Blantyre

"It’s our hideaway close to home." This ivy-cloaked Tudor-style country house on 117 acres in the Berkshires is furnished with nineteenth-century antiques from France and England. Guest rooms have fireplaces, extensive book collections, and fabric-lined dresser drawers. Taking their lead from the "caring owner," perfect-scoring "staff are always exceptionally warm." The main dining room offers a country-house dinner menu with French influences, accompanied by live piano music. "I wish the food were better, although the wine list is stupendous." In winter, snow barbecues are held next to the ice rink—a.k.a. the flooded tennis courts."