Only a six-minute drive from the
well-trafficked Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North
Carolina, the Umstead Hotel and Spa is the last thing you'd expect
to discover, sited alongside the sort of leafy campus drive that
typically skirts the suburban phenomenon known as the office
park. And yet, a spa and resort it is””happily turning its back on
the encircling roads to create a self-contained property that
clearly yearns to keep close to its literal roots: The grounds
were once part of the nearby William B. Umstead State Park, and
the woodland theme is reflected in everything from the artwork
adorning the walls, much of which takes its cues from the natural
world, to the animal-...