Alison N.
Yelp
To start, this review is about a year in the making. Yes, it's taken me that long to do this, but the good news is that the experience has stuck with me for this long that I know I can still recall every detail.
This was my first B&B experience. I'm more of a full service hotel kind of a girl, but a couple friends of mine convinced me that this would be a really nice retreat for a romantic weekend away - they were right.
First, we arrived well into the evening, which meant that there was no one to greet us when we arrived. Plus, note to self, it's REALLY dark when driving to Calistoga at nighttime. The B&B isn't super well marked, but we managed to find it in the pitch black of the night. But back to our arrival....we found an envelope on the door addressed to us and a really nice note saying that we've been upgraded to the room right off of the entryway. I thought that this would mean we'd hear people going up and down the stairs in the morning, but either they weren't very full, or everyone was extremely aware of the other guests that they kept quiet. Either way, there were no disturbances. The room we were given was very cozy with a fireplace and jacuzzi tub.
In the morning we awoke to the happy sounds of people chatting away. Now, we're not morning/breakfast kind of people, but if you're at a place where part of their name is "breakfast", you better make an effort to go eat. So we joined the rest of the guests and thoroughly enjoyed the eggs benedict created by Richard. It had a lovely orange hollandaise with orange zest on it. A little too much citrus for me, but a very nice change of pace from the norm. This is when we met Kurt and Richard. Both are very lovely people that were eager to help. Kurt, especially, made very sure that you knew that he had connections at certain places and not to go to others. We had already made our dinner reservations, so we didn't need his recommendations, but if you come without a plan in place, Kurt is more than happy to help.
The grounds themselves were well kept, including the dry sauna and pool area. The gravel driveway is a little precarious when it's been raining and you're walking in the dark, but just make sure you're not wearing stiletos and you'll be fine.
I'm not a full convert to the world of B&Bs, but this place definitely puts a different light on it. I recommend this place as a starter B&B so that you know what to measure every other one up to.