Kindra Clineff / Baltimore Sun
Little wonder that The Ivy, the meticulously restored mansion hotel, has earned the designation of Baltimore’s most exclusive sleep. Most travelers would be giddy with delight for the chance to spend the night in any of its 14 guest rooms and suites, where it appears no expense has been spared on stately antiques. But one particular room, No. 7, nicknamed the Turret Suite, is clearly the hotel’s crown jewel. Located in the manse’s tower, it features two working fireplaces, a living room and a dressing room attached to a massive bathroom with a deep soaking tub, glass shower, warming towel rack and French limestone floors heated to 80 degrees. True, the romantic rounded turret window overlooks the uninspired corner of Biddle and Calvert streets. But who needs a water view when you are sleeping beneath a canopy of hand-embroidered draping on a bed dressed in lilac-fragranced 400-thread count Frette linens?
Rates start at $1,300 per night. Mount Vernon. theivybaltimore.com
Baltimore Sun
It’s OK if your companion wants to play "Great Balls of Fire" at midnight on the baby grand piano in the Four Seasons Baltimore’s Presidential Suite. It’s unlikely you'll disturb anyone, banging out tunes way up on the 17th floor. Anyway, the piano is in the dining room, on the opposite end of this 2,814-square-foot suite from the marble bathroom where you’re buried by warm bubbles in the soaking tub. Take your time; later you can nose around the custom-designed furnishings, original artwork and stone-clad fireplace, and hang out on the balcony overlooking those 180-degree harbor views. If you’re still not drowsy, put on a TV show on the Bose home theater system in the living room. When you finally snuggle under the down comforter in the king-size bed, you can summon sleep while the city glows beyond two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows.
Rates start at $14,000 per night. Harbor East. fourseasons.com/baltimore
Personal butlers. Spa baths. Sumptuous sheets. Expansive views. While the definition of the dreamiest hotel room is in the eye of the guest, we’ve scoured the Baltimore region to find extraordinary rooms that can enchant the most jaded traveler.
Stephanie Citron, For The Baltimore Sun