Today’s Newsletter Includes:
Ten American summer resorts that actually live up to the hype.
Why I couldn’t pick just one winner for the top spot.
Beaches, golf, oysters, croquet, and a few places that make checking out feel like a mistake.
Why you should join me on one of my upcoming trips to Africa and Oaxaca
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The idea of naming the greatest summer resort in America is ridiculous, which is precisely why it is so much fun.
Greatness in a seaside hotel is not one thing. It is not thread count, marble acreage, the humidity level of the spa eucalyptus room or whether someone can produce a perfect Negroni at 4:17 p.m. while your child is melting down near the croquet lawn. It is the whole lunatic equation: food, privacy, beach, rooms, service, history, tennis, golf, spa, boats, pools, porches, rituals and whether the place still feels like itself after the money people have had their way with it.
Summer in America. Water nearby, preferably salt. A place with enough amenities to occupy a family, enough privacy to preserve a marriage, enough food to justify staying put and enough soul that you remember it after every bill has mercifully been forgotten.
So what is the greatest summer resort in America? It depends on what you mean by greatest.
If you mean the most complete, the answer is The Cloister at Sea Island. If you mean the one with the deepest emotional pull, right on the ocean with story in its walls, the answer is Ocean House.
That is why they tie. One is the great American resort machine. The other is the great American seaside memory. And if you are lucky enough to have stayed at both, you understand the problem. Greatness is not a ranking. It is the argument you keep having with yourself long after you check out.
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