Staying at a Bed & Breakfast is a nice way to meet the locals, get to know interesting areas of town, and feel a little more like part of the community.  However, with that feeling, you also leave more to chance.  Will your B&B look like your great grandmother’s couch threw up all over the walls, tables, floors, and bedspreads?  Will the neighborhood be more than a little sketchy?  Will your hosts not want to bond with you over wine in the evenings? 

We think it’s worth the risk.  Here are our favorite B&Bs and why we liked them.  And, because we know you’ll like this, we also included one that was one of the worst.

Favorites (in no particular order):

Aida’s Victoriana Inn, St. Michaels, Maryland

We loved this place for the following reasons:

• Location – great for walking anywhere in this small town
• Grounds – beautiful views and lovely areas to sit outside and admire
• Complimentary snacks in the common rooms
• Opportunity to watch DVDs and pop popcorn in the evenings
• Aida is super nice and welcoming
• Reasonably priced, especially for the area

Camellia Cottage Bed & Breakfast, Wilmington, North Carolina

• Location – walking distance to downtown restaurants, shops, and waterfront
• Owners Paula and Steven are fun to talk to and happy to share their Wilmington knowledge with you
• Breakfast is a three-course affair with delicious gourmet items such as chocolate hazelnut torte or smoked salmon and Portobello quiche
• Their e-newsletter lets you know what’s happening in and around Wilmington on a year-round basis

Casa Holanda, Heredia, Costa Rica

• Owner James is extremely accommodating – organized tours for us, drove us to the bank, let us use his washer and dryer, played piano for us (he’s classically trained), lent the kids his kite to fly, and was just a superb host in every way
• Food – the local yet gourmet meals were delicious – we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner there
• Décor – from the outside, this hidden gem looks like all the other homes on the block.  You would never know how beautiful the interior is, including a lovely courtyard in the back complete with fountain and breakfast nook

Sea Breeze Lodge Bed and Breakfast, Galway, Ireland

• Location – walking distance to downtown Galway and the ocean
• Owners were very welcoming and friendly
• Rooms are outfitted with as much local information as you could ever want

Scholars Inn, Bloomington, Indiana

• Beautiful property inside and out
• Great food and loved the option to have breakfast delivered to room
• Great restaurant next door for Sunday brunch – got $25 gift certificate to use there instead of breakfast

And now for the one we would not recommend under any circumstances:

Crannog Bed and Breakfast, Beaumont, Ireland

• Terrible location – nothing within walking distance (not even the bus stop which we had to drive to), half hour by car from anything worthwhile and about an hour to Dublin, where they claim to be located
• Unfriendly owner who chastised us for parking in a certain place even though there were no directions on where to park or not park
• Clueless host (see above) who had just varnished the wood frames on the window before our arrival and had us sleep in that room.  After major headaches from the fumes, we insisted we change rooms over her objections.

Keep reading our blog for an upcoming list of Bed and Breakfasts where we WANT to stay!

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Tags: Aida's Victoriana Inn, B&B, Bed and Breakfast, Camellia Cottage, Casa Holanda, Crannog Bed and Breakfast, Scholars Inn, Sea Breeze Lodge

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Costa Rica, Cultural Tourism, Europe, North America, Restaurants & Hotels & Tours. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.