Everett Potter

Mention the term “bed & breakfast” and two versions of my traveling life come to mind. I think of glacial breakfasts in formal Victorian-era dining rooms where fruit cocktail and elaborate culinary fantasies involving preserves, frozen waffles, and whipped cream come together. There are memories of rooms that seemed too small, with chintz-covered walls that allowed too much noise from an adjacent room to come through. Not to mention “charming” bathrooms that were seemingly updated during Herbert Hoover’s tenure as President. As I’m waiting for hot water to materialize, I’m dreaming of an anonymous beige box of a room in a modest chain hotel where a bed, a flat screen TV, and blackout shades constitute heaven and nobody knows my name.

That said, I’ve stayed in some charming bed and breakfasts that remain with me years later, places like the Washington House Inn in Cedarburg Wisconsin, the Garden Wall Inn in Whitefish, Montana, and, most recently, Casa Felipe Flores in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico. As for my all time favorite, a bed & breakfast on a leafy street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, I’m afraid that only immediate family members are privy to its name and location (it’s that good). These later places get the mix of charm, service and aesthetics just right.

This brings me to the folks at BedandBreakfast.com, who have compiled their seventh annual Best of BedandBreakfast.com 2011-2012 Awards for the Top 10 B&Bs in the United States, Canada and the World. According to BedandBreakfast.com, they “analyzed the quality and quantity of the traveler reviews from the past year on BedandBreakfast.com to select the inns providing superior travel experiences and hospitality. (They) also considered the quality of inns’ photos, listing descriptions and overall online customer experience on BedandBreakfast.com.”

What’s unspoken is that to be part of the awards, you need to be part of their consortium. The company is a division of HomeAway, Inc. which is the largest on line rental company around (their holdings include VRBO.com). Still, they have 7,000 members in the US alone, so it’s not a bad sampling (I recently singled out Rabbitt Hill Inn, which made their top 10, for a story in Travel +Leisure).

Here are their picks:

Top 10 B&Bs in the United States

A Storybook Inn in Versailles, KY

Atlantis House in Key West, FL

Berry Manor Inn in Rockland, ME

Cameo Heights Mansion in Touchet, WA

Chocolate Turtle Bed & Breakfast in Corrales, NM

Hilltop Manor Bed and Breakfast  in Hot Springs, AR

Park Avenue Manor in Savannah, GA

Rabbit Hill Inn in Lower Waterford, VT

The Carriage House Inn Bed & Breakfast in Lynchburg, VA

The Columns Bed and Breakfast Inn in Dillon, SC

Top 10 B&Bs in Canada

Sweet Dreams Luxury Inn in Abbotsford, BC

Bee & Thistle Guest House in Vancouver, BC

Cherry Blossom Bed and Breakfast in Vancouver, BC

Abbeymoore Manor Bed and Breakfast Inn in Victoria, BC

Fisher House Bed and Breakfast in Victoria, BC

Hillsdale House Inn in Annapolis Royal, NS

Graystone B&B in Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

The Refuge Bed and Breakfast in Mont Tremblant, QC

A La Carte B&B in Montreal, QC

Atmosphere in Montreal, QC

Top 10 International B&Bs

Club Arias in Savaneta, Aruba

The Sallerhof in Salzburg, Austria

Cachoeira Inn in Buzios, Brazil

LIPPERGÜT’L in Fussen, Germany

Villa Wastra in Ubud, Indonesia

N4U Guest House in Florence, Italy

RetRome Colosseum Garden in Rome, Italy

Casa Virgilios in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico

Guest House Douro in Porto, Portugal

Valencia Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Valencia, Spain