In Great Escapes USA, Angelika Taschen presents remarkable places to stay through impressive photography, entertaining texts, and practical details on how to get there, prices, and tips for books and films. Her journey starts on the East Coast, where intellectuals and artists once met in idyllically located country houses such as the Twin Farms in Vermont and Troutbeck in New York State. It continues to the South, where The Moorings Village and Hotel Peter & Paul, for example, tell of the history of Florida and Louisiana, and Southern belles such as the Commodore Perry Estate in Austin, Texas reveal their glamor.
Dunton Hot Springs, once a miners' camp in Colorado, now transformed from a ghost town to an upscale rustic resort, lies on the route, just like the urban utopia that is Arcosanti in Arizona, conceived by the architect Paolo Soleri in the 1970s. The trip comes to a wonderful conclusion in California with unique hotels such as Deetjen's Big Sur Inn, where many famous writers have stayed in the Norwegian-influenced wooden cabins, laid-back motels like The Surfrider Malibu, which is all about the California dream, and heavenly destinations for gourmets, for example SingleThread in Sonoma County with its three Michelin stars.
