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A Weekend of Luxury and EleganceRomantic Pampering at the Boston Four SeasonsBy Paul Pence
Our usual romantic weekend features fireplaces and tea cozies, maybe a quiet dinner and a stroll in the countryside, but romance in the big city isn’t trimmed with lace doilies and patchwork quilts. Romance in Boston means lavishness and splendor – plays and gourmet dinners and five-star hotels. And in all of New England, there is only one five-star / five-diamond hotel – The Boston Four Seasons. No matter where you live, you know that Boston is a place of history and culture, beginning with the landing of Puritan pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and continuing through today where it is the home of Ivy League schools and thriving corporate headquarters. It’s a city where the old moneyed families of Beacon Hill demand the greatest of luxury and quality at their convenience. The Boston Common and the nearby theater district provide a good deal of what they demand. Add the area’s top-flight restaurants and hotels and you’ve located the center of Boston opulence. To Bostonians, that’s romance. Let’s start with the Boston Commons; it is actually two parks. The original Commons has existed from the earliest days of the city as a shared “common” grazing place for cattle before becoming a park for recreation. In the 1800’s, much of what we consider Boston was built on new land created in the “Back Bay” and Charles River. In 1837, well before the Victorian-era obsession for formal gardens, Bostonians created the Boston Public Gardens adjacent to the Boston Commons, with statuary, monuments, trees, and flowering plants. Adjacent and overlooking the Boston Public Gardens sits the Four Seasons with their garden rooms, restaurants, and pool looking out at the greenery. In the spring and summer the leaves of imported maples and elms allow peeks of the swan boats plying the 5-acre pond called the “lagoon”. In the winter, skaters brave the ice. In the autumn, the leaves themselves provide the show. This fantastic view highlighted our particular romantic weekend. That romantic weekend actually started before the champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries. When we arrived, we just left the car at the front door. With parking so scarce in Boston, the valet parking that comes as part of their romantic getaway package is a luxury bordering on necessity. Friendly, eager bell-staff and parking attendants were our introduction to the hotel’s dedication to service. They were there to help with bags, and when we went for our jaunts around Boston, they always said “welcome back”. We arrived in time for dinner in the Bristol. Appetizers, of course – crab cakes, a bit uncommon as far up the Atlantic seaboard as Boston, but the folks at the Brisol brag about their seafood, so we had to give them a try. Dinner for me was their horseradish-encrusted salmon. My fiancée had steak freis – a steak with crispy potato straws just like you’d find in the sidewalk bistros of Paris. And, of course, dessert, and as is our custom on romantic weekends we share. This time we had a crème du lait, a sweet, cool rice custard with a crispy top crust. The Bristol is one of two restaurants at the Four Seasons. The other, Aujourd'hui, fits the Boston definition of romantic even better – fancier and even more expensive. It was closed the weekend we were there as part of an overall renovation that had already redone the Bristol and its lounge. The renovation included the gift shop and the pool, along with much that was hidden from normal view.
Morning came, and there’s nothing more self-indulgent than breakfast room service. We debated on eating breakfast in bed, but since our suite included a glass-topped rosewood dining table in the main room, we had our breakfast set up a bit more formally, and we enjoyed our food looking out over the Gardens. Some people prefer to exercise in the mornings. Hardly what we’d consider romantic, but the option is there with a modern exercise room that includes TV’s and headsets at each exercise machine, a pool set up for swimming laps, and coffee and fruit for fitness-minded earlybirds. Our particular visit to the limestone-walled pool came later in the day. The first thing on our schedule after breakfast was a massage. The masseuses came to our room – normally they work out of the health club. They set their tables up in the bedroom and modestly retired to the other room when we slipped our bare bodies under the sheets. Our masseuses could handle a variety of massage techniques, including Swedish, reflexology, and stone massages. I’m a relaxed type of person – my occasional troubles don’t find their way into my muscles, so for me a massage is just relaxing. My sweetheart, though, whose trials and tribulations tie her muscles into knots, had never before had a professional massage. To her, the massage was heaven, removing tenseness and aches she never even realized that she had been carrying in her body.
Along with ducks, Boston’s famous swan boats float on the lagoon through the spring and summer. These boats date from 1877, when they held a handful of passengers and were paddled around by the operator using a bicycle-like arrangement. The modern boats hold 20 passengers at a time, taking them under bridges and around waterside flowerbeds. We were a bit too early in the year to take a ride, so we extended our walk into Boston. Boston has nicknamed itself “The Walking City”, and that’s essentially true. My Boston friends tell me that if you HAVE TO take public transportation, then you’re not really in the city. Within a few blocks of Boston Commons, you can reach world-class restaurants, theaters, shopping, and history. The Freedom Trail is one of many walking tours in Boston. A day’s hike takes you from Boston Common where the British gathered before their march to Concord and the first combat of the Revolutionary War and follows a red stripe on the sidewalks all the way to the Bunker Hill monument, where farmers and volunteers proved that they had the mettle to stand up to a massed charge and wait until they “see the whites of their eyes” before they fire. Along the way are numerous historic buildings, monuments, and reminders of the American war for freedom including the old wooden warship “Constitution”, called “Old Ironsides”.
The ideal romantic evening in Boston includes a play, after all, the theater district starts right around the block from the Four Seasons. If you plan your trip in advance, tickets are no problem to most of the area playhouses with shows like “I Do, I Do, For Now”, but major events like “Miss Saigon” or “The Phantom” tend to be fully booked before you even know that they’re available. The hotel’s concierge is as helpful as the rest of the staff. And after the play, the Bristol features a dessert buffet, a fireplace, and jazz in their lounge. For us, our evening ended with a visit to the whirlpool and an evening in the room enjoying the view. The Zagat Survey of Hotels ranked the Four Seasons as one of the top ten hotels in the US. For us, it was the most luxurious and opulent we had ever visited, clearly a city dweller’s definition of romance. You can find the Four Seasons Boston at 200 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 02116. Phone them at 617/338-4400. They’re 15 minutes from Logan International Airport. Photo Credits: All pictures by Paul Pence. Paul Pence is a freelance writer whose work has been published in TravelLady, Tex Woman Magazine, the Providence Journal, Weissmann Travel Reports, Travel Notes, Rough Guides, Jackhammer, East Greenwich Magazine, and numerous other magazines and newspapers. He is also the managing editor of Rhode Island Roads magazine, which can be read online at http://riroads.com |
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My
fiancée and I were met in our room with champagne and chocolate covered
strawberries on a sliver tray – a billowing arrangement of long-stemmed
roses arrived the next day. Between the two we strolled the Boston Gardens
and Commons, explored Chinatown, and spent the evening rediscovering each
other.
We
retired early to a hot deep bath and a room with fresh linen and gentle
music. And, of course, the champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.
Relaxed,
we went for a stroll in the gardens. Many of the trees are labeled, letting
us take turns being knowledgeable, depending on who spotted the sign first.
“Guess what kind of tree this is.” Elm? Hickory? The statues offered the
same entertainment – “Guess who he is.” “Never heard of him, but I guess he
was famous once.” Perhaps the best statue wasn’t the towering monument to
Boston’s war heroes, or a somewhat disturbing rough sculpture of weary
horsemen called “Partisans”, but was instead a row of bronze ducklings,
commemorating the children’s story “Make Way For Ducklings”.
After
a stroll and lunch in Chinatown, it was time to prepare for the evening.