A twenty-five-room adults-only inn on a Stanford-White-era hillside above Jackson Village, with a fourteen-treatment Aveda spa, a three-course dining programme, and a wood-paneled common room that the Washington Post named one of the ten most romantic in North America.
"The Washington Post called it one of the ten most romantic inns in North America for a reason, twenty-five rooms, ski-to-door access, and a kitchen that takes itself seriously."
The Inn at Thorn Hill occupies a Stanford White-attributed cottage built in 1895 on the hillside above Jackson Village, the New England summer-resort hamlet of the Mount Washington Valley first settled in 1790 and now better known for its 1876 covered bridge and the surrounding network of Jackson Ski Touring trails. The original cottage burned in December 2002 and was rebuilt over the following twenty months in the same Victorian Stanford White vernacular, gables, gabled dormers, deep wraparound porches, that defined the original.
The inn comprises three buildings on the same hilltop: the Main Inn with twelve guestrooms over three storeys, the Carriage House with three larger suite-format rooms, and four free-standing Private Cottages set into the trees behind the main building. All twenty-five accommodations are adults-only (sixteen and over) and all face the View, the open south-westerly aspect over the Wildcat River valley to the Presidential Range; the upper-floor Inn rooms and the cottage upper bedrooms are the View bookings.
The kitchen has been the inn's signature for two decades. Executive chef and proprietor Jim Cooper runs a three-course prix-fixe programme in the wood-paneled main dining room (dinner package guests are seated by 6:30 PM); the menu rotates by the week and emphasises New Hampshire and Vermont producers, Stonewall Farm beef, Stillman's Quality Meats lamb, North Country Smokehouse charcuterie, the Black Trumpet mushroom forager. The wine list runs to four hundred bins with an emphasis on Loire whites and the Northern Rhône. Breakfast is included in the room rate and runs full-service from 8 to 9:30 AM.
The fourteen-treatment Aveda spa occupies the lower level of the Main Inn (sauna, steam, two couples-treatment suites, the Aveda elemental ritual menu); the indoor lap pool runs year-round. The inn's location at the top of Thorn Hill Road puts the Jackson Ski Touring centre, sixty miles of groomed cross-country trail, directly out the front door in winter; the Jackson Village covered bridge, Black Mountain alpine ski area, and Wildcat Mountain are within five minutes by car. Reservations book three to five months in advance for the foliage window (late September to mid-October) and the Valentine's Day-through-President's Day winter window.
The Inn at Thorn Hill is the Mount Washington Valley anniversary booking. The Cottage Suite category (free-standing buildings, gas fireplace, two-person whirlpool, View aspect), the three-course dinner package with the wine pairing, the Aveda couples ritual, and the ski-to-door access in winter or the cross-country touring centre at the front door, this is the romantic-getaway template the inn has run for twenty-five years. The Washington Post citation is twenty years old and the inn has not slipped.
For the post-wedding decompression honeymoon rather than the long-haul resort variant, Thorn Hill is the New England answer. Adults-only across all twenty-five rooms means no children at the breakfast table or at dinner; the Carriage House Suite (the largest accommodation, with separate sitting room, gas fireplace, and the View aspect from a private balcony) is the honeymoon booking. The inn arranges the carriage ride through Jackson Village and the chef's tasting menu at dinner.
The single-occupancy Standard Inn Room at the back of the Main Inn (the smallest category, the value rate) is the inn's solo-retreat secret. The spa is open to all guests, the Aveda elemental ritual is excellent value, the dining room takes solo guests at the bar at dinner. For the writer or the reader who wants a four-night Jackson stay in winter with the cross-country trail at the door and no requirement to perform sociability at breakfast, Thorn Hill is well calibrated.
40 Thorn Hill Road
Jackson, NH 03846
United States
Thorn Hill · Jackson Village; Mount Washington Valley; Portland International Jetport 125 minutes; Manchester-Boston Regional 110 minutes; Boston Logan 175 minutes
25 rooms across Main Inn, Carriage House, and four Private Cottages
Standard Inn Room from $295/night
Inn View Room (upper-floor, View aspect) from $355/night
Carriage House Suite from $445/night
Private Cottage (free-standing) from $525/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Adults-only (16+); rebuilt 2002-2004 after fire on 1895 Stanford-White cottage site; full breakfast included; three-course dinner package available
Fourteen-treatment Aveda spa
Year-round indoor lap pool
Three-course prix-fixe dining programme
Four hundred-bin wine cellar
Ski-to-door Jackson Ski Touring access (60 miles of groomed trail)
Sauna and steam
Two couples-treatment suites
Free Wi-Fi (fibre)
From $295 / night, full breakfast included. The Carriage House Suite and the Private Cottages book three to five months ahead for the foliage window (late September to mid-October) and the Valentine's-Day-through-President's-Day winter window. The Dinner Package (room, breakfast, and the three-course tasting menu for two) prices below the equivalent room-plus-restaurant rate by 15-20 percent.
Book This Hotel →The 1902 grand resort on 6,500 acres beneath Mount Washington; 269 rooms, the Spanish-Renaissance ballroom that hosted the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.
The 1865 Whitefield grand hotel with the on-site bison herd, the rooftop spa, and the Presidential Range view across the meadow.
The 1869 grand inn in the centre of Jackson Village, opposite the covered bridge, with the eighteen-hole golf course out the front door.