Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502110004
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: G8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARJORIE ROBINS/NEWSDAY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
So my interest was roused when I heard recently that owners David and Christie Garrett had opened a second hotel nearby in the Adirondacks, known as the Lake Placid Lodge. The price range was listed as $150 to $400. Sounded reasonable, and with genes from The Point, it seemed a sure second-best for a few cozy nights and days.
My husband likes a good, long car ride, and we set off a few weeks ago with him at the wheel, straight up the New York Thruway for 51/2 hours to exit 30, then another 40 minutes along New York 73 and 86 into Lake Placid. This two-time Olympic village is consumed with winter sports, and people walking down the street are more than likely to have skis and skates slung over their shoulders, cheeks as red as Delicious apples. The ambience is pure Swiss Alps.
But when we checked into the Lake Placid Lodge, a mile and a half out of town, it was as if we had entered a private world.
Let me digress for a moment and explain that I have long debated with more frugal travelers that a well-appointed hotel room can make or break a trip. I am not of the school that believes the room is just a place to flop at night after a long day of exploring. A marble bathroom, a turned-down bed and a solicitous staff are part of any finely tuned vacation for me.
And that's why our stay at the Lake Placid Lodge was so exquisite. We had booked what has to be one of the best hotel rooms in all our travels: Hearthside. Perhaps it helped that it was snowing, and that Hearthside has a massive fieldstone fireplace that we kept burning through the nights. And perhaps being in the cold mountains enhanced the comfort of the king-sized bed with its thick down top mattress and mounds of fluffy pillows. But there were other little luxuries that stood out, all on their own: a bathtub that soaks two bodies stretched out in full; a shower with double heads so that hot water hits you simultaneously from front and back; a bidet; white terry robes and slippers; green apples in a basket and bottled water on the night table; thick and deep armchairs in front of the fireplace; huge peanut butter cookies wrapped in doilies on the bed before lights out.
We were cocooned inside wainscotted walls with log beams and plank floors, accented with Oriental rugs and flowers and art work of the mountains. There was a rarely felt quiet.
The inn looks like a group of oversized log cabins stacked on a mountainside and is on the secluded southwest shore of the lake. Some of its 22 guest rooms and suites have a single advantage over Hearthside: views of Lake Placid and Whiteface Mountain beyond.
Just to be well-rounded, we checked out of Hearthside ($300) on our last night and into a room called Racquette ($275) in a lower building of the complex. And while there was no oversized soaking tub, and while the room didn't quite have the romance of Hearthside, we spent an entire tea time (herbal brew brought to us in china pots with quilt covers) sitting beside the fire, reveling in the beauty of the frozen lake and frosted pines out the picture window at dusk. The porch attached to this room would be extremely desirable in warmer weather when breakfast can be had outside.
There are more accolades: The staff here is well trained in pampering, and the dining room puts out imaginative French-Adirondack (confit of duck and venison) food. We were well pleased with sauteed sea bass and lobster one night, smoked salmon in truffle sauce and the roast loin of venison another. Desserts are rich and creamy, the wine list extensive, and the brandies in the little pub varied. The lodge serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, all a la carte, and does sweet little extras like packing picnic lunches for summer or winter jaunts in the area. (If you're staying beyond two nights, go into town to Nicola's for a less intense but definitely interesting meal. The eggplant stuffed with risotto and the chicken and grape leaves were two favorable choices at this Mediterranean-style eatery.)
Seasonally, there are different outdoorsy things to do in the area. Right outside the lodge door is an extensive cross-country ski trail. We also spent one afternoon on the downhill slopes at Whiteface Mountain. In town, there is ice skating at the old Olympic rinks, bobsledding, luge riding, dog sledding on Mirror Lake, tobogganing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing on the 25-mile Jack Rabbit Trail. In summer, there is an 18-hole golf course adjacent to the lodge, plus tennis courts and a sandy beach. From past trips, I can attest that the fishing's great, especially for lake perch, and that hiking and mountain climbing around here are tops in the state.
by CNB