The Potting Shed Spa

The bucolic beauty of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts attracted the elite to build vast estates where mile-long driveways, wrap-around porches and grand windows showcase gardens, tennis courts and verdant vistas. Blantyre, a Gilded Age "cottage," has been preserved as a gracious country inn where the chef prepares gourmet meals with local and organic ingredients. Dinner guests are greeted and served a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres in the living room before being seated at a table where the floral centerpiece matches the china service. This member of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux group offers grand and comfortably eclectic suites, and only its few dozen guests have access to and the exclusive use of The Potting Shed Spa. This small, three treatment, pleasure-pampering jewel of a spa is situated at the end of the long drive beyond the baronial manse, past the cottage where one illustrious musician stays during performances at nearby Tanglewood, and adjacent to the Carriage House where smaller rooms lead to a corridor connected to the spa. We love to soak before treatments in the huge heated jacuzzi that sits in front of the window wall in The Greenhouse facing the pool, terrace and tennis court.