If this sounds like your idea of luxury, read on for a little unpretentious inspiration, then feel free to get in touch and we’ll start dreaming up a journey together:

A Private fitting at Sing Hats in Jackson, WY 

By Joeseph Haeberle

Experience the epitome of Western hat craftsmanship at Sing Hat Company in Jackson, Wyoming. Founded in 2018, this woman-owned and women-run establishment marries tradition and innovation, offering meticulously handcrafted beaver felt and Guatemalan palm leaf hats by artisan Christy Sing Robertson.

Sing Hats collaborates with other regional artisans to curate a collection of accessories, including hatbands, sheep hides, clothing, bags, and more. The hat-fitting experience is a personalized journey with a custom-fitting device to capture the precise contours of your head. Upon entering the downtown workshop, you’ll be surrounded by vintage and modern tools, with some pieces dating back to the late 1800s. You’ll learn a thing or two about the time-honored craft of hatmaking before Christy partners with you in creating the design for a hat that perfectly reflects your own personal style. 

Experience Upstate New York like a Rockefeller at a Great Camp 

Great Hall

The Point is a distinguished member of 19th century properties classified as “Adirondack Great Camps.” In the late 19th century, affluent figures of the Gilded Age, including the Vanderbilts and Guggenheims, constructed picturesque log mansions along the lakeshores of upstate New York as retreats into the embrace of nature. A Rockefeller family member built The Point, where the atmosphere still reflects the grandeur of an age past.

In the same style that the Rockefellers hosted their soirées, you’ll be seated at a formal table in the Great Hall and served a bounteous seven-course meal with wine pairings, amongst much laughter and lively conversation. Following the last course, the evenings socializing flows into several second spaces on the property, from a night-cap and a round of pool at The Pub to an outdoor movie with truffle popcorn. 

Take a dip in ancient, natural hot springs at Castle Hot Springs

An oasis of palm trees and saguaro cacti nestled in the heart of the Bradshaw Mountains, Castle Hot Springs is the perfect place to get away and relax. The property has mineral-rich, natural hot springs and a full spa on property. For centuries, people have sought out the natural power of hot springs for bathing, healing, and spiritual connection. Castle Hot Springs’ particular mix of mineral water is rich in lithium, magnesium and bicarbonates, making it ideal for easing achy muscles and joints, lifting your mood, and calming your mind. The property’s three natural pools are available exclusively to guests, with the addition of a private, stone tub in each room that fills with hot spring water. Perfect for soaking after a long hike through the Sonoran Desert or to wind down before bed. 

Unbeatable hospitality (and Ski-in Ski-Out Access) at The Little Nell Aspen

The Little Nell sits at the bottom of Aspen’s Ajax Mountain and is the only ski-in ski-out hotel in town. The ninety-two stylish guest rooms and suites form a horseshoe around the central pool area and the lower slopes are within touching distance. From Mark Albrecht bar stools and a Tristan Auer Mystere coffee table to Maya Romanoff wall coverings, designer Holly Hunt led the hotel’s renovation with her ‘Aspen Modern’ aesthetic. The hospitality of the staff is truly unbeatable. You’ll barely need to touch your skis until you arrive at the lift, with the ski concierge team handling transport to all four mountains. The Little Nell’s wine program is renowned for having more than 20,000 bottles in the cellar and dozens of sommeliers on staff. 

Itinerary: A Romantic Couples California Road Trip 

On this Tesla-powered luxury California road trip, sample culinary treats in Napa and Sonoma, explore Big Sur’s lush coastal forests, and immerse yourself in Southern California’s architecture and exciting art scene. After busy days exploring, find respite at secluded getaways and intimate luxury hotels perched high above a cliff or surrounded by vineyards and fragrant gardens. Sample the abundant produce, rare vintages and fresh catch of the day at farm stands and chef-driven establishments throughout the state. This is a refined California road trip that never drifts far from the earthy, natural pulse of this state.

Itinerary Inspiration: A Romantic California Couples Road Trip

The post The 2024 Hotlist: Unpretentious Luxury appeared first on All Roads North.

Our favorite properties tend to be the ones that use food and wine as a key ingredient in showcasing the beauty of the region, using seasonal, ultra-local food to bring a true taste of Northern California to the dinner table. At these properties, from Michelin-starred restaurants to family-run wineries, a strong sense of place is instilled into every dish. 

Michelin Coast-to-Table

Harbor House Inn quietly occupies a private cove about 16 miles south of the quaint town of Mendocino. Outfitted with redwood, the dining room– originally created as a showroom from the region’s logging days– overlooks the property’s gardens. Beyond that, the cove’s clear turquoise water laps at the foot of cliffs and a stunning arched rock formation commands the attention of the horizon. 

Harbor House is a small inn with only six traditional rooms in the main building and five standalone cottages for extra privacy. Those staying at the inn are privy to early access to dinner reservations, but many come just for the food. Twenty seats are available each night  Thursday through Monday for a tasting menu that typically features around 12 courses. The menu rotates nightly and is sourced locally. As many ingredients as possible are sourced straight from the garden on site, and the rest are products of local farms and ranches. Out of the 12 courses, there is typically only one land-based meat dish. The rest highlight fresh vegetables, produce and seafood. 

 “The ability to forage for seaweed, mushrooms, herbs and edible weeds in our backyard and the surrounding coast and forest has shaped the cuisine to be a true local snapshot of our area,” Chef Matthew Kammerer said.

Night after night, Harbor House plays with the ever changing flavors of the region, elevating not only delicacies like sea urchin, but also more humble items like seaweed harvested from the nearby coastline, or lace lichen plucked from overhanging trees. The creativity and vision is evident in every dish, earning the restaurant its rightful place as the only one with Michelin stars in Mendocino county. 

Small Batch Production

A hundred miles further south in Sonoma, Beltane Ranch perfectly encapsulates the magic of small-batch wine production and farming. When you step onto the property, you’re greeted first by a friendly shaggy dog (and maybe the far off bleating of the babydoll lambs), and then by the warm presence of Lauren Benward, whose family has run the ranch for six generations. 

 The property was built on a colorful, ‘Wild West’ past. In 1879, a pioneer California viticulturist and winemaker named John Drummond planted Beltane’s first official vineyard. He utilized the property’s volcanic soil to graft the old mission style grapevines to fine wine varieties, including Cabernet and Chardonnay with cuttings from the French Chateaus: Margaux, Lafitte Rothschild and the Hermitage in Bordeaux. 

In 1892, the ranch was purchased by Mary Ellen Pleasant, an abolitionist, feminist, and business magnate– unique titles for a black woman to achieve during a time of high racial prejudice. Pleasant was business-savvy and a well-connected social powerhouse– operating boarding houses, a hotel, restaurants, laundries, quicksilver mines, brothels, arranging marriages, and conducting numerous other ventures.

Today, the Beltane Ranch boasts 120 year of agriculture hospitality and remains one of Sonoma’s few small, family-run wineries. Brother and sister team Lauren and Alex Benward have expanded and diversified the property’s agricultural offerings, in addition to their wine production. New produce gardens, heirloom fruit trees, and heritage breed laying hens are just a few of the additions guests can see around the property and enjoy the fruits of in the dining room. Meals at the ranch are often exclusively fruits, veggies, olive oil and herbs grown on the property. 

Forage for Your Own Wild Ingredients

One night by the fire at The Inn at Newport Ranch, I sat sipping a candy cap-infused old fashioned. On the plate in front of me, were the crumbs of a delicious hors d’oeuvre: a petite wild mushroom pastry. The next morning– clearly riding something of a mushroom craving– I would order a mushroom omelet. All of these refreshments were fueled by the fungi that I had the opportunity to forage earlier that day in the surrounding redwood forest. With an expert guide at the lead, we had set out on an ATV tour to see the property, plant redwood seedlings and forage the fruits of the forest. From fresh bay leaves to redwood sorrel, we filled our wicker baskets with wild ingredients for the kitchen. 

Every evening, a three-course, seasonally-inspired dinner is served by the crackling fireplace in the main lodge’s dining room. Depending on what’s in season (or whatever the foraging baskets brought in that day), the menu could include anything from fresh abalone and oysters to honey glazed smoked duck with Mendocino mushrooms to a blood orange tart with toasted meringue. It’s more than just a meal; food is one of the most immersive experiences the property is able to use to share the diverse beauty of the surrounding land and sea.

Ready for your own culinary journey through Northern California?

See this sample itinerary: Sonoma and Mendocino: A Farm to Table Road Trip

The post Wild, Local Food Rules NorCal’s Culinary Scene appeared first on All Roads North.

These hotels, ranches and lodges not only provide excellent service and flavor, they’re intimately connected to the soil that produces the food on your plate. From private dinners to cooking classes with award-winning chefs, these are some of our favorite culinary-focused properties.

SingleThread Farms

Healdsburg, California

SingleThread Farms is home to both a five-room luxury inn and a Michelin-starred restaurant– arguably the most acclaimed in California wine country. 

The restaurant draws seventy percent of its produce from the property’s own 24-acre organic farm just a few miles away from SingleThread. Sonoma Valley’s long, sunny days and misty cool nights are famously ideal for vineyards, but also allow many other local crops to thrive. Tended by Head Farmer Katina Connaughton, the SingleThread farm includes a greenhouse, chicken coops, an heirloom fruit orchard, olive trees, beehives, and a cattle paddock. 

Suggested Itinerary: Sonoma and Mendocino: A Farm-to-Table Road Trip

Blackberry Farm

Walland, Tennessee

Nestled in a secluded corner of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, Blackberry Farm is one of America’s most celebrated intimate luxury hotels. The property consists of a pastoral 4,200 acres, with a farm, bakery and creamery on-site. Cheese, vegetables, honey and cider are all produced at the farm– exemplifying the use of simple, pure Tennessee ingredients. Blackberry Farm has three fantastic restaurants to best sample this ultra-local fare.

As for accommodation, the rooms range from elegant estate rooms to entire five-bedroom houses. All are adorned with decor that incarnate the sophisticated, rural warmth of the entire property (read: fine art, charming prints and stone chimneys.)

Tutka Bay Lodge

Homer, Alaska

The menu at Tutka Bay Lodge is a love letter to Alaskan cuisine, bursting with flavors like wild salmon and foraged berries. The lodge sits in a private cove within a rugged 9-mile glacial fjord at the edge of the Kachemak Bay State Park. 

Led by Chef Kirsten Dixon, Tutka fully utilizes their unique location by sending out foragers to search for wild edibles on the property, as well as care for the greenhouses and gardens. Guests are invited to participate in the lodge’s sustainable food-based practices, from foraging along the tideline themselves to engaging in a Tutka Bay Cooking School class. 

Suggested Itinerary: Luxury Alaska Adventures on the Kenai Peninsula

Los Poblanos

Albuquerque, New Mexico

By Sergio Salvador

Los Poblanos is what rustic daydreams are made of. The adobe ranch property initially was solely focused on corn production during its beginnings in the 1930’s, but has since evolved to include the most authentic farm-to-table guest experience in the Southwest. 

Informed by the daily harvest, Los Poblanos cuisine is constantly evolving with the seasons and celebrates the foods indigenous to New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley. What is not home-grown on the property is carefully sourced from various nearby farms. Los Poblanos menus feature a delightful blend of culinary influences, from traditional Spanish and Native American preparation to contemporary takes. 

Suggested Itinerary: Back to the Future in New Mexico

Maison Madeleine

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

Maison Madeleine perfectly captures the warm hospitality of Louisiana’s Cajun country– as well as the area’s rich culinary traditions. 

This bayou bed and breakfast doesn’t have a traditional restaurant. Instead, they host a Secret Supper Series where renowned chefs and musicians come together to create a magical, al fresco meal. You also can join a Maison Madeleine cooking class and learn to prepare Cajun classics like crawfish étouffée or chicken and sausage gumbo before enjoying the fruits of your labor.  

Suggested Itinerary: The Best of New Orleans and Cajun Country

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