When you stay at Destination Kohler, an unusual resort spa in the charming town of Kohler, Wisconsin, you have several great options. For a spa-centric stay, try the Carriage House, a 55-room, three-story brick hotel that was originally the grocery store and shops for the workers who lived in the American Club next door.
Not only is Kohler Waters Spa located in the Carriage House, but it also has additional services like free access to the spa facilities, even if you don’t get a treatment that day. When you check in, you will be offered a glass of sparkling wine, orange juice or a mimosa, regardless of the time of day. A beautiful assortment of smoked salmon, bagels, croissants, muffins, fruits and gizzards is offered each morning complimentary to guests at the Carriage House, who are encouraged to soak in the spa robes and slippers found in each room.
You are also invited to a complimentary afternoon tea and evening cordials.
Rooms are warm and elegant, with wood-paneled walls, jewel-toned fabrics, and beds with fabric treatments that make you feel like royalty. I stayed in a deluxe room with a comfy red sofa and unsurprisingly a stunning bathroom with a Kohler jetted tub and open shower that provided a new kind of bathing experience.
All rooms are named after a particular type of cart, and you can learn about them from artwork in the room. I stayed in the Dog Cart room, for example, where I learned that dog carts were not pulled by dogs, as I initially thought, but used to transport packages of dogs to sporting events.
The spa reception is located on the ground floor of the Carriage House, and is easy to reach by elevator from your room. This is definitely not a place where you have to wander the hallways looking for the spa. It also feels a bit more low-key than The American Club, now a beautiful red-brick Tudor-style hotel with 185 rooms and 11 suites. It was originally built in 1918 as a home for the workers, most of them immigrants and “low-income single men” who worked in the factory across the street (still open and available for visits).
In 1918, Walter J. Kohler, himself the son of an immigrant, envisioned the American Club as a place where immigrants could live in a clean and comfortable environment, learn English, and develop a love for their adopted country. It was a hugely successful model that lasted for many decades. But in the 1970s The American Club closed, and for several years it was transformed into a luxury hotel called… The American Club.
It opened in 1981 and was a success. Over the years, Kohler expanded, adding four golf courses that people fly from all over the world to play, a luxurious spa, an inspiring 30,000-square-foot Kohler Design Center, a chocolate company, a 500-foot nature preserve acres called River Wildlife, and twelve restaurants.
All rooms at The American Club are named after great Americans like Mary Pickford, Ernest Hemingway and John James Audubon, who you can read about on the room walls. Destination Kohler has a lot of business groups and businessmen, and most of them stay at The American Club, so it’s definitely a different feel from the more intimate Carriage House.
There are still echoes of immigrant life at The American Club. Now serving farm-to-table cuisine, the beautiful oak-paneled Wisconsin Room is the original dining room where Kohler employees once celebrated. The workers’ bowling alley was transformed into a pub called The Horse and Plow, which incorporated the wood from the original bowling alley. The Lincoln Room, once a study with a beautiful marble fireplace, remains a gathering place for ambitious men.
Inn on Woodlake is a less expensive lodging alternative, located adjacent to The Shops at Woodlake and within walking distance of the Kohler Waters Spa. And if you want your own private cabin, Sandhill is a secluded retreat on 350 acres about a ten-minute drive from The American Club. They are all wonderful options, depending on the type of experience you want.
