For two · About an hour from DC
Two people,
one porch.
Plum Point sits on the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, Maryland, about an hour from the Beltway with no Bay Bridge in the equation. Which means the couples math works: leave after work on Friday, and by dark you are on a screened porch with the bay glowing past the lawn and nowhere to be until Monday.
The evening programming. It repeats nightly and never gets old.
The reset
Do gloriously little.
The shape of the weekend: coffee on the screened porch while the bay wakes up, a long walk on sand that stays quiet even in season, a lazy paddle on the free kayaks, and a bonfire when the light goes. Phones lose signal with your ambitions somewhere around Dunkirk.
If you want a plan anyway, we wrote the 48-hour version: boardwalk towns, fossil beaches, and a museum with a megalodon in it, all optional.
The 48-hour plan
Evenings
Date night is a short drive.
Twelve minutes north, Baia pours coastal Italian on a rooftop deck over the bay. Thirty minutes south, CD Café has been the island's special-occasion answer since the 1990s, and the Lighthouse Dock Bar serves golden hour with the drinks. The crab-deck option is always on the table too, because romance in Maryland has Old Bay on its hands.
The eating guide runs the whole list, nearest first.
Where to eat
From the Beltway
No Bay Bridge, no ferry line. Friday dinner happens on the porch.
Cottage #15
The king bed at the quiet end of the colony. Book it early.
Bonfire hour
A fire pit, the bay, and the day's only obligation: watching the light go.
Rooftop date night
Coastal Italian over the water in Chesapeake Beach, sunset included.
Pick your cottage
Built for two.
The four one-bedroom cottages, from $198 a night. Book direct and skip the platform fees. The dog can come; the group chat cannot.
Cottage #15
The couples pick: the king bed at the quiet end of the colony.
Cottage #17
Queen bed, flower garden out front, kayaks on the lawn.
Cottage #1
The studio with the full-width screened porch for two-person evenings.
Cottage #20
The hideaway, with a loft for reading and rain-on-the-roof naps.
Book the
quiet.
One-bedroom waterfront cottages from $198 a night, an hour from the city. Book direct.
Check dates