Perfectly Pampered in Plano

Moms, perhaps you’re looking for a place to relax and unwind, recharge those batteries and spend some much-needed time with your favorite girls.  Even the most dedicated mom needs a chance to refocus and renew, and you deserve it!  If it’s time to take a break from the laundry and cooking, the diapers and homework, or the job and commute and head out for that perfect girlfriend getaway, look no further than Plano, TX.

This city boasts a number of honors, including “Safest City in America” according to a recent survey by Forbes.  That’s good to know, because your family won’t have to worry about you when you whisk yourself away for the weekend to have some essential girl time.

Plano is on the outskirts of Dallas and is a beautiful town with chic hotels, fabulous boutiques, places to pamper even the most exhausted mom, and enough food, drinks and dancing to lift your spirits to their youthful glory.  It’s just a short ride from DFW International Airport, so it won’t take long to swap the flip-flops for heels and head out for a night on the town.

 Where to stash your shoes

If you like the urban industrial look, the NYLO Hotel in Plano is about as cool as they come.  Don’t be fooled by the edgy urban design; you’ll find that there is no lack of Southern hospitality from the staff and the rooms don’t sacrifice comfort for the sake of art.  All of the guest rooms have ceiling-to-floor windows, rain showers, Keurig coffee machines, and ultra-cozy beds with lots of fluffy pillows.  The WiFi is free too, which might tempt you to stay in your room for the weekend; however, you’ll eventually be lured out by their complimentary hotel shuttle, which will take you anywhere you want to go within 5 miles (translation: shopping!).

Even this ultra modern sofa and chair in the lobby of the NYLO is surprisingly comfy; there was hardly a moment when I didn’t see someone sprawled out reading a book or relaxing with a cup of coffee.

If you prefer more traditional luxury (and closer proximity to shopping, spas and restaurants), you might want to try the Marriott at Legacy Town Center.  Just steps from the Legacy Town Center shopping area, this hotel has everything: spacious rooms, friendly staff, ultra high-speed wireless internet (for a fee) and even infused water for thirsty guests while you’re waiting in the lobby.  There is plenty of space in the closet to hang your little black dress, and parking is free for guests on the weekend.  You don’t even have to leave the hotel to enjoy an amazing breakfast; their Copper Bottom Grille has an omelet bar, beautiful buffet with croissants and fresh fruit (for starters!), and freshly squeezed apple and carrot juice.  For the price and convenience of being just steps from your room, it’s an awesome deal.

Where to buy more shoes, and jewelry to match your shoes

The Legacy Town Center shopping area has tons of great boutiques and other unique stores.  Here you’ll be able to find a few popular chains like Francesca’s (I bought myself an awesome belt there to match a dress I brought with me) as well as more unique shops.  My particular favorite was called Another Time and Place.  This Turkish store sells some of the most interesting jewelry I have ever seen, as well as clothes and even some household items like exotic lamps. I kept going in and drooling over everything, so completely overwhelmed by the awesomeness of their stuff that the manager actually offered me a job.  Although I didn’t take the job, I did eventually settle on a fabulous jasper stone ring and happily chatted away with the manager about how completely in love I was with the store and the service I got there.

Where to take your shoes off and relax for a while

If pampering is your thing (and really, whose thing isn’t it?), then stay right where you are at Legacy Town Center.  After shopping for shoes and accessories, head a few stores down and into the Woodhouse Day Spa.  Here you can kick your feet up, have a mimosa, and enjoy one of their many spa services.  You can spend 80 minutes having the tension rubbed out with one of their massage treatments, put the glow back into your skin with a facial, or get your hands and feet done in a way that no strip mall nail salon could come close to doing.  I enjoyed a Swedish massage that was so amazing I nearly wept for joy.

After your spa time, walk a little further down to Drybar.  If you’ve never heard of Drybar or experienced this little slice of heaven known as a blowout, well then you’ve really been missing out on one of the great joys of being a girl.  I was a Drybar virgin myself until recently, because I had always assumed that girls with short hair really weren’t their target clientele.  How wrong I was!  Those ladies had me feeling like a Hollywood starlet and staring at myself in the mirror every chance I got.

Basically, Drybar is a salon where you go get your hair washed, scalp massaged, and then styled up for a night on the town.  And as if the experience wasn’t already about as girly as it can be, they throw mimosas at you and force you to watch chick flicks on giant TV screens.  Torture me some more, please.  I’ll gladly take one for the team.

If you wanna swap your shoes for some boots and do it Texas style…

…take a drive just outside of Plano to Southfork Ranch.  This is the iconic ranch where the award-winning drama Dallas has been filmed off and on over the course of almost 3 decades!

You can take a guided tour of the ranch and its grounds, and enjoy the on-site museum filled with memorabilia from the show (including JR Ewing’s famous Lincoln Continental).  The inside of the ranch has been decorated to show the splendor of their lifestyle, each room with a theme around one of the characters. They even recreated the motel room where JR Ewing’s death scene occurred.

By now I’m sure the theme song is stuck in your head while you imagine all of this awesomeness. You’re welcome.

Where to go when you’ve worked up an appetite from all that shoe shopping and sightseeing

As much as us girls would love to shop ‘til we drop, eventually we do have to stop for a bite to eat.  Plano, TX has some of the best grubbing I have ever encountered.  Here are some of my favorite foodie finds:

Whiskey Cake.  Hands down my new absolute favorite restaurant EVER.  This place is everything I have ever wanted in a restaurant: amazing food that is fresh and locally grown.  Let’s define “fresh”, shall we?  Fresh means that anything they don’t actually grow right there in the restaurant (because they have their very own herb room and vegetable garden) gets brought in each morning.  It does not get stored in a freezer and never gets reheated in a microwave.  FRESH.  That goes for their meat too.  This means you know exactly what you’re eating and that it’s going to taste fabulous.  And it does.  Whiskey Cake is also a “green” restaurant, meaning they care about the environment.  You can see evidence of this with the solar panels on the roof and the charging stations outside for people with hybrid electric vehicles.  Okay, so I can enjoy my food and help reduce my carbon footprint at the same time?  Way cool.

Be sure to try their signature Whiskey Cake for dessert; it’s indescribably yummy.

Seasons 52.  Maybe you’re hankering for some fine dining without spending too many calories.  After all, we don’t want to bust out of our strappy dresses before we’ve had a chance to wear them, right?  Head over to Seasons 52, which is located in Legacy Town Center.  Every menu item is 475 calories or less!  No, I’m not kidding.  I had filet mignon and Caesar salad for dinner, a martini and a couple of scrumptious shot-glass desserts, and walked away feeling totally spoiled and guilt free.  Really, it’s a girl’s dining dream come true.

Mignon.  My last honorable mention has to be Mignon.  This place has no eco-friendly agenda or low-calorie menu, and that’s ok.  What this restaurant DOES have is just totally fabulous food.  Really, it’s FAB.U.LOUS.  I had their Caesar salad and Beef Wellington for dinner and only one word comes to mind to describe this amazing culinary experience: foodgasm.  Of course, right about the time I recovered from that, they brought out dessert.  Ohhhhmygoodness.  I had a chocolate peanut butter mousse that nearly sent me over the edge, which would have been pretty embarrassing; thankfully I held it together and finished my meal, and had blissful dreams about food all night long.

Where to try out your dancing shoes

No girlfriend getaway could ever be complete without a visit to an awesome nightclub and martini bar.  Blue Martini in Legacy Town Center is both, and a pretty fun place to drink some great martinis and dance to some great music.  It’s classy, smoke free, and had a surprisingly good band the night we were there.

We danced, we drank, and then we inevitably ended up having to use their bathroom.  Yes, I have to mention their facilities, because have YOU ever gone into a bathroom where you could buy JEWELRY???  I didn’t think so.  But this place has it.  Let’s say you’re dancing and your necklace accidentally breaks: fashion crisis!  Oh no, what do you DO??  Don’t panic: just grab a Hamilton and head into the bathroom, where the attendant will sell you a replacement.  Whew!  Crisis averted.

Eventually, all good things must come to an end and you’ll have to pack up all those fabulous pairs of shoes you brought with you, but not before you enjoy one last glass of wine at Cru’.  Try one of their wine flights and enjoy before you get on your flight back home to the family that you miss so much!

Needless to say, Plano has everything you need for that all-important girlfriend getaway.  It’s all conveniently located so you won’t wear holes in your shoes going from one place to another.  I cannot remember when I had more fun with a group of girls or felt more pampered, and I’m still coming off the high I experienced after 3 amazing days in this Dallas suburb town.

To learn more about planning your Plano girlfriend getaway, go to www.visitplano.com.

Thank you to the Plano CVB for hosting me on such a fabulous girls trip!