Other stories in "B & Bs"

• Hosts with the most
  At small inns, a knack for hospitality makes a few stand out.
• Five things to look for in a B&B
  Here's how to find an inn you'll like.
• Dwelling in the past
  Around Lake Superior, overnight guests can try out life at a lighthouse.
• Chocolate on the St. Croix
  For a spring tour, inns overflow with goodies.
• How to find a bed-and-breakfast
  To travelers, B&B usually means 'best bet.'

A view of a room

On B&B tours, guests can see a prospective getaway for themselves.

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.

For most people, that's a significant investment. Spending $200 does pretty much guarantee you'll have an attractively furnished room. It doesn't, however, guarantee that you'll be comfortable there.

Money can't buy hospitality, which is what separates a B&B from a Best Western. Years after their stay, most people still will be talking about the friendly innkeeper who baked cookies and scraped the frost off their windshield, not about the authenticity of the inn's antiques or the thread count of its sheets. And hospitality is something that doesn't come across on a Web page.

For that, prospective guests still need to actually set foot in an inn.

"Recently, we had a couple come by who were scouting — that's what they called it, scouting B&Bs," said Pam Thorsen, proprietor of the Rosewood Inn in Hastings and director of the Minnesota Bed and Breakfast Association. "They were going to Red Wing, Stillwater and our area and planned on coming back in February. They had lunch at a place where they thought they might have dinner then, and I talked with them quite a lot and pointed out to them the things they might not want to miss.

"Basically, they made a day out of it."

Most proprietors are happy to show their inns to prospective guests. But for the guests, setting up tours at individual inns is time-consuming, and there's only a narrow window of opportunity — usually, the hour or two before check-in. Even then, some rooms are likely to be occupied and unavailable for viewing.

That's why organized tours of B&Bs are such a good opportunity for guests. Not only do they get to see every single room at an inn, they get to chat with owners who have set aside time to do just that.

One December, I was in eastern Wisconsin during the Wisconsin B&B Association's statewide open house, so I stopped by four of the inns along my route.

Having stayed at hundreds of B&Bs over the years and toured even more, I know what I like most: cleanliness, like every guest, but also a good location, though that isn't as important to many people. I'm also in the minority when it comes to in-room whirlpools, which leave me cold, and I'd rather have a fresh croissant and great coffee than an elaborate four-course breakfast.

Still, I appreciate some of the other trappings of a first-class inn — fine linens in particular, and also fireplaces, fridges and afternoon treats.

Every guest has different preferences, which presents a challenge for innkeepers, especially those who have older buildings. But when Mary Jane and Steve Tauschek built their inn from the ground up, they got a chance to get it right the first time.

"We tried to think of everything," Mary Jane Tauschek said. "We tried to get a lot of feedback from other people."

Their Tauschek's B&B Log Home had only been open for four months when the couple opened it for the Wisconsin open house, and they were still giddy with excitement.

"It's been a goal for a long time," Mary Jane Tauschek said. "That's all my husband and I stay in, B&Bs. I love the warm feeling you get; you feel like family. You get to know the owners, and they make you feel special."

The inn is in the countryside of eastern Wisconsin, near Plymouth, but only two miles from Road America, so it's a good location for people who patronize the racetrack in summer. The gabled log home has a great room with polished wood floors, large cathedral windows and appealing Crate and Barrel-style furnishings. In the Moose Room,  I counted many amenities on my personal "good" list — fridge, night light, CD player, reading lights, bathrobe hook in the bathroom, bedtime chocolates — and only two on my "bad" list, a television mounted on the wall and a pedestal sink, my No. 1 pet peeve (no room for a toiletries bag). The double whirlpool went under "don't care."

Her own top preferences, Tauschek said, are "really good pillows and bed — and really good food, even if you have to get up at 4 a.m. to make it."

It was a lovely inn, and I'd happily stay there — although I'm not a racing fan, so if I were in the area, I'd probably stay at an inn closer to whatever it was I'd come to do.

The next B&B not only was in the countryside, it was out in nowhere, surrounded by weeds. Advertised as a "charming storybook cottage" with "gentle elegance," it was built in the 1940s for the caretaker of the adjoining schoolhouse and probably hadn't changed much. With its polyester velveteen sofa and recliners, aged laminate floor and air sickly-sweet from room spray, it had neither charm nor elegance, which hadn't stopped its owners from charging $120, plus $25 for each additional person over two.

Would I stay there? Definitely not. There aren't many ugly, overpriced B&Bs in this region, but I'd managed to find one. Tellingly, it no longer belongs to the Wisconsin Bed and Breakfast Association, though the group can only make sure its members observe basic standards, not aesthetics.

The next B&B on my route, like Tauschek's, had recently opened. The Madison Avenue Inn was as different from the Plymouth B&B as it could be — except for its owners, who were just as excited.

"Oh, I've wanted to do this so bad," said Brenda Kunkel, a banker from nearby West Bend who'd opened it with her husband, Rich. "We always stay at B&Bs in February for our two birthdays, every year at a different one, and every year the itch would just get stronger. I've been collecting recipes for 10 years, in anticipation for this day to come. "

Their inn, an 1895 mercantile building that once housed the post office and general store in the village of Cascade, was the perfect place to put the many antiques they'd also been collecting: "We love antiques," Kunkel said. "Basically, all we had to do was find the beds."

I'm not a big fan of antiques, but the Madison Avenue Inn had an idiosyncratic charm often missing in the bigger, grander inns, perhaps because the building has served so many purposes over the years, and also because the owner has delightful taste. Little surprises kept popping up as we wandered through: a narrow passageway with a mural of a garden; a Mediterranean-style interior archway and cutout window; a sunroom stocked with a vintage Frigidaire, radio and phone.

It was just plain fun; what's more, Kunkel's enthusiasm was infectious.

"When we opened, people said, 'What's in Cascade?'" she said. "We are! You're coming to see us, you're coming to get away, to get some peace and quiet."

As I left, she gave me a $25 gift certificate and urged me to have some more treats from a table laden with goodies. Would I come back to stay? Sure I would. I'd be following advice a wise B&B owner gave me years ago: Make sure the innkeeper actually wants you to come.

Much as I liked the Madison Avenue Inn, my last stop was the real find.

What did it have? Location, location, location.

Threading my way westward on county roads, I entered the Kettle Moraine State Forest Northern Unit, a part of Wisconsin that seems a world unto itself due to topographic features left by the last glacier — scraped-out lakes called kettles, sinuous ridges called eskers and rubble-filled mounds called kames. The Inn at Kettles B&B was just off the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, around the corner from the Henry S. Ruess Ice Age Interpretive Center and across from Kettle Moraine Lake.

Part of it was a turn-of-the century farmhouse, with a wing containing three B&B rooms. But I liked the much older Peterson Log House, a chinked-timber cabin used by Norwegian settlers. It had a full kitchen, a wood-burning stove, a reading nook at the top of the stairs and a bathroom and bedroom on each floor, one with skylight. It was $140 for up to four people, only $10 apiece for up to four more, and I could just see myself recruiting some friends to stay there on a hiking trip.

"We were trying to appeal to a lot of different people," said Toni Jacobson, one of the owners. "People who appreciate older things, people who look at it as a cabin for a lodgey-type stay, and groups of hunters. It's not that sweet, romantic look."

The best thing about bed and breakfasts is that there's one for every taste — Victorian or plebeian, patrician or barbarian. All you have to do is look.

Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Bed and Breakfast Association doesn't hold annual tours. But there's one in the Wisconsin town with the most B&Bs — Sturgeon Bay, which has 22 B&Bs, 14 of them members of the state association. It's a holiday  event in the Door County town.

"Some people come because they want to see all the decorations and get ideas, but some of them do come to view rooms they may want to occupy," says Deb McDonald of Inn at Cedar Crossing. "And people just are curious. If we have unoccupied rooms, we always leave the doors open and let them be inviting. You can tell a lot more that way than from a little picture in a brochure or on a Web site."

In Minnesota, three of the best-known B&B towns — also hold tours in December, opening the doors to some of the state's most luxurious and expensive rooms For prospective guests, they'll be a preview of getaways to come.

Trip Tips: B&B tours

Tours provide a good chance to look over a B&B, meet the innkeepers and, if desired, buy gift certificates. At other times, many innkeepers are glad to give prospective guests a short tour if time allows. Call in advance; the best times to visit are weekdays just before check-in, usually between 2 and 4 p.m. For a guide to Minnesota B&Bs, call 651-438-7499, www.minnesotabedandbreakfasts.org; for Wisconsin B&Bs, call 715-539-9222, www.wbba.org.

December: Stillwater, Victorian Homes Tour and Progressive High Tea at seven of the town's B&Bs: the James Mulvey Inn, the Sauntry Mansion, the Elephant Walk, the Ann Bean Mansion, the Rivertown Inn, the Aurora Staples and the Lady Goodwood. Each will feature live music and an hors d'oeuvre, soup, entree or dessert. Tickets are $34.95; purchase tickets in advance by calling the Aurora Staples at 651-351-1187 or the Sauntry at 651-430-2653, www.stillwaterbb.com. Guests who stay at one of the inns get two free tickets.

Sturgeon Bay, Wis., Christmas B&B Walk. In this Door County town, 10 inns will be open: the Barbican Inn, Black Walnut Guest House, Chanticleer Guest House, Colonial Gardens, Garden Gate, Reynolds House, Sawyer House, Scofield House, White Lace Inn and Inn at Cedar Crossing. Hours are 1:30-5:30 p.m., and tickets are $7.50.

A horse-drawn carriage will deliver patrons between inns in and near downtown. Call 1-920-743-4200; for tourism information, call 1-800-301-6695, www.sturgeonbay.net.

Duluth, Historic Home Tour & Holiday High Tea. All eight inns will be open: the Cotton Mansion, the A.G. Thomson House, the A. Charles Weiss Inn, the Ellery House, the Olcott House, the Mathew S. Burrows Inn, Solglimt and the Firelight Inn. Cost of $20 includes light refreshments and music;  www.duluthbandb.com.

Red Wing, B&B Holiday Open House Tour as a benefit for Goodhue County Habitat for Humanity. The Golden Lantern Inn, Candlelight Inn, Moondance Inn, Lawther Octagon House and the Round Barn Farm Bed & Breakfast & Bread will serve refreshments, and the Golden Lantern and Moondance will offer live music. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased from the Red Wing Visitors Center or any of the inns. For details, call 651-388-3315 or 1-888-288-3315; for tourism information, 1-800-498-3444, www.redwing.org.

March: On three or four Sundays, the Chocolate March between inns along the St. Croix River always includes rich desserts as well as tours.  Tickets for each day are $25, $21 in advance; call 651-436-8883 or purchase online at www.innsofthevalley.com.

June: On the first weekend of June, the Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers of Galena, an association of 13 of the Illinois town's inns, hold a self-guided tour of historic and contemporary homes and gardens of Galena's finest bed and breakfasts and inns. Tickets are $20, 815-777-3638, www.bestofgalena.com.

Last updated on June 4, 2008