Meadowood Napa Valley

We vacate to recalibrate.  We vacate to reawaken.  And we vacation to find ourselves steeped in that rare and religious space, where the English language proves woefully inadequate.

Tucked deep into the hinterlands of Napa Valley, Meadowood is a terrestrial sanctuary to that awe.

In the quietest reserves surrounding the Silverado Trail, lives this once private country club.  Today it epitomizes the quintessence of Napa Valley refinement – a forested found dictum of reverie and restoration, where cottages perch atop trees and terraces, fireplaces and fountains adorn architectural appointments apt to kindle a reconnect between soul and senses, and the grounds are arguably something vine lined and plucked from a fantasy, something fatidic and far gone, but maybe not.  Don’t bother bringing speech.  It’ll leave you anyway.

Meadowood Swimming Pool

Leaving your Frette filled cedar scented alcove immersed in indulgence may take some doing, where the rosemary cookies wrapped in muslin graced your pillow the night before and the botanic bath salts blended with the toasty waft from your fireplace.  But when Spa Manager Kerry Brackett is waiting to take you on a private, personally tailored 30-minute muscle-centric multi-task amongst the mountains, you move.  Your choice of a Meadowood Garden Blend Cold Pressed Juice (most ingredients grown on property – you’ll get used to it) is awaiting you at the end, followed by breakfast in your room or at The Grill (lemon buttermilk pancakes anyone?), but the transformation in between is the deepest draw.  Up the mountains with medicine balls and squats, planks, curls and combos, all amounting to this irresistible alchemy of aromatherapy and adrenalin, elevating an already stirring scenario into something sensory, sating, and so unapologetically addictive.

This is the Function Fitness Seasonal Offering at Meadowood.  Included is an overnight stay.  A 30-minute private, personalized fitness session.  A Meadowood Garden Juice Blend.  And Breakfast.

Meadowood Lodge Bedroom

Mountain air in, anxiety out.  An undefined ephemeral elixir amasses from the glorious outdoors in: 30 minutes and we surrender neglect of our spiritual health to a far better alternative.  Maybe it is the transformative union of taste and timelessness that Meadowood radiates, a vacating vanguard blurring the boundary between culinary distinction (it does host one of four Michelin three-star restaurants this side of Chicago) and wellness redefined.  Or maybe Meadowood merely exists to remind us of what John Steinbeck put best.  We do not take a trip.  A trip takes us.

So resolute in removing us from the hustle and hum of our everyday, a stay here will echo in your memory like an unshakeable want: a vintage meant to be absorbed by all senses united.  If the character of a culture can be illustrated through its terrain, then Napa Valley is a roving, regal, reverential fairy tale, and Meadowood, through a hush, it’s ever-humble heroine.

Meadowood Estate Bedroom

The Details:

Meadowood Napa Valley, 900 Meadowood Lane, St. Helena, CA 94574, USA

Tel: +1 (877) 963-3646

Website: www.meadowood.com

Email: reservations@meadowood.com

St. Helena is located in the heart of Napa Valley, bordered by vineyards and is a center for grape growers and winemakers. The resort is 80 miles from regional airports but if you are driving complimentary parking is available at the resort and there is a complimentary car service for guests to downtown St. Helena and Yountville based on availability.

Type of Hotel: Luxury Resort & Spa

Number Rooms: 85 guest rooms, suites, and lodges including complimentary Wi-Fi

Price Band: Expensive

Insider Tip: The property is internationally revered for The Restaurant, which is every bit as inspired as its 3 Michelin stars will merit. That said, you can have a completely recalibrating experience outside of the famed Restaurant: do not mistake the property at large for anything less worthy than it’s globally sought wining and dining. Plus you can have an abbreviated version of The Restaurant fare in the Rotunda, or fireside by the bar, with a bevy of light bites.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10/10

Author Bio:

Jolie Loeb is a Luxury Lifestyle columnist based in Los Angeles.

Photographs courtesy of Meadowood Napa Valley, a member of Relais & Château

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