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Other stories in "B & Bs"

• Original inns
  If an ordinary B&B isn't enough, try one in a silo or on a boat.
• Living like a millionaire
  As B&B guests, visitors get a look into Duluth’s gilded past.
• How to find a bed-and-breakfast
  To travelers, B&B usually means 'best bet.'
• Rooms with a view
  At these inns, guests enjoy a panorama with their morning coffee.
• Boffo B&B breakfasts
  At a Wisconsin cook-off, we find out which is best.
• Lodgings in Lanesboro
  Welcome mats multiply as visitors descend on this southeast Minnesota hamlet.
• Dwelling in the past
  Around Lake Superior, overnight guests can try out life at a lighthouse.
• From yurt to B&B on the Gunflint
  In a snowy Minnesota wilderness, guests get the best of two worlds.
• 5 things to look for in a B&B
  Here's how to find an inn you'll like.
• A view of a room
  On B&B tours, guests can see a prospective getaway for themselves.
• Quick getaways on a lake
  Thanks to B&Bs, people without a week to spare still can get onto the water.
• Farmers for a weekend
  At peaceful inns, guests relish the simple pleasures of country living.
• Chocolate on the St. Croix
  For a spring tour, inns overflow with goodies.

Rooms for romance

Here's where to go for the perfect getaway with your sweetie.

When anniversaries, birthdays and Valentine's Day roll around, swains everywhere wonder where to take their sweethearts to celebrate.

Of course, it has to be somewhere romantic. But what's romantic? To many, it's the floral Laura Ashley look, with lots of lace, patterned wallpaper and antiques.

To others, it's a rustic cabin in the forest, minus the heart-shaped whirlpool but with loads of privacy and atmosphere.

Some prefer a sleeker, more contemporary place, such as the Arts and Crafts-style Hotel Pattee in Perry, Iowa, or the Bernard Schwartz House in Two Rivers, a Life magazine "dream house'' designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

And there are inns with classic Victorian exteriors but modern interiors, such as the McCormick House in Hayward: "You can breathe in there,'' says Hayward shop owner Molly Otis, a friend of the proprietors. "Sometimes, those painted ladies wear me out.''

In the end, however, decor has very little to do with romance, because romance is what you bring with you.

In 2010, Valentine's Day falls on the Sunday of the long Presidents Day weekend, so it would be smart to plan ahead. Here are a few places likely to aid and abet l’amour.

History and architecture buffs. If the Hotel Pattee were anywhere but the central Iowa town of Perry, it would be mobbed. One of the National Trust's Historic Hotels of America, it has a drop-dead gorgeous Arts and Crafts interior, 1913 bowling alley, spa, restaurant and 40 rooms, each elaborately decorated to honor a particular person or ethnic group.

Check for specials. Arts and Crafts fans will want to reserve the William Morris or Gustav Stickley rooms, 888-424-4268.

In a quiet neighborhood of the Lake Michigan town of Two Rivers, Wis., the brick and cypress Bernard Schwartz House was designed in 1938 by Frank Lloyd Wright. The four-bedroom house, which Wright called Still Bend for its site along a marshy stretch of the East Twin River, rents for $295-$350 for up to six, $50 each for two additional people. In winter, it's $195 midweek. 612-250-6965.

And on a bluff overlooking Mirror Lake, in Mirror Lake State Park just south of the Wisconsin Dells, the 1958 Wright-designed Seth Peterson Cottage sleeps four and is available for $225-$275 per night plus a $30 handling fee, 800-822-7768.

Mystery fans. In Sturgeon Bay's The Barbican, a hallway bookcase opens to the handsome Governor's Suite, which has a wood-burning fireplace and a large whirlpool and is a good value at $135-$145, including breakfast delivered to the door. The inn is a block from Sturgeon Bay's inns and restaurants, 877-427-8491.

If you'd like to play a part in a murder mystery, book at room at Fitger's Inn in Duluth and walk down to the hall for the audience-participation dinner-theater show "The Last Dance of Dr. Disco,'' a murder mystery. It runs Fridays-Sundays through Feb. 14.

Bar crawlers. If you want to stay up late and mingle with the beautiful people, book a room at Graves 601, a boutique hotel across from Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. There's a martini lounge and first-class restaurant downstairs, and the beds are like clouds, 866-523-1100.

If you'd like some live music with that martini, book at one of four Irish inns. In the eastern Wisconsin town of Plymouth, 52 Stafford is an 1892 hotel renovated into a Irish inn with a beautiful restaurant and pub that feature cherry millwork and Celtic-themed stained and etched glass, 800-421-4667.

It has two sister inns with pubs, St. Brendan’s in Green Bay and County Clare in Milwaukee. And in Galena, Ill., the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel features Frank O'Dowd's Irish Pub, where the live entertainment includes a short set by Irish dancers every Friday and Saturday night.

Artistic types. If you'd rather have an art gallery than a bar downstairs, rent an art loft. In the southeast Minnesota village of Lanesboro, the Art Lofts occupy the floor above Cornucopia Art Center in an 1870s brick building. Each suite has a living room and kitchen and sleeps six, $100 for two, $15 each additional person. 507-467-2446.

In the northeast Iowa town of Decorah, the two-bedroom Loft on Water Street is rented by Agora Arts, an artisan gallery in the Hotel Winneshiek. It has a full kitchen and living room, $195. 563-380-9189.

In Galena, the Gallery Guest Suite includes a living room, kitchen and private entrance above Carl Johnson's Gallery on Main Street, $110. 815-777-1222 or 815-777-1510.

Outdoorsy folks. On the Red Cedar River in western Wisconsin, the New Creamery offers everything for a romantic winter retreat. Twelve rooms have king beds and double whirlpools, and there's an adjoining restaurant, a bakery and a cafe with live music Fridays and wine tastings Saturdays.

And it's just a few steps to the Red Cedar State Trail, groomed for cross-country skiing in winter. Call 715-664-8354.

In the northwest Wisconsin town of Hayward, the elegant McCormick House attracts many cross-country skiers in winter, but its proximity to shops makes it the perfect compromise for mixed-sports couples. And both the champagne and sore-muscle crowds appreciate the outdoor hot tub. Call 715-934-3339.

To be truly close to nature, rent a cabin in a state park. In Minnesota's Wild River State Park, there's a guesthouse with a wood-burning fireplace, and Tettegouche State Park rents a large modern cabin at the top of Illgen Falls.

They book up a year in advance, however, so now is the time to reserve them for next Valentine's Day. For more, see Lodgings in Minnesota state parks.

Victoriana aficionados. If you like the turn-of-the-century look, you're in luck — that's pretty much all you can find in the B&Bs of Stillwater and Dubuque, Iowa, river towns where lumber barons built mansions filled with the best parquet and carpenter's lace money could buy.

Galena, Ill., also has many Victorian inns. So does the southeast Minnesota village of Lanesboro, where the 1889 Scanlan House is perhaps the most over-the-top traditional Victorian B&B in the state.

Duluth, which in the 1910s had more millionaires per capita than any other city, also is a trove of Victorian B&Bs. And in Door County, Sturgeon Bay claims more B&Bs than any other city in Wisconsin.

To find inns in other areas, see How to find a bed-and-breakfast.

Lighthouse lovers. For some reason, many people think inns on desolate, wind-whipped points and cliffs are romantic. On moody Lake Superior, five B&Bs occupy old keepers' houses; for more, see Dwelling in the past.

Privacy seekers. Many inns and B&Bs rent carriage houses or cottages and bring breakfast to the door, so guests needn't be sociable if they're not in the mood. For a list of good ones, see A cottage of one's own.

There are also hundreds of private homes available for rent. For tips, see Renting a vacation house.

Last updated on February 5, 2010