We initially planned our visit to Arcona Studio in Santa Monica with our good friend P, who canceled due to her needed appearance in Beijing. P is an Arcona superfan and raves about their line of organic, nourishing skincare products (which we admit have lovely packaging), so we booked our deep cleanse for the morning after our DC flight. Since plane air has the same effect as the vacuum seal on a lb of ground supermarket coffee, we were looking forward to a bit of reviving. Our 50-minute session included two exfoliations, LED therapy, and the best shoulder and neck massage we’ve ever received during a facial. After treatment our skin was tingling (literally) with refreshment, and we promised to diligently use the suite of Arcona samples handed to us at the end.
The Beat
St. Regis D.C.
The St. Regis is known as Starwood’s flagship luxury brand, and each instance shares the hallmarks of quiet opulence and comfortable leisure. Our first venture in D.C. brought us through the doors of the beautiful St. Regis D.C. property two blocks above Lafayette Square. A full drawing room extending the length of the building, the lobby is accented by the chandeliers that come standard issue in this town. But it’s the north end where you’ll want to pause for a glass of rosé on the blue velvet tufted couches in the bright, secretive corner lounge.
The St. Regis D.C. Lobby and Rosé Toast
The St. Regis D.C. Lounge
Welcome to the W DC
Roaringly theatric like the scene of a masquerade, the lobby of the W Washington D.C. welcomes you with more than high ceilings and plumes of red, white, and black ostrich feathers. The W’s signature purple and slightly sweet room fragrance are at full crank, as is the blue light filter and showroom cluster of white couches, tall black and cream chairs, and red vinyl opera couches. We clocked in hours in the lobby catching up with friends and plunging through our latest Gilded Age read, and spent afternoons on the rooftop with our sketch book and a plate of something delicious. Perfectly on beat with our morning, afternoon, or end of the night, we’re smitten with another W and feverishly on the path to collecting them all..
Noted:
- immediate access to our room after arriving at 7am
- check-out at 3pm
- W welcome wagon from which children are allowed to pick a toy
- full access to the lobby and P.O.V. rooftop for us and our guests without a wait
- excellent room service, on par with or better than the P.O.V. Lounge menu
- Easily reserved complimentary Acura car drop-off service within 5 miles (perfect for a trip to Georgetown), an amenity often completely booked in locations like New York
The Lobby and Bar of the W Washington D.C.:
P.O.V. Lounge on the Rooftop of the W Washington D.C. – Day and Night:
View from P.O.V. Lounge:
The Hotel Room at the W Washington D.C.:
The Bathroom and Bliss Spa D.C.:
W-here’s the Pool?
We accept certain things as hotel standard issue – body lotion as part of the bath amenities, a chocolate brownie on 24/7 room service, negotiable checkout of at least +1 or 2 hours, and, if the climate is widely known as one of the most humid and punishing on the East Coast, a body of water to park next to with a lounge chair and glass of lemonade. So things aren’t exactly coming together for us. We love the W with the passion of 13-15 room keys, and have found pools in unlikely (and no doubt underappreciated) circumstances like the W San Francisco. So, a few steps from the White House (also known as a building with prime undeveloped rooftop real estate), our horror was realized as we ascended to the roof and took a stark look around. Reality setting in, we acknowledged the obvious – we should have checked Tablet.
The Sporting Life
We’ve said that world capitals are neighborhoods of the same city center, a blisteringly conscious, dynamic, unpredictable stack of lifestyles and density of patterns. You’ve met city addicts no doubt, or you are one, and the rush of living and swarm of sensations is what keeps you trying the next one, and the next, and the next. You have favorites, of course, but you’re after novelty, variation, quantity of possibility, and the jolt of surprise. You consume air travel like diet soda, satiated and thirsty, and you accumulate cities like rooms in your house to which you keep going back.
It’s the plurality of instances, the challenge to limits, the feeling of “not anywhere, but just in the moment” in which we smear our face, smother our body, and suck down as fast as the next Crush swells, familiar, tingling, and bottomless.