Keswick Hall
at Monticello, located five miles east of Charlottesville, VA, is a small, intimate resort. Set on 600 rolling and wooded acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Keswick Hall at Monticello is on Conde Nast Traveler magazine's 2002 Gold List of "the world's best places to stay." The resort's resplendently furnished Italianate guest house is complemented by an exceptionally designed and challenging Arnold Palmer golf course; tennis, fitness and massage facilities; an Olympic size outdoor pool; an indoor-outdoor pool; saunas and spas; and a candlelit dining room with a world-class wine cellar.
The Virginia
countryside around Keswick is a virtual Eastman Johnson landscape. The main guest house offers mesmerizing views of the forested foothills and is on a hilltop directly overlooking the golf course and croquet lawn. The house is designed in Tuscan architectural style, complete with arches leading out to wide patios beautified with colorful flowers and plants. The mansion is reminiscent of the finest European style country estates.
Formerly owned by Englishman Sir Bernard Ashley, the property was purchased in 1999 by Orient Express Hotels, a hotel and leisure company focused on the luxury end of the leisure market. In addition to its 29 individual and distinctive hotels worldwide, the Bermuda-registered, London-based company operates six tourist trains and two world famous restaurants including The "21" Club in New York City.
The 48 rooms of the estate house are each individually decorated from the finest of the famed Laura Ashley collection. Tapestries, fine paintings and other art collections, and Queen Anne furniture grace these rooms, some of which have balconies overlooking the patio and golf course. The public rooms, including the morning room where afternoon tea is served daily, the library and the snooker room offer a distinctly home-like atmosphere where guests are encouraged to browse the expansive book collection, play snooker, or relax over tea or cordials.
At Keswick, the service is impeccable but informal. Here, there is an unhurried atmosphere where the only interruption to the peace and tranquility is the periodic whistle of a nearby train, a charming and romantic interlude to the presiding quiet.
As for golf, guests are issued temporary memberships in Keswick Golf Club, a private 600-member club located a chip shot from the guest house. The club offers American bistro-style dining, in addition to the golf facility - an 18-hole Arnold Palmer redesign of an Fred Findlay layout. Findlay designed the nearby Farmington County Club course as well as other popular Virginia courses.
The Palmer team retained all the natural features of the land but tweaked the original design with new bent grass greens, additional bunkers, Bermuda fairways and more pronounced elevation changes. The course is one of the best conditioned courses you will ever play. It is only 6,300 yards from the back tees but it has a relatively high slope of 126, largely because the greens slope precipitously. Yet, the course was designed to be enjoyed by golfers of all skill levels and is, in fact, ideal for the casual golfer or golfing couple.
The proximity to Charlottesville and its attractions, notably Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, and the University of Virginia, adds to Keswick Hall at Monticello's
appeal. 
Virginia Golf
