The brick-lined road ends and your car shifts into a time-warping slow motion, allowing you to appreciate the sound it makes as it rolls over the crushed granite circular drive. The crunch of the stones beneath your tires evokes the sensation of entering an old estate in a foreign country.

Maybe it’s that hypnotizing sound, or the squared cupolas of the historic building’s Second Empire architecture or the polished attendants who greet you with accommodating smiles, but you are immediately transported to somewhere majestic where you are the royalty. Welcome to the Hotel Emma...