Just as the bath water in my soaking tub was losing its steam, the fire was calling for another log. Climbing out of the deep tub and into a thirsty robe, I threw a few more logs into the big stone fireplaces in the bathroom and sitting room. Every window in the Lookout Suite offered an expansive view over moody Upper Saranac Lake where a thick fog was hanging over the still water and green peaks of the Adirondacks beyond. It was the perfect afternoon for a fire. And a long hot bath with a book. An ideal day at The Point, a charming 11-room Relais & Chateaux property and former Great Camp of William Avery Rockefeller II located in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.
Thoughtful and elevated touches welcome even the most discerning guests at every turn. The game room bar is stocked with homemade chips and cookies as well as gin and whisky from Lake Placid and beyond. The library offers old friends like Franny and Zooey and Anne Boleyn. Handmade wooden jigsaw puzzles from Stave taunt from a neat cabinet and a grand old billiard table stands sentinel, adorned with birch bark, antlers and a hand-painted landscape of some dreamy Adirondack lake (nearby, likely). If you must, you can watch television here (your room won’t have one) while you pretend the news or football score is more interesting than the view or the company. The Point attracts travelers who have honed the art of vacationing, taking pride in turning off phones and turning to the person next to them to carry on a conversation.
Dinners are an affair, with black tie dress suggested two nights a week in keeping with the historic perspective of the Gilded Age as no fewer than seven courses are served across tables set for a large party of your newest “Friends in Residence” (their names will be printed on the nightly menu laid at your place). One evening, Versace china and crushed velvet navy tablecloths paired seamlessly, framing a meal created by Chef Loïc Leperlier and his team. Among the more memorable dishes (though each and every one left an impression) were a delicate yellowtail snapper served with fava beans, avocados, wild rice, sea beans and preserved lemon and nilgai (antelope) with ramps foraged the day before during a woods walk, Swiss chard from the kitchen garden, morels and rhubarb.
Change after dinner, bundle up and take a walk down to the lake, look up at the stars and listen. You may hear the crackle of a nearby bonfire, a champagne cork popping or nothing at all.
That’s the point of it all.