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Long before Chaucer wrote "The Canterbury Tales,'' inns were a place to meet interesting people. They still are. When travelers gather for breakfast, or for evening drinks and hors d'oeuvres, they tell stories and trade tips that pave the way for the next day's travel.
If you're on vacation and you want to get to know an area, staying at a B&B gives you a big head start. Supplying information and personal service is how B&B proprietors set themselves apart from hotels. They've certainly helped me over the years. Sometimes, I feel like the Blanche DuBois of travel journalism: Wherever I go, I depend on the kindness of strangers.
It's never too early to plan summer travel and book lodgings. Many B&Bs are small, and if they're popular or in a busy tourist area, they book up quickly.
When the innkeepers of the St. Croix Valley were trying to think of a way to get prospective guests through their doors, they didn't have to think long.
Hmm, they thought. Chocolate would make people come running. Let's offer wine-tasting, too. And gifts and discounts for those who reserve rooms.
Oh, it's almost diabolical.
Everyone looks for something different in a B&B. Some people just want to relax in fancy environs, and their search is relatively easy: Look for high-end inns and be willing to pay for them.
I'm always on the move when I stay at a B&B, so I look for one that's near whatever I plan to do — biking, hiking, touring. If the proprietor is reasonably friendly and the room clean and comfortable, I'm happy.
But I like inns best if they have a unique character and reflect their surroundings. When we stayed at the Silver Star Inn in Spring Green, Wis., last May, for example, the owner didn't lavish wine or chocolate on us. But the inn was filled with unusual art that reflected her interest in photography and days as a Madison art dealer, and we went home with dried morel mushrooms she and her family had gathered from the surrounding hillsides. Spring Green is a famous center of art and idiosyncrasy (House on the Rock, Frank Lloyd Wright), so that was perfect.
When Lake Superior lighthouses had keepers, there was nothing romantic about life there.
The posts were cold, lonely and meagerly furnished on the government dime. The work was physically taxing and repetitive. Through the long nights, keepers had to get up every two hours to wind the mechanism that rotated the lens.
It's no wonder many of the early lighthouse keepers were hermits or grouches.
I'd been at the Arbor House Inn in Madison only a few hours when deja vu set in.
My room was in the 1853 Plough House, a former tavern and stagecoach stop that's one of the city's oldest buildings. It had a gas fireplace and floral decor, and it was a few steps across a pergola-covered walkway from the Annex, where wine and appetizers awaited guests near a wood fire in a window-lined great room.
It stirred a faint sense of recognition. An inn with two buildings, historic status, gas fireplace, floral decor . . . oh, right, I stayed at one of those last week, too.
Not so long ago, a bed and breakfast was little more than a way station, a homey and inexpensive place where travelers could sleep and be fed breakfast before continuing on their trips.
It still is in the British Isles, from which this country borrowed the idea. But in the United States, many B&Bs have become destinations in themselves, luxurious sanctuaries in which guests can have a romantic getaway or find respite from stressful jobs. Double whirlpools and fireplaces are almost obligatory, along with CD players, VCRs and refrigerators, and antique furnishings are a given.
As expectations have risen, so have prices. Now, a night at a B&B is likely to cost $150 to $200 or more.