By Ken Mink
KANSAS CITY – If you have ever wanted to be a pirate, or perhaps a castaway on a beautiful Pacific island, or maybe even a great hunter exploring the wilds of the Serengeti – well, you can be all that and more at a unique fantasy theme inn here.
Chateau Elan is a beautiful stone structure filled with 62 rooms of fanciful delight, with 24 rooms that would do justice to a romantic movie set.
This is a place where dreams are realized, at least in part.
Guests can choose from a dozen different room settings, capturing romantic, historic and adventure themes.
This is one of the world’s most unique, boutique hotels.
Beyond a bed and breakfast, or an inn, each of the hotel’s guest rooms and suites boasts a concept suite environment.
Rates are variable, but each room comes with a full gourmet breakfast (guests place their order in the evenings and choose the time for the food to be delivered the next morning).
Guests arrive to find an imposing stone classis French-style architecture building fronted by one of Kansas City’s largest fountains.
Signature amenities include sumptuous custom Beau-Rev mattress, Egyptian cotton linens,
two-person jetted tubs, LED Flat-screen TVs and complimentary wireless internet access. ,Pets are not allowed in the guest rooms or suites. All accommodations are non-smoking.
I stayed in one of the Pirate’s Cove rooms and was delighted to find an original colorful wall mural showing a pirate ship at sea and pirates and maidens on shore. The mural is about 15×40 feet and the characters are near-lifelike in size. A series of boned stairwells separate the elevated bed from the rest of the room. I fully expected a swashbuckling Johnny Depp, or at least Captain Kidd or Blackbeard, to leap off the wall at any second.
The giant rain barrel bath tub and pirate-ship king bed add to the fantasy that make you feel like you’ve climbed aboard the Black Sparrow, itself.
The Tahitian room has two 8-foot Easter Island heads, a palm tree, a bed draped in mosquito netting and a jetted bathtub under a thatched roof. Walk into Camelot and there’s a suit of armor between two flaming sconces, a ship cradling a bathtub and a drawbridge leading to a bed inside a turret. Serengeti has a rhino head bursting through the wall.
Monte Cristo has tapestries on the walls, a fountain in the living room, and a winding stone stairway leading to a bed. The top level has a tub fit for a count surrounded by columns.
Other room themes include Jesse James Escape, Egyptian Palace, Mayan Rainforest, New York Penthouse and Roman Dynasty. The bedroom in the Presidential is hidden behind a secret door in the library. Colorado Frontier has a gas fireplace beside a twig bed nestled inside a cabin.
Some of the rooms are reminiscent of the glitz of the ritziest Las Vegas casino hotels. Indeed, some of the columns, balustrades and crown moldings used in the rooms were made from casts used at Caesars Palace and the Venetian in Las Vegas.
Founding owner Steve Beaumont also had the Beaumont Stateroom, which can accommodate up to 24 people, added on the top floor of the hotel. It is designed to look like a formal room from an 18th-century castle and is geared for business retreats.
Each room comes with a flat-screen TV, surround sound systems, a Champagne bucket with a bottle of Avalon cider next to a two-person jetted tub West district, which already is the most popular travel destination in Kansas.
Making Chateau Elan become a reality was not easy, says Beaumont.
Beaumont had dreamed of building a one-of-a-kind destination resort hotel for more than five years. After being turned down by more than 50 banks over two years, Beaumont didn’t give up.
“Perseverance always drives a vision,” he said. “It absolutely was a learning experience. There are a lot of people who have drive, but it takes perseverance to get it done.”
“I had to do this. This is part of me, and I had to express it. I wanted to bring a European design that the Midwest has never seen. There needed to be something in the Midwest for couples,” he said. “When I got my brain into this, I couldn’t let go.”
The hotel is located on 28 nicely landscaped acres, with a large stone patio surrounded by hanging florals, stringed lights and large trees. This area has been the scene of many weddings.
Located at the intersection of interstates 435 and 70, the development began with the opening in 2000 of the Kansas City Speedway. That was followed by Cabela’s sporting goods store, Great Wolf Lodge, Nebraska Furniture Mart and Community America Ballpark and The Legends, which offers specialty stores and a variety of entertainment and dining venues.
For more information on Chateau Avalon, call 1-877-522-8256 or visit www.chateauavalon.net.
