book the harborside cottage if you can get it. Nantucket in July and August is the most Americana a place can possibly be, and the White Elephant is its spiritual center.
The Underrated One: White Barn Inn — Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is what Nantucket was before the world fully found it, which is to say: more IRL than IG. The White Barn Inn has been here for over 150 years and was a weekend retreat for the Yankee aristocracy long before it became an Auberge property. The restaurant, inside an actual 140-year-old white clapboard barn with soaring cathedral ceilings, is one of the best dining rooms in New England. The waterfront cottages are the ones to book. The hotel also now has houseboats on the Kennebunk River. It’s only ninety minutes from Boston and we think massively underbooked relative to what it deserves.
The One New Yorkers Don’t Know About: The Point — Saranac Lake, New York
The Point was built by William Avery Rockefeller II as a private Great Camp on Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, and it has been operating as a hotel ever since in the spirit of what the Rockefellers were after: roughing it, but not really. Eleven rooms across four original log buildings, all-inclusive, Forbes Five Star, the first North American member of Relais & Chateaux. Architectural Digest called it among the most rarefied wilderness experiences in America, which is accurate and also undersells it slightly.
Days at The Point run on lake time: vintage Hacker-Craft boat tours, fly fishing, canoeing, waterskiing, lunch on a private island if that is what you want. Evenings start with cocktails in the Pub and move into the Great Hall for dinner, which is formal enough to require a jacket and it is worth it. The cellphone coverage is limited. We love this feature. The kind of New Yorkers who discover this place tend to go back every summer for the rest of their lives, which tells you everything.
The Unexpected: Blackberry Farm — Walland, Tennessee
There is a version of the American South that has nothing to do with heat and everything to do with the kind of hospitality that makes you feel like you have been expected for weeks. Blackberry Farm is 4,200 acres in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, and it runs on an all-inclusive model that means from the moment you arrive, someone is taking care of everything. The food program is one of the most serious in the country: James Beard-recognized, farm-to-table before that was a phrase anyone used, the kind of meals where the chef knows exactly where every ingredient came from, because it came from right outside. Activities run from foraging walks to fly fishing to a wine cellar with over 160,000 bottles. This is on both of our bucket lists.
The Southern Gothic: Inn at Palmetto Bluff — Bluffton, South Carolina
Palmetto Bluff is 20,000 acres of Low Country South Carolina: Spanish moss, tidal creeks, and marshland that turns gold at dusk. The Inn sits in the middle of it, a village-style property with cottage accommodations along the May River, and it operates with the thoroughness of a place that has thought carefully about what you might need before you knew you needed it. Kayaking at sunrise, riverboat cruises, bikes at the cottage door. The food is Low Country done seriously. If you have never experienced the South at this level, this is where to start.
The Sleeper: Twin Farms — Barnard, Vermont
Twin Farms is one of the most extraordinary hotels in the country, and the fact that it is not better known is either a feature or a crime depending on how you look at it. The property was once the home of novelist Sinclair Lewis: 300 acres of Vermont farmland, covered bridges, wildflower meadows, and a private pond. Fully all-inclusive: every meal, every activity, every bottle of wine. Ten cottages and six rooms, which means it never feels like a hotel. Summer in Vermont is something special and not to be missed.
There is still availability through the US for summer (it isn’t too late!). If any of these sound like your summer, we would love to help build it out.
Misc.
JFK v LGA v EWR. Who wins? Find out here.
Booking via European airlines might be a better deal this summer.
Best road trips in the Northeast.
Uber is offering shuttles from the World Cup.
Where to see the total solar eclipse this summer.
If you enjoyed this, would you be kind enough to give it a little heart? We hope you have a nice weekend!
—Bryce | It Girls Collective
great post! love it :)