Accommodations

Under $100

To say you’ll sleep like a king at the Royal Inn (19 Nathaniel St., Torrington, 860/489-4400, www.torringtonroyalinn.com [1], $65–150) is probably pushing it, but you will find the cheapest accommodations for miles around, with rooms under $100 even during summer weekends. Each room includes a microwave and refrigerator to help stretch your restaurant dollar a little further as well.

$100–150

There are 60 guest rooms and two suites at
Yankee Pedlar Inn (93 Main St., Torrington, 860/489-9226, www.pedlarinn.com [2], $80–130), each with hand-stenciled walls and canopy beds, plus plenty of modern amenities like Internet and fax services available upon request. The inn’s restaurant serves traditional steaks and seafood in a handsome room complete with rough-hewn beams and a frequently lit fireplace.

The colonial-style Litchfield Inn (432 Bantam Rd./US 202, Litchfield, 860/567-4503, www.litchfieldinnct.com [3], $150) is actually a recently built hotel with modern amenities (and a few older-style ones, like the fireplaces found in some of the rooms). The on-site restaurant, Bistro East, serves quite good modern American fare.

$150–250

The thirteen brightly decorated guest rooms at
Cornwall Inn (270 Kent Rd., Cornwall, 860/672-6884, www.cornwallinn.com [4], $170–240) are filled with cozy bathrobes, cable TVs, wireless Internet, and feather beds. The meticulously kept gardens around the inn include an outdoor pool, and the restaurant features fireside meals in a tastefully restored dining room.

$250 and Up

The collection of cottages that has sprouted over Winvian (155 Alain White Rd., Morris, 860/567-9600, www.winvian.com [5], $750–2,300) resort is like a window into the id: a treehouse that sways slightly in the breezes; a beaver lodge with birch trees for bed posts; a 7.5-ton Sikorsky helicopter dropped into the middle of a living room. Each was designed by a different architect who was given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design without restriction. As whimsical as the cottages are, however, they are just the beginning of what makes this resort unique in New England.

At dinner, semi-private tables in a warren of rooms in the main house receive a procession of sea urchin, foie gras, rack of lamb, and other imaginings of chef Chris Eddy, who was trained by Alain Ducasse and Daneil Boulud. A 5,000-square foot spa pampers guests with four-handed massages and Eve Lom facials — a multi-step deep-cleansing ordeal offered to American travelers only here and at one other spa in New York. And the setting in the Litchfield Hills [6] fronting 4,000 acres of conservation land is nothing short of magical. The experience isn’t cheap (cottages range from $1,250 “a la carte” to $2,300 per night — which includes food and booze), but it’s not one you are likely to have anywhere else.