Retreats, Reunions & Events

There is a particular quality of attention that modern life makes difficult to sustain: a depth of presence that lets a gathering find its rhythm, reminds a couple what drew them together, or inspires a researcher, writer, or artist to follow an idea wherever it leads. It asks for the right conditions — freedom from the usual demands of life, rooms beautiful enough to hold the senses without strain, and space enough to reflect on what deserves our attention.



The Alders Estate has offered that kind of space since 1898. A Tudor manor on five private acres in the Berkshire foothills of northwest Connecticut, it welcomes a range of intimate retreats and gatherings, each shaped around the needs of those who come.

We currently host up to sixteen overnight guests across eight distinct overnight suites, with common spaces that accommodate working sessions, dinners, and celebrations for larger groups. If more accommodations are needed, we collaborate with nearby lodging partners. Every retreat includes the innkeeping presence of our team, the culinary artistry of Chef Fell Cadwallader — Johnson & Wales-trained, deeply seasonal, genuinely excellent — and the unhurried pace that this village and this house naturally cultivate.

Whatever brings you here, we'll make it worth the journey.

What Kind of Retreat Are You Planning?

Each of the following pages speaks to a specific gathering — its particular needs, its particular pleasures, and how we've designed for it. We encourage you to begin with the one that fits you best.

Personal & Reading Retreats

For the individual who needs uninterrupted time — with a book, a manuscript, a question, or simply with themselves. Norfolk's library, trails, dark night skies, and the absence of televisions make it one of the most genuinely restorative settings in New England for a solo or small-group personal retreat. Writers, readers, and people in the midst of meaningful transitions have been finding their way here for years. If you're interested in a personal retreat, call us for special extended-stay pricing.

Corporate & Leadership Retreats

For the team that needs to think together differently than is possible at the office. The Manor House offers whole-inn buyouts, Chef Fell's customized menus, working spaces in the great room and sunroom, and the option to integrate coaching and facilitation through the Flourishing Space — including CliftonStrengths, positive psychology, and workplace wellbeing programming. Midweek availability and special rates apply. Two hours from New York, ninety minutes from Boston.

Corporate & Leadership Retreats at Manor House Inn →

Creative Retreats & Artists-, Writers-, and Researchers-in-Residence Retreats

For the artist, writer, musician, researcher, or conservation professional who needs sustained time in a place that takes creative and intellectual work seriously. Norfolk has drawn thinkers and makers to its forests, concert halls, and libraries for more than a century. The Manor House is working to sustain that tradition through a summer residency program — and welcomes creative retreats year-round as part of the same conviction: that the conditions for serious work are worth protecting.

Creative Retreats & Artists-in-Residence at Manor House Inn →

Microweddings, Celebrations & Reunions

For the gathering that deserves a place as considered as the occasion. The Manor House accommodates intimate weddings, milestone celebrations, and family or friend reunions with the same unhurried attention we bring to every retreat. Seated dinners for up to fifty guests indoors, larger gatherings outdoors. Chef Fell's menus, customized to the season and to you.

Microweddings, Celebrations & Reunions at Manor House Inn →

The Property

The Manor House was built in 1898 as a private estate and has retained the character of that original intention: a house designed for gathering, for conversation, and for the kind of rest that makes everything else possible.

Nine guest rooms, each one distinct, accommodate up to sixteen overnight guests. The great room, sunroom, library, and dining room offer flexible spaces for working sessions, meals, and informal conversation. Five acres of private grounds — lawns, gardens, firepits, Adirondack chairs, a gazebo — extend the gathering outdoors in three seasons. A two-course farm-to-table breakfast is included in every overnight stay.

For groups requiring more than sixteen overnight guests, we work with trusted neighboring inns to arrange additional accommodations nearby, maintaining the privacy and coherence of your gathering.

The inn is a seven-minute walk to Infinity Music Hall, a five-minute walk from the Norfolk Library, and minutes from thousands of acres of protected hiking and forest immersion trails. For groups interested in extending their retreat into the landscape, we can arrange guided forest walks, e-bike routes, birdwatching excursions, and nature photography experiences.

Chef Fell Cadwallader

Every retreat at the Manor House is shaped, in part, by what arrives on the table. Chef Fell Cadwallader — Johnson & Wales-trained, deeply rooted in the seasonal rhythms of the Litchfield Hills — brings a culinary sensibility that is at once precise and generous. Field-to-table is not a marketing phrase here. It is a genuine commitment to sourcing locally, cooking seasonally, and feeding people in a way that nourishes rather than merely satisfies.

Retreat packages include a two-course breakfast daily. Additional meal service — lunches, dinners, tasting menus, cooking classes — is customized to your group's preferences and schedule. The Greater Good Supper Club, our special evening farm-fresh gatherings, is open to retreat guests by advance reservation.

The Flourishing Space

For corporate, leadership, and wellness retreat groups, Manor House Inn offers integrated team and group coaching and facilitation through the Flourishing Space. Programming includes CliftonStrengths coaching, leadership development, workplace wellbeing workshops, and positive psychology sales training.

These offerings are available as standalone sessions or woven throughout a multiday retreat. They are rooted in the same philosophy that shapes the inn itself: that genuine human flourishing requires the right conditions, and that those conditions can be deliberately cultivated.

Learn more at www.flourishingspace.com or ask us about integrating coaching or facilitation into your retreat package.

Planning Your Retreat

Manor House Inn is open seasonally. Retreat inquiries are welcome year-round.

Midweek retreats — Sunday through Thursday — are available at preferred rates and are particularly well-suited to corporate and leadership groups. Whole-inn buyouts are available and recommended for groups seeking full privacy and exclusive use of the property.

To begin a conversation about your retreat, please reach us at innkeeper@manorhouse-norfolk.com or 860.542.5690. We respond to all retreat inquiries personally and will ask enough questions to understand what you need before making any recommendations.

We do not publish package pricing on this page. Every retreat is shaped by the specific needs of the group — size, duration, meal service, programming, and accommodation requirements all inform what we propose. We'll be glad to send a customized overview once we've spoken.

Retreats & Wellness Vacations For Your Wellbeing