Travelers have options, another byproduct of the digital age. There is the standard hotel with its two square beds, circulated air smell, and requisite ice bucket and coffee maker atop a dorm-sized fridge. You can easily rent someone’s home or go the luxury route with a resort. All venues were considered when planning a last minute quick getaway to Ogunquit, Maine. Here’s how it went:
- Hotel: Too impersonal and claustrophobic.
- Renting a private home: Too personal, staying among a stranger’s belongings feels like an intrusion.
- Resort: Rather not spend our annual travel budget on a few nights.
Farm style kitchen at the Beauport Inn, the center of hospitality.
We then thought of B&B’s and this is why: Bill and I have an annual one-week window a year to travel without kids. This eliminates all family friendly places. We are good parents but a vacation from being cannonballed while reading poolside ranks as a luxury. We both work long hours so we chose a place within driving distance. We also wanted to test out Maine considering that in our combined lifetimes we have been to every East Coast vacation spot aside from the “vacation state.”
-
- Path from the back of the bed and breakfast to a river.
-
- Grounds of the Beauport Inn.
There were many no vacancies but we stumbled upon Ogunquit’s Beauport Inn, which caught our interest from the farm style kitchen and breakfast food shots.
-
- Breakfast at the inn.
-
- Kitchen with blue accents.
-
- View to the pool.
-
- Daily offerings.
-
- Typical table setting.
-
- Gathering place.
We chose the Moulin Rouge room, a red-painted suite equipped with all the B&B trappings of 4-poster bed, closet padded with robes and linens, shelves with readable titles and two separate couches so we can both doze off without a kicking match. The terrace led to the pool, hot tub and first floor that has a steam room, library of DVDs and selection of board games.
The innkeepers, Linda and Ellen, love their job, Ogunquit and treat visitors as houseguests. In fact their kindness extends to their private part of the home where they take care of rescue birds (also appearing on the toiletry packaging). They gave good advice on restaurants and the use of bikes for riding into town, which was a highlight as it takes ten minutes to move two miles on a typical August summer day.
-
- Design detail of the inn.
-
- Arrival signage.
-
- View of the inn as you drive down the gravel path.
-
- Screened in gazebo outside the Moulin Rouge suite.
-
- Donuts served in the pool.
-
- Available transportation, equipped with helmet and bike lock.
-
- Bird themed toiletries.
-
- Moulin Rouge bed side of the suite.
-
- Charlie is a resident of the inn you can meet though he may ask for your credit card.
You can connect with other guests or retreat into your room. Another unique quality to Beauport is the space was designed as a B&B so your rooms are private and solid. By day two we were Beauport veterans, understanding the breakfast routine and what to do in town. In a gesture we’d expect from a family member or close friend, Ellen thought to serve Bill’s eggs with his beloved hot sauce. Holiday Inn this is not.
