When summer gets to be too much work — battling traffic in the Hamptons, entertaining or being a houseguest, dealing with gardeners, cooks, and repairmen — it’s a good time to book a few days at the Mayflower Spa in quiet Washington Depot, Conn.

The destination spa, located on the grounds of the Mayflower Inn, offers the best of summer with none of the hassle. It operates year-round, but when the produce is farm-fresh and the inn’s poetry gardens are in full splendor, who can think of snow?

Some of the thoughtful things the spa provides are an MP3 player loaded with music for running, sleeping, and relaxing; a fresh uniform of T-shirt and pants intended for wearing at all gatherings; a daily laundry service, and a journal with a bookmark inscribed, “Thoughts create their own reality.”

Well, there may yet be a hassle or two, starting with the cost. Stays can be booked for between three and five days, ranging in price, for single occupancy, from $4,800 to $6,700. That is all-inclusive, though, so it’s possible to rack up treatments at a bargain.

The experience is for women only — although a couple from Scarsdale was present during my stay — and children are not allowed. The drinking of alcohol is discouraged (instead, the spa serves “mocktails” before dinner). And it’s an intimate place: The spa has a capacity of 28, making it difficult to avoid socializing with other guests.

Fortunately, the companionship of my fellow spagoers was one of the most satisfying aspects of my three-day stay in early July, provided to me on a complimentary basis. The seven women in residence included an Army officer whose husband died in Afghanistan, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation whose husband died on September 11, and three friends who’d just returned from a swing through Vienna and Venice. Conversation was anything but fluff. On the third night, three women had ordered glasses of wine at dinner, and all of us had sampled the inn’s chocolate oatmeal raisin cookies.

I created an itinerary that included three spa treatments; an indoor exercise class devoted to Chinese jump rope, the hula hoop, badminton, and volleyball; my first-ever archery class; a kayak excursion on the Bantam River, and a hike in Steep Rock Park.

Returning indoors was always a disappointment to me but the therapists for my treatments won me over with their low-key, calming manners. Explanations and chitchat were minimal: Thai massage, for example, was described as “lazy man’s yoga.” After the first treatment, I eagerly anticipated the opening and closing chimes.

The personal attention and, as one guest described it, generosity of spirit, is perhaps the most gratifying part of the Mayflower Spa experience. One of the inn’s owners, Lisa Hedley, joined the group for lunch one day; another owner, Ms. Hedley’s mother, Adriana Mnuchin, ate dinner with the group twice. On the second night, she gathered the women in her Shakespeare Garden, where she had selected poems for each of us to read. By the end of dinner, each woman had packets of all the poems waiting for her in her room.

The food, prepared by the spa’s own chef, was delicious, with an emphasis on vegetables, fish, and grains (if you don’t know what flaxseed is yet, Cheryl the nutritionist can explain). Breakfast and dinner are served in a private room at the inn. Lunch is served in the loggia of the spa. The building is designed and decorated in the style of a modern New England vacation home, with lots of light wood, walls of books, glass sculpture, and a de Kooning.

agordon@nysun.com