Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The
American
Club,
444
Highland
Drive,
Kohler,
WI
53044,
800-344-2838,
www.destinationkohler.com.
French Lick Springs Hotel.
If the walls of this elegant hotel could talk…The venerable,
443-room resort is where tomato juice was invented. It's where Franklin D. Roosevelt se-
cured his presidential nomination in 1931 and where such guests as Clark Gable, Al Capone,
and Bing Crosby sipped brandy. The French Lick Springs Hotel sits on 1,600 acres in Indi-
ana's Hoosier National Forest and offers two golf courses, croquet, archery, horseback rid-
ing, surrey rides, two swimming pools, a bowling alley, tennis courts, and the spa—which
has been updated since the mid-1800s when rich Chicagoans would take the Monon Railroad
straight from the Windy City to the resort's front entrance. The new 27,000-square-foot spa
still offers Pluto Mineral Springs baths, as well as head-to-toe treatments. Prices range from
$139 to $1,250 per person.
French Lick Resort and Casino,
8670 W. State Road 56, French Lick, IN 47432,
812-936-9300, www.frenchlick.com.
The Greenbrier.
Since 1778, people have been coming to this mountain retreat in West
Virginia to “take the waters.” Finally in 1830, when a stagecoach route was hacked out
through the forbidding mountains, the resort became a fashionable meeting spot for wealthy
Southerners. Known by various names through the years, The Greenbrier, as it's now called,
has hosted dignitaries and celebrities including all U.S. presidents from Eisenhower through
Clinton, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, Patsy Cline, and Bob Hope. Recre-
ational activities include croquet, horseback riding, and falconry. The spa's holistic treat-
ments are based on the healing powers of the naturally sulfurous water and mineral springs.
The Greenbrier accommodations range from standard rooms priced at $307 to $408 to estate
houses for $685 to $771.
The
Greenbrier,
300
W.
Main
Street,
White
Sulphur
Springs,
WV
24986,
800-453-4858, www.greenbrier.com.
The Homestead.
Twenty-two U.S. Presidents have signed the guest register at this classic
Virginia mountain resort, including Thomas Jefferson who enjoyed The Homestead's mineral
springs (they're now called the Jefferson Pools) when he stayed for three weeks in 1818. The
Homestead was developed as a spa resort in 1766, and the octagonal wooden building where
Jefferson soaked three times daily is considered America's oldest spa structure. Snuggled in
the rustic beauty of the Allegheny Mountains, The Homestead's more than 3,000 acres con-
