Hotel description

Just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Keswick Hall at Monticello is built in the Italianate style that has become synonymous with the dignified old American South. Professional old-world service meets house-guest intimacy; this place feels like a friend’s house, though an exceedingly elegant one, and was in fact a private home before it was bought by Laura Ashley’s widower, Sir Bernard Ashley—one look at the wallpaper and linens and it will all make sense.

This is English country house living, Virginia style; afternoon tea is still a fixture, as are fox hunts, and the rooms are intricately decorated, with four-poster beds and antique furniture. It’s no museum, though—concessions to modernity include whirlpool baths, satellite TV, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. Overall it’s an extraordinarily successful blend of formal, opulent surroundings and the kind of friendly intimacy for which the South is so well known.

Five tennis courts, two pools, and an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course make for a fine sporting holiday, and more eccentric activities like hot air ballooning are available as well. Fossett’s Restaurant is the more or less formal venue, named for Thomas Jefferson’s head chef at Monticello, just up the road; and the Palmer Room at the Keswick Clubhouse is open to hotel guests as well.

Charlottesville is a beautiful city, and Virginia’s cultural capital, and Jefferson’s shadow looms large above it all. Nearby sights include Jefferson’s mansion, from which the hotel borrows part of its name, as well as the University he founded and the grave of the man himself. The surrounding areas are thick with vineyards, almost the equal of Northern California—be sure to sample some of the local vintages.

How to get there:

Keswick Hall at Monticello is approximately a 1 hour drive from Richmond International Airport.