Permanent Vacation

Vacation homes make living out your dream lifestyle a reality.

text by: George Fuller

July 1, 2005

One of the greatest rewards of success is having the opportunity to intelligently fill our leisure time and indulge our imaginations. We are able to change environments with relative ease, and in the process, change our realities.  Vacation homes offer the easiest transition between here and there, and these days the options of where and what to buy seem limitless. The desire to pursue recreational activities is also prompting homeowners to buy multiple residences around the world—one for each of their passions.

Opposite, from left: Loch Lomond’s Rossdhu House; Tom Weiskopf’s Spanish Peaks course; a pool and palapa at Esperanza. This page: The patio of the Golf Magazine Dream House in Reynolds Plantation. Photography by Robert Thien (Click image to enlarge)

In turn, developers are creating communities and other high-end residential options that cater to lifestyle choices. “The experience is everything,” says Mike Curtin, senior vice president of marketing and sales for WCI Communities, developers of luxury communities in the southeastern United States. “We’re in the business of providing unique living experiences.”

Location, security and service are all important aspects of a well-selected leisure destination, but the opportunity to indulge in the lifestyles of your dreams may be the most important element of all.Fred Segal: Enlightenment in Esperanza

Fred Segal doesn’t consider his home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, a retreat. Rather, he sees it as a way of life. “To me,” he says, “this is not a getaway—this is how I live.”

Segal has homes in Malibu, Montecito and Palm Desert, Calif., and is building a new getaway in Nevada on the shores of Lake Las Vegas. But he seems most enamored of his properties in Cabo, particularly his most recent Mexican acquisition: an oceanfront villa at Esperanza, where a few privately owned villas are mixed in with the luxurious 56-room Auberge Resort. “This is the most naturally beautiful beachfront I’ve ever seen,” says the 71-year-old peace activist, author, fashion entrepreneur, water lover and self-described health nut. “Esperanza has a wonderful spirit about it.”

The pool at the Auberge Resort. Right: A villa at Esperanza, much like the model Fred Segal owns. (Click image to enlarge)

Segal’s family and business interests keep him coming back to Southern California on a regular basis. The retail clothing boutiques that bear his name—regular celebrity stomping grounds now run by his son—are legendary in Los Angeles and continue to help dictate the tenor of global fashion.But Segal and his wife, Maryann, a recognized yoga instructor and jewelry maker, have more esoteric interests these days: personal well-being and efforts to promote world peace. The couple spends four months a year pursuing those goals at Esperanza, which they consider the perfect setting for such ambitious avenues. “I’m an ocean person—that’s my way of life,” Segal says. “I love the peacefulness here—the nature, the art and, most of all, the Mexican people. They have a genuine kindness about them. This place is close to God, and it’s only two hours from L.A.”

For Segal and his wife, Esperanza provides the peace of mind that allows them to practice what he calls “happy health.” Their routine: “We have veggie juice every morning, followed by an hour of yoga on the beach or our patio. That is followed by an ocean swim,” he says.

Later in the day, Segal works on his book-in-progress about “the path to global harmony,” called Love One Another—a collection of pieces written by respected figures such as the Dalai Lama on the theme of world peace achieved through greater love of other people. “It’s easy to say that love makes us feel good,” he says, “but when it really works is when you truly love yourself first; then it becomes natural to love everyone around you.” It is on a remote beach in Esperanza, the place he loves the most, where Segal feels closest to humanity.Nanette Brown & Jeff Lubin:  Highlands Hideaway

Nanette Brown and her husband Jeff Lubin both have successful businesses that require them to travel from London to New York several times a month. So, their leisure time is, understandably, prized. Although both are from the eastern United States, their primary home is in London. Brown owns and runs Mrs.  John L. Strong Fine Stationery, a well-respected New York–based enterprise; Lubin is an investment banker.

The luxurious K+M Drawing Room in the Rossdhu House. (Click image to enlarge)

They keep a home in the Hamptons (Brown calls it “an old farm house”), where they find refuge when in New York. But when occasion arrived to invest in a purely recreational residence, they opted for a membership at Loch Lomond Golf Club in Scotland.

Spread across more than 600 heavily wooded acres on the banks of Loch Lomond and surrounded by the dramatic mountains of the Scottish Highlands, the club provides access to the recreational pursuits each adore.
Lubin loves to golf, but is an equally avid hunter who joins his "syndicate” (group of friends) for regular pheasant shoots when in season. “I’ll go load and do the walks with him,” Brown says, “or I’ll sit and read by a fireplace in the Manor House. Sometimes I go into Glasgow [30 minutes by car] and do a little antiquing. We work so much that to go up there, in such a gentrified country setting, is exactly what we need to refresh and renew.”

With an international clientele that boasts members from more than 40 countries, Loch Lomond offers far more than your average country club. When in residence, members have a variety of  accommodation choices, all historically renovated with accurate decor, but with all the modern conveniences. Among them are a 1770s-era castle known as Rossdhu House, where six richly appointed suites await; nine suites at the elegant Garden Cottages; and newer suites at the Point, which overlook the loch from near the eighth tee box of the golf course. A second course, about an hour’s drive away, is also owned by the club and available to members.

“We go year-round,” Brown says. “We love it as much in winter as in summer. The place is so nicely decorated around the holidays; there’s a warm fire burning in the fireplace . . . it’s like we’ve stepped back in time.”Mercer Reynolds: Southern Comfort

Political confidante and fishing buddy to both Presidents Bush, Mercer Reynolds currently lives most of the year in Cincinnati. His schedule over the past several years has been hectic—having played an active role in Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, then serving as his ambassador to Switzerland, and—most recently—acting as national finance chairman for Bush’s 2004 reelection effort.

An aerial view of Mercer Reynolds’ estate. Photography courtesy of Reynolds Plantation. (Click image to enlarge)

Now that his work for the president is complete, Reynolds has turned his attention to a more personal passion: Reynolds Plantation, a 12,000-acre residential/resort development on Lake Oconee in Georgia. As chairman and CEO of the development, Reynolds often works while he is there, but manages to sneak in his beloved fishing trips. The densely wooded land, halfway between Atlanta and Augusta, has been in Reynolds’ family for several generations—and served as a vacation destination for his family. “We used to camp out in the woods and hunt and fish at what was then called Linger Longer,” says Mercer, who was raised in Chattanooga, Tenn. In tribute to those fond memories, Reynolds bought out the other heirs to the property when his father contemplated selling it in 1985. His idea was to create a place where he could relive the experiences he had as a boy, and offer the chance for others to share in the lifestyle, as well.
 
To date, more than 1,200 homes have been constructed at Reynolds Plantation, in addition to a Ritz-Carlton hotel and four existing golf courses, with a fifth under construction.  The readers of Golf Magazine picked Reynolds Plantation as the ultimate site to build a home.  The resulting residence, the Golf Magazine Dream House—built in September 2004 by the magazine—was open to the public until this past May.Mercer’s own home within the massive development sets the standard for what he calls a “mansion in the woods.” Located at the end of a secluded dirt road, surrounded by tall trees, the 20,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home sits on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Oconee. It has a lodgelike feel, with exposed beams, lots of stone and woodwork and expansive verandas. The chef from the Ritz-Carlton often prepares meals for Reynolds and guests in the home. A spacious garden behind the residence overlooks the lake and features a separate outdoor kitchen. Several guesthouses provide lodging for Reynolds’ guests.

As the head of the development, Reynolds has the power to maintain the property’s many virtues—a fact he is grateful for. “It feels like you are in the deep woods,” he says. “You can see the stars at night. And it is going to remain that way.  That’s why we don’t light our streets at night.”
 
When in residence (typically four months a year), Reynolds enjoys fishing for large-mouth bass on Lake Oconee, hiking and playing golf. Both presidents have visited Reynolds, and both have hung the “Gone Fishin’ ” sign on the door.

“I took [George W.] Bush out fishing just before the 2000 election,” he says. During those frenzied days leading up to November 4, the chance to hike through the woods like Huck Finn was, Reynolds says, very welcome.Tom Weiskopf: Home in the Big Sky

Tom Weiskopf is right at home on a golf course. He has more than 20 professional victories in a long, successful career on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour to his name—including a win in the 1973 British Open Championship at Troon. Now he is one of this country’s most respected golf course designers.
 
Above: Tom Weiskopf on his 22-acre ranch in Bozeman. Below: The Spanish Peaks golf course is one of two that Weiskopf designed within 40 miles of his property. Photography by Karl Neumann (Click image to enlarge) 

But it seems that Weiskopf is even more at home on the range—at his ranch in Bozeman, Mont., that is. Although he has kept a residence in Arizona since 1973, he says of his second home in Big Sky country, “I dearly love the outdoors and I cannot think of another place that allows me to so easily do what I want to do: fish, hunt and ride horses.

“My job does not demand location,” Weiskopf says. “I have the choice of many wonderful places—I can live anywhere.” In Montana, though, he says he feels at home. “I can be who I am, and enjoy the things I like to do. All my friends love it here. My daughter, Heidi, likes to fish when she is here; my son, Eric, likes to hunt.”

Weiskopf calls his 22-acre ranch “small compared to Montana ranches, but it’s big in my mind. There are huge cottonwood trees protecting the house, a stream just below, wonderful views of the Spanish Peaks Mountains, and every day I see white-tail deer in my backyard.” Just 40 miles away are two of his most recent golf course designs, situated in the exclusive residential communities of Yellowstone Club and Spanish Peaks. Both courses are near Yellowstone National Park. “I love to visit the park,” Weiskopf says. “You can ride horses into Yellowstone, and there are so many hiking trails.  When I was hired to build Yellowstone Club, I never thought I’d purchase a lot in Montana, but I did. I never thought I’d build a house here, but I did. I never thought I’d spend so much of my time in Montana, because I dearly love Arizona.

“But Montana puts things in perspective for me,” he says. “I feel alive here. I find myself looking around more, noticing more.” He talks about the changing colors of the day and of the seasons. “I love the light, the raw beauty of the summer and winter storms, the golden colors of wheat in the fall and the vastness of the land. Big Sky is a perfect name for this state.”

For someone who has spent much of his life on some of golf’s most brightly lit stages, it would make sense that the solitude of Montana would provide the per-fect getaway. And for Tom Weiskopf, it goes beyond solitude—all the way to peace of mind.