silver thatch inn | charlottesville, virginia

Mostly I stay in hostels when I travel. My recent trip to Mexico was an exception (I blogged about where I stayed here). Traveling with mi novio made it a very different trip than any I've taken before. I cared about things like sheets and blankets and having a mattress. Comfort became a bigger priority as part of a couple than it ever mattered to me as a solo traveler. 

Being part of a couple has me thinking about travel a little differently. Instead of only saving for international trips, I've had a little romance in the form of bed and breakfasts on the brain. A weekend away in a tiny town on the outskirts of a bigger town, or tucked away in the mountains, or at the end of a winding drive through a vineyard makes me as wistful as the thought of a twin-sized dorm room bed in Shanghai, China (okay, almost as wistful). 

So when Zan's and my anniversary rolled around a few weeks ago, we capitalized on my new found kind of wanderlust and spent a night at the Silver Thatch Inn outside of Charlottesville. Zander surprised me with the B&B. The inn is historic, like most of the homes near Charlottesville. Begun in 1780 by a group of Hessian soldiers captured during the Revolutionary War, it served as a tobacco plantation, a melon farm, and a dairy farm before becoming the quaint guest house it is today. 

A couple named Jim and Terri currently run the Inn. They have a wine cellar takes you by surprise, a charming bar, and both are trained chefs. We stayed cozy in the Madison Room, and besides being ridiculous (ie, myself) and squeamish about that whole, everybody thinks we're totally doing it right now thing that follows you around when you stay somewhere like a B&B, it was relaxing (oh, come on, you know you've thought it, too!). The bottle of bubbly on ice and homemade chocolate chip cookies on our pillows didn't hurt a single bit. 

We were famished for Sunday morning breakfast. That's the best B of the B&B - at least, to me. Terri brought Zan fresh coffee and offered me a large selection of teas. She started us out with fresh fruit and yogurt. I handed my blackberries over to Zander because who can handle those seeds in your teeth? The main event was panko-covered french toast with blueberry compote, sliced bananas, and chicken and dried cranberry sausage. With real maple syrup. Did I mention the maple syrup? I'd be very tempted to pay the price of the room just to have a do-over with that french toast. Can I get seconds? 

I'll never give up planning and budgeting and saving for the big trips, the international ones, the ones whose flight times are longer than you believed planes could fly. I'll always want those trips, and I'll always take those trips. But there's something to be said for splurging near home, taking a holiday two hours away in a home that's not your home, where the food and history and sights give you that same high of a new experience.

And plus, that french toast. 

Silver Thatch Inn

434.978.4686

$190-$220

*most B&Bs in the area require a 2-night minimum, but they kindly bent the rules, allowing us to stay for one