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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Heidi Sherman Mitchell of 'Travel and Leisure'

Aired June 15, 2002 - 09:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: One of the most important things when planning your vacation is finding a place to stay. This month's issue of "Travel and Leisure" magazine takes a look at vacation accommodations, including 30 great inns.

We're joined from New York by "Travel and Leisure" associate editor Heidi Sherman Mitchell. Hi, Heidi.

HEIDI SHERMAN MITCHELL, "TRAVEL AND LEISURE" MAGAZINE: Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, let's get down to it.

I've always liked inns so much better. Sometimes they're even less expensive than major hotels, right?

MITCHELL: Oh, yes. They can range, actually, from about $50 to well into the hundreds. So they do range. But (UNINTELLIGIBLE) value in a lot of them.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about, you've got five main types of inns. Let's get right to it. Desert inns. Tell us about these.

MITCHELL: Desert sort of falls under the site-specific kind of inn, where they use their location and incorporate it into the architecture, into the experience of the inn. And I chose the Hacienda del Sol in Tucson, which is a 1940 schoolhouse that's built in ranch style. And each of the rooms has public spaces that use the desert, you know, there are desert landscapes, and it's very -- it feels like it's in Arizona, which it is.

PHILLIPS: Farm inns.

MITCHELL: Yes, farms are -- these are great for families, because between your meals and the creameries, like the Inn at Mountain View in Vermont they have, it's an 1800s farmhouse, and you can eat in the creamery. And then afterwards, if you don't feel like riding your bike or riding the horses, you can go out and see the turkeys or the chickens or the cows that live on the 440 acres there. It's, like, $140 a night.

PHILLIPS: Probably antique galore in all the rooms too, right?

MITCHELL: Exactly, exactly.

PHILLIPS: OK, spa inns. Let's talk about that.

MITCHELL: Spas are great. They're -- they've come everywhere, and now the inns have taken them on. And you wouldn't really expect to find one in a small inn like the Farmhouse in the northern California, but they have eight cottages, and each of the cottages is outfitted with a redwood sauna and its own whirlpool tub, and actually bring in the masseuse to give the massages in your rooms, so there's really no reason to leave.

PHILLIPS: Now, does it get more expensive when you start bringing in all those amenities? Or is this the type of place where you pay up front for all of that?

MITCHELL: You don't actually -- you pay separately for the massages, but the rooms start really inexpensively, $140, $150. So it's not -- you're not spending a ton of money like you would at a large fancy resort, with all spa (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you also have to pay for the treatment there.

PHILLIPS: OK, now, I've never heard of this, but a culinary inn. This is...

MITCHELL: Right.

PHILLIPS: ... near to me.

MITCHELL: Yes, this is a sort of new trend in inns, and you find that chefs are opening up their own properties and creating a place where foodies will really -- they go there just for the food.

Of course, the inns themselves are gorgeous, like the Homestead Inn in Greenwich. It's a 1900 Victorian house with 19 rooms that Thomas Henkelmann, he's a chef, who was a chef here in New York, he opened the restaurant and the inn there. His wife designed the rooms. And he does this beautiful French cuisine, really does real high-end, real fancy, heavy dishes that you find at French restaurants in France.

And then another one is Maca's Inverness Resort, which is -- Maca's Inverness Inn, which is in Northern California. And the owner, Margaret Gradens (ph), is also a chef, and she buys her huckleberries and oysters and abalone right from her neighbors, the farmers nearby. And so she creates a menu around that daily, so it's...

PHILLIPS: Wow.

MITCHELL: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

PHILLIPS: Could you take cooking classes at these inns?

MITCHELL: Some of them have them. I think you can -- because they're so small and you can arrange them with the chef yourself, so because there's 10 rooms, 14 rooms, there's just not thousands of guests staying at the property, so you're welcome to walk into the kitchen, watch the chef cook, ask if they can learn a couple of tips on chopping (ph) and spicing up a dish. PHILLIPS: All right, then there's the classics, now we're getting a little more expensive here, right?

MITCHELL: Right, these inns are a little pricier. But we think that they're worth the splurge. The Point is one. This one's fantastic. It was owned by the Rockefellers. It's on Lake Saranac. And actually they won't give you the actual address until you've booked your room, which is $1,300 a night. But...

PHILLIPS: How much did you say?

MITCHELL: Thirteen hundred...

PHILLIPS: Oh!

MITCHELL: ... that's really what I said.

PHILLIPS: I hope you get a lot more than just a room for $13 (sic) a night.

MITCHELL: Well, you get the whole prop -- well, there's four rooms, I believe you get the use of the property. It's on the lake. And it's really -- it's almost like the staff is psychic. You want something, they've already brought it to you. So it's this real sense of intimacy, privacy, exclusivity.

PHILLIPS: Do you get a butler and a nanny and a...

MITCHELL: It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE), yes.

PHILLIPS: Do you get it all?

MITCHELL: Anything you want, you really can. They can arrange a sleigh for you in the middle of winter if you like, whatever you want.

PHILLIPS: Hey, that's not a bad idea. Wow. I guess you can get creative when you're paying that kind of money, right?

MITCHELL: Right, right, exactly, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

PHILLIPS: Outstanding.

Any surprises? As you were working on this story, did anything -- were you -- I don't know, moved by anything in particular, where you just thought, Oh, wow, that's a neat idea...

MITCHELL: Well...

PHILLIPS: ... or, I got to check this out?

MITCHELL: I think -- what I found interesting is that so many of them are in California, so it seems like California has really picked up on the fact that Americans really want to -- they want intimacy now, they want a sense of being in a -- getting personal attention, being in a smaller space. And so California's really honed in on that. Vermont has a bunch of these kinds of inns. I was also surprised that some of them, like the Hacienda del Sol, is $59. So when you think of staying, the difference between staying in a large resort for $300 versus the little inn where it's you and 10 other guests are staying there, and it's much less expensive, just seems like a really good deal.

PHILLIPS: All right, pick up that "Travel and Leisure" magazine, 30 great inns. Heidi, thank you so much.

MITCHELL: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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