Okay, we haven't celebrated the summer equinox yet but aren't you wondering what you'll do over July 4th weekend? Ever been to Idaho in the summer? You probably thought it was just for snowbirds, potato heads and indoor waterparks right? Wrong.
Besides powdery slopes, complex carbs and wet screaming kids, Idaho can be a fun summertime getaway. Casinos, canoeing and river rafting, ghost town visits, rodeos, paragliding and lots more, including a pretty good nightlife. Seriously, Idaho has a nightlife. You learn something new everyday.
Nothing screams high-society Brit like teatime in a lavish garden. Throw in an elaborate country house hotel, complete with a croquet lawn and four acres of gardens, and you've got yourself an anglophile's paradise.
Such is the Summer Lodge Country House Hotel in the town of Evershot, in Dorset's countryside, whose non-English specific features also include a spa and heated indoor pool.
Through November, the hotel is offering a package centered on Dorset's various and famed gardens, which includes two nights' accommodations in a Superior Room (with garden views), full English breakfast, nightly three-course dinner, a property tour, and visits to Montacute House and Tintinhull Gardens, both manor houses surrounded by--yup--gardens.
Plus, you'll get to experience Summer Lodge's own "Thoughtful Touches," like fresh milk, fruit and home-baked short bread in your room each day, candles at turndown and a departure bag of fresh fruit and water.
All this, for about $1,840. Oh, come on now. You didn't expect to play like Prince Charles without having to pay, did you?
While some of you Nor'easterners have your heart set on visiting the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore this summer, at least a third of you is going to head up to New England. And if you love fresh Maine lobster, we suggest you head for the Bar Harbor Inn and Spa, one of only three hotels in Maine to be listed among the top 500 hotels on the planet by Travel + Leisure.
Built in 1887, the inn has a long and fascinating history, tied in to the lives and fortunes of the Vanderbilt's, the Pulitzer's, and other prominent American families who spent leisurely summers in Bar Harbor.
The hotel is directly on Frenchman's Bay and has 154 rooms in three distinctive buildings on eight acres of landscaped grounds: the Main Inn, Oceanfront Lodge, and Newport. For larger rooms with balconies and incredible oceanfront views, opt for the first two.
