The drive into Sonoma ends on a quiet residential street four blocks from the Plaza. You turn in at 29 East MacArthur Street, step out of the car, and the pace changes almost at once. Flagstone paths wander off under old trees, through archways and past garden beds, and by the time you've found your room, the afternoon has slowed to the speed of a walk.
That's the real draw at MacArthur Place Resort & Spa. The 69 rooms aren't stacked into a single building but spread through the gardens, from Deluxe Manor rooms in the main house to Garden Spa Suites and a few private cottages tucked along the paths, all done in soft textures and natural materials. There's a restaurant, a bar, a café, a pool, and a spa, and the hotel is a Preferred Hotels member recognized by Forbes Travel Guide, but none of it announces itself. It feels less like checking into a hotel and more like being handed the keys to someone's country place for the weekend.
Our home for the stay was the Chef's Cottage, a 575-square-foot standalone cottage built in the manner of a Victorian farmhouse. Inside, a king bed under a down comforter faces a fireplace, and on a cool Sonoma evening it's the first thing you'll want to light. The bathroom has a European walk-in shower, but the one you'll actually use is outside: a private shower open to the sky and screened by greenery, stocked with organic grapeseed bath products, with plush robes waiting when you step out.
The cottage's best room, though, has no walls. A private patio wrapped in foliage holds a long chef's table made for dinner outdoors, with a fire pit beside it for the hours after. Have in-room dining brought out to the table, open a bottle of something local, and the evening is entirely your own. Coffee arrives each morning, and the room is quietly turned down each night.
Then there's the food, which turned out to be the surprise of the trip. Layla, the hotel's Mediterranean farm kitchen, is polished without being formal, the kind of room where a two-hour dinner happens without anyone planning it. Start with the cornbread, which we'd happily come back for on its own, the hummus, and of course do not skip the pastas, which were the best things we ate all trip. Much of the menu is built close to home, with produce, eggs, herbs, and flowers from Flatbed Farm, about 15 minutes away.
The restaurant takes its name from Leilani Burris Welch, who owned the property in 1951 and was known for throwing Hawaiian-inspired luau parties around the pool. Before dinner, The Bar at MacArthur is the spot for a glass of Sonoma wine, and in the morning, The Porch, the hotel's café and marketplace, takes care of coffee.
The Spa at MacArthur works with botanicals and herbs grown on the property and on neighboring farms and vineyards, so what grows along the garden paths finds its way into the treatments. Beyond that, the best plan is not to have one: an afternoon by the pool, a slow loop through the gardens, a seat by a fire pit once the sun goes down.
When you do want the town, it's an easy walk. Sonoma Plaza, with its tasting rooms, restaurants, and shops, is four blocks away, close enough to stroll over for a glass and be back to your privacy in ten minutes. For a deeper look at the valley, the hotel's Wine, Dine + Vines package includes VIP tastings at Chateau St. Jean, Foley Johnson and Silverado, and the hotel partners with Bohemian Highway Travel Co. on tours of Sonoma Valley wineries that aren't usually open to the public.
For a day out, MacArthur Place’s partnership with Chateau St. Jean makes for an easy escape about 20 minutes up Highway 12 in Kenwood. Founded in 1973 at the foot of the Mayacamas range, the winery is set around a 1920s summer home whose oak-paneled living room, fireplace and all, now serves as the Reserve Tasting Room. Outside, formal gardens, a courtyard pool and bocce courts invite guests to linger over a glass, and a picnic among the vines is hard to beat. Through the hotel’s Wine, Dine + Vines package, guests are treated to VIP tastings at Chateau St. Jean, including its flagship Cinq Cépages, before heading back to Sonoma in time for dinner at Layla.
Every evening, though, we ended up in the same place: back on the patio of the Chef's Cottage, the fire pit going and dinner on the table, with no particular reason to be anywhere else.