Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal sets out from Georgetown on its 184-mile run to Cumberland, Maryland, and its first lock lies close to the spot where Pennsylvania Avenue crosses Rock Creek and turns into M Street. Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC has stood on that corner since 1979, at the eastern gateway to Georgetown, and it has long been where much of official and corporate Washington chooses to stay and to dine.

History

Four Seasons began in Toronto in 1961 and spent its early years building hotels in Canada and London. The Washington hotel opened in 1979, and it quickly became a fixture of the capital's social life: visiting delegations, executives and performers at the Kennedy Center filled its suites, and its lounge became a meeting place for the city's dealmakers. The hotel has been renovated several times since, most extensively in the 2010s, when the rooms were redone and a number of large suites were added.

Architecture and design

The building is a low-rise block of the late 1970s, kept modest in height to respect the scale of Georgetown, with its back to the wooded valley of Rock Creek. The design is quiet and inward-looking. Its public rooms are traditional and comfortable, and the lounges look out onto the greenery that runs along the creek and the canal towpath.

Rooms and suites

Rooms face either Pennsylvania Avenue and the city or the quieter side towards Rock Creek and the canal, which are worth asking for. The suites added in the later renovation are among the largest in the city, with separate living and dining rooms, and they are often booked for official visits and long stays. Bathrooms are in marble, and the rooms are furnished in a classic style suited to the guests the hotel has always drawn.

Dining

Bourbon Steak, the steakhouse created by the chef Michael Mina, opened in the hotel in 2008. It is one of Georgetown's busiest dining rooms, and its lounge and bar draw a local crowd as much as hotel guests, particularly in the early evening. Breakfast and lighter meals are served in the lounge, which looks onto the garden side of the hotel.

Wellness

The spa and fitness centre are larger than most in the city, with treatment rooms, a full gym and an indoor pool. Rock Creek Park, with miles of trails, begins just outside, and the canal towpath offers a flat run west towards the Potomac gorges.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom and several smaller function rooms used for weddings, galas, conferences and private dinners. Its position between Georgetown and the State Department quarter of Foggy Bottom has made it a regular choice for diplomatic receptions and for the many weddings held in Georgetown's churches and gardens.

Location

Georgetown is Washington's oldest neighbourhood, a tobacco port on the Potomac founded in 1751, four decades before the federal city was laid out, with Federal-period townhouses on its brick pavements. The hotel sits at the neighbourhood's eastern edge, so the shops and restaurants of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue lie to the west and the Washington Harbour waterfront is a short walk to the south. The Kennedy Center and the Watergate complex are close along the river, and the White House and the National Mall are a few minutes by car. As a luxury hotel in Washington, it offers the village scale of Georgetown with the federal city on the doorstep. Foggy Bottom is the nearest Metro station, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is about fifteen minutes away by car.