Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / United States / Washington / Mayflower Inn & Spa
Mayflower Inn & Spa
Washington, Connecticut, United States · Auberge Resorts · High Luxury
An English garden and a meditation labyrinth give you reasons to wander the Mayflower's fifty-eight acres in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills. The country inn grew from a nineteenth-century school property, and today the Tap Room is a pub-like gathering place, with New England farm-to-table dining, indoor and outdoor heated pools, and a 20,000-square-foot spa house completing the country-house stay.
- 35 rooms
- Opened 1894
- Rooms from 368 sq ft (34 m²)
About Mayflower Inn & Spa
- The Spa House on the 58-acre Washington estate is a 20,000-square-foot wellness building, now programmed as The Retreat at Mayflower Inn.
- An English garden and meditation labyrinth invite wandering across the 58 acres in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills.
- The country inn grew from a nineteenth-century school property, and the Tap Room is its pub-like gathering place.
- Entry-level rooms start at 368 sq ft (34 m²).
History
The 58-acre property in Washington, Connecticut, occupied by the Mayflower Inn and Spa has been a place of gathered human intention since 1894, when the buildings on the hillside above the Shepaug River were established as a private school — the Innis Arden School, which occupied the grounds and the original structures for several decades before the buildings were converted to inn use. Washington, Connecticut, is a village of the Litchfield Hills, the rolling wooded upland of northwestern Connecticut that has served as the escape valve for New York's professional class for more than two centuries, its landscape of stone walls, covered bridges, and hardwood forests offering a particular quality of New England quiet that is different in character from the Hamptons or Berkshires.
The conversion of the school buildings into the Mayflower Inn gave the property a hospitality identity it has maintained ever since, though the current structure reflects substantial rebuilding and expansion over the decades that separated the original school from the contemporary resort. The main inn building, the pub, and the several cottage buildings on the grounds are harmonized in the manner of a country house that accumulated its architecture gradually over time — a result that feels less like a designed hotel than like an estate that decided, somewhat generously, to accept guests.
Auberge Resorts acquired the Mayflower Inn in 2019 and introduced The WELL at Mayflower, a destination wellness concept that draws on the inn's existing spa and the restorative character of the Connecticut countryside to position it as a full-service wellness retreat within a luxury country-house setting. The restaurant, serving farm-to-table New England cuisine, and the English-style Tap Room pub give the property two distinct social registers — formal dining and the firelit informality of a pub that serves as the neighborhood living room for Washington's residents as well as the inn's guests. Fifty-eight acres of woodland gardens, a meditation labyrinth, an English garden, tennis courts, and indoor and outdoor heated pools make the grounds as much of a program as the building. AAA Five Diamond status — among the most exclusive designations in American hospitality — reflects the standard that the Mayflower has maintained as an inn for guests who want the opposite of the city they came from.
The main building was constructed in 1894 as the Ridge School, a private boys' academy; when the school closed in 1919, a former alumnus converted the estate to a country inn, and Auberge Resorts Collection assumed stewardship in 2018.
The setting
Mayflower Inn & Spa, an Auberge Resorts property, rests on 58 wooded acres along Woodbury Road in Washington, Connecticut — a quintessential Litchfield Hills village two hours from Midtown Manhattan long favored by New York's cultural and financial elite. The main building was constructed in 1894 as the Ridge School, a private boys' academy; when the school closed in 1919, a former alumnus converted the estate to a country inn, and Auberge Resorts Collection assumed stewardship in 2018. The inn's 35 rooms and cottages are scattered across the wooded grounds, surrounded by fly-fishing streams, archery, and the seasonal beauty of one of Connecticut's most celebrated rural landscapes. 4 miles from Route 202. 3 miles from Steep Rock Preserve.
Restaurants and bars
- The Garden Room — Restaurant · Modern New England-inspired · Chef April Bloomfield
- The Tap Room — Restaurant · Casual yet refined country fare
- Café Boulud at The Mayflower — Café
Experiences
- Hiking through meadows and wetlands — Hike through meadows and wetlands in the Litchfield Hills.
- Hiking on property and in adjacent nature preserve — Acres of hiking on property or mile of trails in adjacent nature preserve.
- Bonfire with snacks and s'mores — Sit out by the bonfire with snacks and s'mores.
- Tennis with a Pro — Tennis lessons with a professional.
- Daily Movement Classes at The Retreat — Daily movement classes at The Retreat.
- Garden to Glass — Garden to Glass experience as listed on the page.
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Tennis
- Hiking
- Sauna
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Five Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Recommended (2026)
- MICHELIN One Key (2025)
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