"So much luxe...that Louis XVI would be envious."


Modern Bride

• PRESS ACCOLADES
• FOR THE MEDIA

Les Mars Hotel Press Accolades

• Wine Spectator

  

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  Wine Spectator
  Where to Stay

  This boutique hotel, off Healdsburg Plaza, has a distinctive European style, from the formal, Old World décor to the lobby to the plush furnishings in each room. The Mars family opened the inn two years ago and it is the only Relais & Chateaux property in the county. The second-floor rooms are decorated with mahogany furniture in French country style. The third-floor rooms, inspired by the chateau-style family inns of France, feature high-pitched beamed ceilings and 18th- and 19th-century European antiques and reproductions. Each room boasts opulent fabric, a gas fireplace, a four-poster bed and a deep whirlpool tub. Breakfast is served in the library, with its hand-carved walnut panels, and guests can lounge by the intimate pool.

• Napa Sonoma Magazine Review

  

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  Napa Sonoma Magazine
  Luxe Lodging

  Wine Country’s Most Exclusive Hotels Create New Ways To Wow Guests

  Private, thousand-square-foot patios. Custom-made bath products and decadent spa treatments. Eight-hundred-thread-count Italian sheets. For Wine Country luxury lodgings, many of these indulgences have become par for the course.
  
  How, then, does a new hotel distinguish itself?
  
  “And more, leisure hotel guests don’t want a place that feels like other places they’ve stayed before,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, a firm that consults with luxury marketers. Danziger adds that the key lies in creating a unique experience, particularly at the high end.
  
  Take Solage, for example, a new resort that is an offshoot of the exclusive Auberge Group. Aiming at a slightly younger crowd than its other resorts, Solage manages to be spunky, hip, community-oriented, and luxurious all at the same time. Among the stand-out signature amenities: complimentary cruiser bikes with every room, organic Italian Linens, and a spa treatment featuring a NASA-designed sound chair.
  
  Calistoga Ranch, another Auberge property, epitomizes a rustic trend in luxury that has become popular in the last few years. As are all accommodations at the top end of the market, Calistoga Ranch is architecturally remarkable and appointed with premium amenities. Plus, guests have access to the highest levels of personal service. Yet the ranch also feels decidedly casual and unabashedly outdoorsy, designed as a series of individual private outdoor shower gardens, and soaking pools overlooking a creek.
  
  Among this new breed of properties, perhaps none embodies the blend of urban chic and rural charm better than the Carneros Inn, where sleek and sophisticated (think mid-century modern furniture) meets country casual ( think private outdoor showers).
  
  Carneros Inn goes out of its way to be “of its place” by offering things like spa treatments with goat butter made from milk produced by a local herd, and customized outdoor hydrotherapy baths.
  
  The Carneros Inn’s newest accommodation, the Orchard, is at the forefront of another hot trend in luxury lodging: private residence clubs. The Orchard offers ownership of its 17 impeccably furnished and appointed cottages, along with all the amenities of a full-service resort, such as per-night rental to outside guests when owners aren’t using the cottages. The huge Westin Verasa, set to open late this year, brings the home-as-hotel concept down to Napa. The studio, one-, and two-bedroom condos will offer owners a home away from home when in Wine Country, as well as four-star hotel perks that include a gourmet restaurant, pool and spa, and 24-hour room service.
  
  On the Sonoma aside, Hotel Healdsburg puts a Zen modern slant on rustic luxury. Beautifully appointed with Frette linens and bathrobes, Tibetan rugs, and six-foot-deep soaking tubs, and attached to celebrity chef Charlie Palmer’s highly acclaimed restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen, the hotel could easily be a destination in and of itself. Its location directly on Healdsburg’s town square, however, makes it the ideal accommodation for guests who don’t plan to loll around.
  
  Most of Sonoma’s upscale accommodations typify a more familiar luxury trend: small, smaller, and smaller still. Here peace and quiet are part of the amenity package, as many properties boast only a handful of rooms and a high staff-to-guest ratio. These small hotels are all about comfort. Les Mars Hotel, for instance, features four-poster beds swathed in hand-made linens-made by the same producer as the ones the Pope sleeps in. The recently renewed Kenwood Inn authentically replicates a Tuscan Villa, complete with sun-dappled courtyard, wrought iron balconies, and small romantic pools. And at Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, private cottages have wood-burning fireplaces and saunas. If you can bare to leave your room, there’s also its Michelin-rated restaurant.
  
  Slightly larger, but intimate none the less are Vintners Inn and MacArthur Place. Both feel cozy but offer more room to roam. Vintners Inn is nestled amid 92 acres of Ferrari-Carano vineyards, While MacArthur Place, near the Sonoma Town square, includes myriad pathways that wind through a whimsical sculpture garden and lush landscaping.
  
  None of these, however, can compare to the intimacy of Napa’s Poetry Inn, which offers a mere three rooms on 85 picturesque acres. In addition to the absolute privacy, Poetry Inn allows access to some of Wine Country’s most exclusive people, places and things. The French Laundry’s Thomas Keller, for example, will personally cook for guests.
  
  The new wave of haute-els may be gaining ground, but the grandes dames of Wine Country have nothing to fear. Meadowood, arguably the American luxury resort of its time, is better than ever. Its perfect little cottages perch over golf courses, croquet lawns, and tennis courts, and a new restaurant has already garnered two prestigious Michelin stars. Silverado Resort, although a throw-back to a more old-fashioned Napa era, has one thing that makes it uniquely luxurious: space. Sitting on 1,200 acres-400of which are golf courses-Silverado Resort offers guests an unmatched feeling of serenity.
  
  Nearby Auberge du Soliel, one of Napa Valley’s first-and still one of it’s foremost-luxury properties, possesses all the things that make a Wine Country resort truly exceptional: huge rooms, a top-notch spa, and views to take your breath away.
  

• 7X7 San Francisco Review

  

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• Michelin Guide Review

  

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  Michelin Guide 2007, San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country

  Les Mars Hotel, Healdsburg
  Three Stars and a Pleasant Hotel

  “Picture the limestone façade of a 19th-century French Château just off Healdsburg’s plaza, and you’ve got Les Mars.  Step inside and you’ll be instantly awash in luxury, from the 17th-century Flemish tapestry that hangs in the lobby to the hand-cared walnut panels and leather-bound books that line the library.

  Sumptuous antiques fill the 16 individually designed rooms with the likes of Louis XV armoires, draped four-poster beds, and chaise lounges.  Italian linens, reading lights and switch-operated fireplaces provide extra thoughtful touches.  In the bathrooms, lined with salt and pepper marble, you can pamper yourself with deep soaking tubs, lavender bath salts and Bulgari amenities.  Third-floor rooms boast high ceilings with exposed wood beams.  Yes, the prices are steep, but this level of luxury doesn’t come cheap.”

• Executive Travel Review

  

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  Executive Travel - September 2006
  The Business of Pleasure by Erika Lenkert (PDF)

  Rest Assured
  “With a multicourse menu that warrants over indulgence, it’s a good thing this hot spot adjoins the regions top hotel the 16-room, European-style luxury inn Les Mars. For well-fed guests, it’s a one-minute waddle from the dining room to one of the superfluously elegant rooms adorned with 18th-and 19th-century antiques.  Even better for the wine student is the hotel’s custom wine program, where for $7,500, a private group of one to eight people is led on a wine tour of restricted properties and seminar by one of the nation’s leading wine educators and authors, Karen MacNeil.”

• New York Times Review

  

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  New York Times - August 13, 2006
  Going to the Source for Your Meal by Elaine Glusac

  “If foraging for your own food smacks ‘survivor’-style desperation, think again.  High end resorts are connecting guests to the sources of their gastronomy with food foraging outings under the guidance of experts who know the delectable from poisonous.

  Back in the kitchen, staff chefs turn these wild harvests into dinner.  Take the Les Mars Hotel in Healdsburg. ‘I compare it to an Easter egg hunt,’ says Chef Peter Brown, who will begin escorting guests in pursuit of chanterelle, hedgehog and lion’s mane fungus in coastal Sonoma County this fall. The all-day outings will scour the backcountry for edibles used in a hands-on cooking class led by Brown at a winery or estate. (The hotel’s kitchen is occupied in the afternoon by the staff of the hotel’s restaurant, Cyrus.) For two to four people, the cost is $1,700 and includes transportation, foraging, and meals, not accommodations. The program will be held October through March.”

• USA Today Review

  

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  USA Today, July 26, 2006
  Town Ripens on the Vine: Deeply Rooted Healdsburg Adapts to an Upscale Climate by Jerry Shriver

  “Anyone who lives here or who has visited regularly over the past few years can see the change during every stroll downtown: Just north of the plaza, where an old auto parts store once stood, is a year old hotel that charges $525 to $1025 a night, resembles a French château and is adorned with a 17th-century Flemish tapestry and 18th-century armoires.  It’s called Les Mars and the otherworldly allusion is fitting.”

• Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report Review

  

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  Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report, June 2006
  New Discoveries in Napa and Sonoma Wine Country

  “The gentle town of Healdsburg lies at the heart of the Sonoma County wine region. Just a short walk from its handsome, historic plaza you will find Les Mars Hotel, an elegant evocation of a classic French manor house complete with a limestone façade, slated mansard roof and artful wrought-iron window guards.  The property is a realization of a dream long held by David and Sarah Mars, who aspired to create a hotel embodying the charm and personalized service that they had enjoyed on trips to Western Europe. It is a pleasure to report that their endeavors have been a triumphant success, and that Les Mars now sets the standard for luxury accommodation in Sonoma.

  As you enter the lobby, the first thing to catch your eye is an opulent 17th-Century Flemish tapestry that provides the backdrop for a gracious seating area.  Indeed, much of the rest of the hotel is full of 18th-and 19th-Century French antiques from the Mars’ own extensive collection.  Further evidence of the owners’ attention to detail can be seen in the elegant curved staircase with its exquisite ornamental railing.  The reception desk is discreetly set to one side next to the splendid library.  Here, an extensive range of books is arrayed on shelves that match the magnificent hand craved walnut paneling.  The library makes an attractive setting for breakfast, while each evening guests convene there for a presentation of local cheese and wine.

  A handsome bar forms a congenial prelude to the hotel’s outstanding restaurant.  Cyrus. Which arched ceilings, soft indirect lightning and carefully arranged tables, this is a warm and inviting arena for Sonoma’s finest cuisine…”

  “The 16 sumptuous accommodations have been individually decorated, but all feature deep carpets, rich French fabrics and draped four-poster beds.  Louis XV tables with marquetry inlays, gas log fires, carved stone mantels, Sony sound systems and flat-screen TV’s all contribute to an atmosphere of luxurious comfort.  Spacious white marble baths provide walk-in showers, while some also offer soaking tubs.  The rooms on the third floor are particularly desirable, as they boast 20-foot ceilings reminiscent of a grand
  French château.

  Out back, you will discover a small swimming pool, plus a sun terrace with a pretty fountain.  Overall, Les Mars is an unexpectedly opulent and distinguished property that came as a delightful surprise.”

• Condé Nast Traveler Review

  

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  Condé Nast Traveler - May 2006
  The (2006) Hot List

  “Usually it’s hotel guests who fill an on-site restaurant, but in the case of Les Mars, it the tiny Sonoma Valley town of Healdsburg, the 65-seat eatery Cyrus may be the point of entry.  Diners checking into one of the 16 guest rooms- all with gas fireplace and a whirlpool- will find refreshingly unstuffy service and attention to detail.  Family-owned and operated, Les Mars embodies what’s possible when money is no object, from an average of 500 square feet per guest room, to 20-foot vaulted ceilings, to chocolate truffles and white roses at turndown, to top-of-the-line staff and consultants…”

  “When to go:  April, during the Sonoma Valley’s Cinema Epicurea film festival—a quieter time than the annual fall crush.  Which room to book: No. 303, an extra-sunny corner room overlooking the picturesque entryway.”

• Food & Wine Review

  

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  Food & Wine - April 2006
  Best of California Wine Country: Healdsburg Tour

  “Les Mars Hotel, Healdsburg’s latest boutique hotel evokes an 18th-century château, with antiques and huge marble bathrooms.”

• Town & Country Travel Review

  

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  Town & Country Travel - Spring 2006
  Enchanting Places

  “The brand-new Les Mars Hotel looks like-actually, probably looks better than- a boutique hotel in Paris.  My room resembled nothing so much as one of the more splendid ones at the Bristol.  The view of Solem’s appliance and Service across the street puts a smile on the grand illusion.  Downstairs, restaurateur Nick Peyton and chef Douglas Keane, both formerly of San Francisco’s Gary Danko, have created a restaurant called Cyrus with aspirations comparable to those of a formal Michelin three-star.”