The Best Group Vacation Hack? Get a Villa at a Hotel

For a friends' getaway with all the privacy and space of a rental home — and absolutely none of the cooking, cleaning, or dishes — Sally Kohn discovers the particular genius of a luxury hotel villa at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley.

Let me start with an audacious, perhaps even controversial, assertion: It is not a vacation if you have to do dishes. I say this, of course, as the person who most often is charged with doing the dishes at home. And of course I say this fully aware that being able to afford a vacation in this economy is fortunate. Being able to afford to go on vacation and not having to cook for yourself or do dishes is definitely a privilege. But really, at the root, all this stems from the simple (and I hope relatable) fact that I hate doing dishes and so, when on vacation, just don’t wanna. 

Thus, a big reason I love traveling is restaurants. And for the times when I want to eat in, I love hotels with room service. The problem is when you’re traveling with a group — and here I don’t mean my wife and my teenager, the latter of whom we would happily put in her own separate room to, uh, give her her space (another I hope relatable thought). Every couple of years, my two best friends from law school and I meet up somewhere in the United States to catch up. It’s the sort of trip that usually calls for a Vrbo or an Airbnb — a big multi-room, retreat-like hang-out-with-your-besties-on-the-couch-until-the-wee-hours type of space. 

Except for the cooking. As established, I don’t want to cook and I definitely don’t want to clean up. Not even coffee and yogurt at breakfast. (It’s my vacation, people. I make the rules.) Enter the solution to all my group travel cares, and maybe yours: Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley.

Tucked into vineyard-lined winding roads that could easily pass for Tuscany, Four Seasons Napa Valley has stunning guest rooms, but the real standout is the group vacation option: their villas. The resort has two-, three-, and four-bedroom options that generally have as many bathrooms as bedrooms (or more) and extras like hot tubs. My two friends and I enjoyed three excessively luxurious nights in a premier three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath, 2,500-square-foot villa with an indoor fireplace, an outdoor fire pit, and a saltwater plunge pool. Not to mention a stunning chef’s kitchen that looked great. Not that we used it.

Because every morning, we had coffee and breakfast delivered. Sometimes we ordered afternoon lunch-y snacks, too. We went out for other meals, and when we brought drinks home from the bar and left our glassware out on the counters, they magically disappeared after turndown. Of course, this isn’t magic, just the hard work of an incredibly thoughtful and detail-oriented housekeeping staff who also folded my pajamas. This, folks, if you can afford it, is vacation with a capital V. I don’t even fold my pajamas at home. But as far as I’m concerned, vacation isn’t about emulating real life but rather escaping real life for relaxation or adventure or whatever it is you want/need to revive you and help you approach real life with fresh perspective and energy. This is the kind of service Four Seasons is known for, and here it lives up to the reputation.

The challenge is that when I travel across the country to see my friends for three nights, I don’t want us to be in separate hotel rooms. It’s no fun hanging out in a hotel's public spaces and trying to have deep, personal conversations and connection time sitting amid other guests and strangers, then retreating to our separate corners to sleep. Plus, we’re not 22 anymore, so we’re not going to share a room. The luxury hotel villa rental is the perfect group travel hack. All the joy and amenities of a hotel. All the privacy of a rental home. Even the rare Airbnbs that come with a chef don’t offer the same level of 24/7 service as a great hotel.

I’ll go one step further and argue that Four Seasons in Napa Valley is the perfect option, not only because it is one of the most luxurious hotels in the region but also because the region is a luxury home destination. For a few blissful days, I felt like I had inherited a winery. We did a tasting at the on-site Elusa Winery. We took walks through the vineyard. We swam surrounded by grapevines. And when we wanted charcuterie and cheese to go with the so-local-we-could-touch-the-vines wine in the evening by our fire pit, it was delivered to our room seamlessly.

And not to repeat myself, but I didn’t lift a finger for anything. I focused all my attention on resting and relaxing and catching up with my friends. And that may be the ultimate definition of a luxury vacation. You’re welcome.