Historic hideaways
Hotels with guided tours that bring the past to life
FOR travellers who seek out historic hotels, learning about a property first-hand and from an expert is a lovely perk. No brochure or website can make history come alive – or indulge questions – the way a human guide can.
In fact, for many travellers, guided tours are the highlight of trips to such iconic properties as the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, which served as a secret bunker for members of Congress, or the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, which has a rich history both as a resort built by an automobile magnate and as the inspiration for the Stephen King novel The Shining.
The following lodgings, all featured on the Historic Hotels of America website (historichotels.org), offer guided tours of their fascinating properties, making your time there a truly memorable experience.
Jekyll Island Club Resort, Jekyll Island, Georgia
After an exquisite day at the majestic Jekyll Island Club Resort off the coast of Georgia, my companion asks, “What was your favourite part?”
It’s a tough call. The 2307 hectares of island tranquillity once served as a private retreat for a group of America’s wealthiest families. The Jekyll Island Club opened as a hotel in 1986. Now owned by Northview Hotel Group, it has 157 rooms, with more units to come this year.
The stately Queen Anne-style architecture, breezy verandas and trees filled with swaying Spanish moss make for a relaxed and elegant atmosphere.
But my favourite part? That was Sherri Zacher, the Jekyll Island Club Resort’s concierge, who conducts the history tours.
Zacher is Siri (virtual assistant) when it comes to club information – it seems there’s nothing she doesn’t know. She fed us fascinating titbits, sharing details about the secret 1910 meeting, disguised as a duck hunt, that laid the groundwork for the Federal Reserve, and showing us Joseph Pulitzer’s favourite seat for an after-dinner smoke. Rooms start at $149 (R2 052)
Tours: Monday to Thursday at 2pm. Free for hotel guests, $15 per person for non-guests. Reservations recommended. jekyllclub.com
Omni Mount Washington Resort, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Under the front veranda of the Omni Mount Washington Resort is a bar no one was supposed to know about.
This was a Prohibition-era speakeasy. The term for an illegal establishment that serves alcohol came from having to fool police, according to Craig Clemmer, the resort’s director of sales and marketing. If the police were approaching, guests would be told: “Dump your cups and speak easy,” he says.
The Cave, as the bar is now known, still offers a Prohibition Punch, which Clemmer describes as “a Roaring 20s-era cocktail”.
Momentous events have happened here, such as the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, where the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were established.
Rooms start at $219 Tours: Daily, 10am and 3pm. Free for guests. Private group tours, catered tours and tours for motor coach groups can be arranged. omnihotels.com/hotels/brettonwoods-mount-washington
Mission Inn Hotel &Spa, Riverside, California
This giant, labyrinthine complex began as a humble abode and boardinghouse in 1876. The owner’s son, Frank Miller, opened today’s hotel on the site in 1903.
“Miller’s life’s motto was ‘Dramatize what you do’,“says collections manager Karen Raines.
And that he did, amassing a mammoth collection of art, religious artefacts and other antiquities. The hotel has more than 8 000 pieces, some on display in rotating exhibits in the hotel and at its museum.
Rooms start at $199 Tours: $13 for adults; children 11 years and younger are free with a paying adult. Weekday tour times: 10am, 11.30am, 2pm and 4pm. Weekends: 10am, 11.30am, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 4pm. Reservations recommended. missioninn.com
The Buccaneer, St Croix, US Virgin Islands
Before Johnny Depp, there was John Martel, a real-life pirate of the Caribbean. When Martel fled from British pirate-hunters, the story goes, he abandoned most of his ships in the bay that fronts this property, thus inspiring its name.
The hotel has 138 rooms, plus a six-bedroom villa and the new Beauregard’s on the Beach restaurant.
Elizabeth Armstrong, whose family owns the hotel and has been on the island since 1723, hosts weekly history tours of the property.
She covers the Igneri Indians’ arrival from South America, the sugar era (an old sugar mill is the site of Tuesday night cocktail parties) and a charmed time when vacationing celebrities would come for extended stays.
Rooms start at $315 Tours: every Wednesday at 10.30am Reserved for hotel guests. Free. thebuccaneer.com | Washington Post