Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > United States
Reload this Page >

"The Mansion" on Turtle Creek - a weekend getaway - WOW

"The Mansion" on Turtle Creek - a weekend getaway - WOW

Old Jul 25th, 2011, 05:59 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 16,658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"The Mansion" on Turtle Creek - a weekend getaway - WOW

I feel compelled to share about our weekend get away as it was a pretty special place located here in Dallas Texas - not something we will likely ever do again but it was a lovely getaway - I wanted to write about the Mansion as I do not think it is for everyone but it is worth mentioning.

Who: My 50 something husband and myself.

Where: The Mansion on Turtle Creek Dallas Texas

Why: Because my Mom and Stepdad gifted us with a night away there

My husband has been traveling pretty non-stop with work for the last oh... 11 months. We have done our family vacation but have not had much dedicated alone time in that 11 months. He just got back from about a 2 week trip and we decided timing was right to use the g/c we got a few months ago. My Mom and Stepdad have been going to the Mansion since the early 1990's. It is not something that I would ever choice to spend the money on. I am more of a point junkie and am always looking for a good room on points.

We headed out Sat am and put our 14 year old daughter on a flight to Orange County for the week - and headed straight to the Mansion.

We had never been and have only lived in Dallas for 11 months. We were coming from DFW and unsure of exactly where it was and thought the Maps might be directing us wrong.

It is in downtown Dallas on a small street - off the beaten path. If you are not careful you could miss it.

We pulled up and the valet service started the trip off right - sometimes you can just tell someone is there to cater to you.

When you walk in they had cookies and fresh peaches and Ice latte waiting for you.

Checking in our room was ready - and we headed up- it is a lovely property - small I think 150 rooms or less?

The room was very nice - very elegant in an understated way. Our room overlooked the very small pool area - more on that later. We had a small patio if you could call it that - it was french doors really that opened up... no chairs on the patio.

The bathroom was very nice (I love a good bathroom) and they had amazing bath products for you to use - lovely sea salts and the lotion smelled SO good.

We changed and headed down to the pool area. The pool is VERY small - if you are looking for a big exciting pool - this is not it. It was crowded. There were no chairs available for two to sit together - so we sat under the shade at a table and ordered some lunch - it was very pricey and very good. I believe the shrimp cocktail was around 20 dollars as was the tuna sandwich - we shared both. My husband had a few beers and I stuck to water.

When two chairs opened we moved over there in the shade - the service was slightly spotty - but nothing to complain about. We made friends with a cute young couple who were there celebrating their first anniversary and shared some glasses of wine and good conversation with them as the afternoon progressed...

All of a sudden it was almost 6:00 pm! We had 6:15 dinner reservations which were not going to happen! We headed up to the room and were able to move them back to 7:00 pm at the Mansion.

I was not overly excited about dinner, I tend to be a little more middle of the road on prices and was worried about the cost and if I could enjoy it fully. My husband was reassuring over and over that it was a treat and we should enjoy it. -Dinner was not included in the gift card ;-).

We sat down and the menu was not speaking to me, nor was the close seating. The close seating turned out not to be an issue but there were a couple of booths for two that I would recommend if you were going there with just 2 people and wanted something a little more private. It had a very european feel as far as how the tables were pretty close together.

I will start off by saying I am not a "foodie" as embarrassing as it sounds, there were things on the menu I had never heard of. (stop laughing). I did not know what grilled skate wing is, nor spruge (?) Turns out the later is pigeon. No thanks.

We ended up with one app each and I had the lamb. Again, not to belabor it but it was hard for me to overly enjoy a 48.00 entree. Yikes.

We had wonderful wine through out and great desert... the total was about 300.00 and I sort of am still choking on the food ;-).

Our "young" (they were just 30) new friends sent me to text they had really wanted to go out with us. Ha! They decided that they were going to come back to the hotel for drinks so we went into the bar area - there was fun live crooning music (think Sinatra) and we enjoyed their company till 1:00 am! We laughed and danced and had a great time.

We slept in and had breakfast in the room - which was yummy. It was included in our rate and they were prompt the and food was excellent.

We were going to leave and head over to Kings Spa - which is a campy Korean spa that gets rave reviews in Dallas - but I had an allergic reaction to being waxed on friday (again stop laughing - it was like out of a movie!) and my eyes had now almost completely swelled shut so we checked out about 1:00 pm and headed to Urgent care instead .

The Mansion is wonderful. The rate was over 400.00 per night including tax and that included breakfast and valet.

In the future for a weekend getaway here in Dallas I would likely use points at the Legacy Marriott - head over to Jaspers for dinner and listen to some live music at the shops of Legacy. But that is just *me.

The Mansion is certainly lovely for those in that price range.
MomDDTravel is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 06:39 AM
  #2  
cd
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,981
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
MomDD
Thanks for the report. I'm with you. I would choke on a $300.00 meal also. What could be THAT good right? Well, maybe if we had a lot of money I would look at it differantly but I look at it as two nights at the ocean. Glad you had a good time and sorry you had to go to urgent care!
cd is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 07:01 AM
  #3  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 16,658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
CD - that is the deal... I was looking at our total cost out of pocket for the one night - (not including the gc that my Mom gave us) and kept thinking about "how long I could go away for that amount"~~

Yes, nothing is that good.
MomDDTravel is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 08:19 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
MomDD...

You know how much I love exploring the food world, but never in my travels have I splurged on a $300 meal...LOL! In spite of the urgent care visit, it sounds like you had a lovely time. Thanks for writing this trip report.
LowCountryIslander is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 08:50 AM
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 16,658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
LCI - I figured you would pooh-pooh me on thinking it was too much! Ha!

It left a bad taste in my mouth - even though it was delicious. I will get over...
MomDDTravel is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 08:54 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,940
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks for the report. At least you can add the Mansion to your "been there, done that" list!
jayne1973 is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 04:34 PM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,123
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Dawn, I loved your report. We stayed there a couple years ago and I had the very same opinion as you did. We have friends who did not think it was expensive - but I sure did. Guess everyone thinks differently. I also like to get a great place at a great price.
Cali is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 05:00 PM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 7,443
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
It was a one time thing for us about ten years ago. But we did enjoy it there.
spirobulldog is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 05:29 PM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 82,680
Received 46 Likes on 17 Posts
I think of it as an "old money" place. Along the lines of the Cloister on Sea Island. That's where you just went on your honeymoon - it's just understood. My best friend did (older, from old money). When another friend's daughter moved to Dallas it was pretty much "understood" that the wedding would be at the Mansion. The ex-husband was being a jerk about paying for his part of the wedding and my friend was really stressed. After dinner on arrival night an uncle asked who was the hotel contact for the wedding. The next day he wrote a check for everything - and handed it to the wedding planner. IMO it falls in the category of "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" - which still makes for some great splurge trips

Glad you had a good time but sorry it ended up with a visit to the doc.
starrs is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 06:07 PM
  #10  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 16,658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Wow..he could be my uncle there was a large party going on and I sure did wonder about what that bill -

It is old money - I think that is a great way to describe it. We did enjoy ourselves.

Cali glad you enjoyed it - yes, everything is relative. My parents go often and love it.

Jane & Spiro - thank you for reading!
MomDDTravel is offline  
Old Jul 25th, 2011, 06:07 PM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 82,680
Received 46 Likes on 17 Posts
That "If you have to ask..." sentence sounded off. The family usually paid for the honeymoon, not the bride and groom.
starrs is offline  
Old Jul 26th, 2011, 04:22 AM
  #12  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 58,297
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I love skate wing And you know how I love a luxurious night in a great place with great food and wine. I'm the person who'd rather spend one night like that than a week someplace else.

More importantly, I am glad you and Dh had a night away just the two of you!

Sorry about the allergic reaction That stinks.
JanetKMR is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
lincasanova
Europe
12
Oct 17th, 2017 07:19 AM
Keith
United States
6
Jun 23rd, 2017 05:07 AM
Dayenu
United States
18
Dec 13th, 2011 10:05 AM
trvlgirlmq
United States
10
May 28th, 2009 04:49 AM
Sally
United States
5
Apr 30th, 2002 11:48 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -