Snug Hollow
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Nestled in Kentucky’s Red Lick Valley near Irvine and Berea, Snug Hollow Farm, a bed and breakfast operated by innkeeper Barbara Napier, boasts 300 acres of babbling creeks, wildflowers, mountain cliffs and abundant wildlife. Visitors can spot wild turkey and a host of other Kentucky birds, along with meandering whitetail deer. But for Napier, who moved to the farm 32 years ago, life at Snug Hollow has also been a lesson on all the things she can live without.
“We are working to master the art of living simply,” Napier said. “Without city water, without street lights, without television, without air conditioning, without chemicals, without meat and without spending, spending, spending.”
Although it wasn’t easy, living simply was not as hard as Napier had imagined. Inspired to share her lifestyle with others, she started the B&B in 2000. Napier’s vegetarian cooking and focus on local, organic and sustainable food sources inspired her to write her book, Snug Hollow Farm Cookbook: Hot Food and Warm Memories, which also has raised awareness of Kentucky’s contributions to the slow food movement.
“Over the years, we have stepped up to green practices,” Napier said. “Passive solar heating, organic gardens, outdoor solar lights, convection heating and cooling, screen doors, fans and porch sitting to catch the cool breezes while enjoying the natural sounds and sights — these are a way of life at Snug Hollow.”
The B&B experience created by Napier has naturally followed many of the sustainability guidelines that define ecotourism, including small accommodation size to minimize environmental impact on the ecosystem; environmental approach to waste management through recycling, reusing and composting; limited water consumption, with guests determining the frequency of their linen changes; and local employees assisting in daily operations.
You’ll find no television, wireless Internet connection, security lights or other distracting technologies, creating the opportunity for a more authentic and enriching connection to nature. The inn’s accommodations include a 180-year-old restored chestnut log cabin, a new pine-and-cedar cabin right by the creek, and two comfy upstairs suites in the spacious farmhouse, where meals are served.
The B&B has also earned some national exposure over the years, being named one of the five most romantic getaways in the South by Southern Living magazine and featured in National Geographic’s “50 Best Girlfriends Getaways of North America.”
Snug Hollow has entertained guests from nearly every continent and all regions of the United States. Visiting families are also finding the bed and breakfast to be a suitable setting to reconnect.
“We wanted to unplug and experience a simpler life with nature, books and good old-fashioned family time,” said Josepha Rangel, a physician from Cincinnati, and recent visitor to Snug Hollow. “Not having Internet or cellular access gave me an unexpected and much welcomed peacefulness from our high-tech information overload world.”
Rangel’s daughter, Petra, 10, said, “My favorite part was the pond. It was so fun to sit in the hammock and watch the butterflies and see the bullfrogs.”
Snug Hollow will launch a new website detailing its sustainable initiatives this summer at snughollow.com. Napier will be signing her cookbook as a “Homegrown Author” at the Lexington Farmers Market on June 23. She will also be teaching a vegetarian cooking class at the Berea Festival of Learnshops on July 26.
– Frances Figart is a sustainable travel industry editor living in Winchester, KY. Learn more at francesfigart.wordpress.com
Cinnamon House
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In the back of Cynthia Cain’s mind, there always lurked the idea of creating a spiritual retreat center. Such a venture would be appropriate for Cain, who is the minister at Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington. She and her husband, Eric Amon, live on a farm, named Innisfree, in Macksville in Washington County. They often discussed the idea of building a retreat center at the farm, but they learned it would be very expensive to do so, especially since they wanted to build with earth-friendly, organic materials and make it sustainable. Cain and Amon decided it would be better to find an existing building and start from there.
“We decided to start at a simple level, with a guesthouse bed and breakfast, which is pretty easy to get started businesswise,” Cain said. “Over time, we would add a nonprofit of some sort that would bring together some spiritual, literary and creative ideas about what we can do with the space — the two spaces, really, because the farm would be tied together with the B&B.”
Cinnamon House (the name is a combination of Cain’s nickname and her husband’s surname) will open in June. Located in Springfield, also in Washington County, the house was built in the late 1800s by attorney William McChord. It is a Victorian, Queen Anne-style house with three guest bedrooms, a parlor and a dining room on the first level. The second floor has a “sky parlor” that was once a ballroom.
As with all “Painted Lady” houses (think San Francisco’s Postcard Row), this one’s exterior has bright colors — very bright colors. But Cain and Amon fell in love with the house the moment they first saw it.
“We just absolutely knew that this was the right thing for us to do,” Cain said, “and the more we talked about it, the more we saw where it really brought together a lot of our hopes and dreams.”
When Cain tells people about her new venture, many of them say they have always wanted to have a B&B of their own. But there’s more to starting a B&B than just finding a house, adding some furniture and cooking breakfast.
“As I talk to people in the industry and read a lot of the books, people go into this with such fantasies,” Cain said. “They’ve been to a B&B and they want to decorate every room and they want to make the nice little touches, and they don’t realize it’s also a lot of work — and it’s not a huge moneymaker.”
One main concern Cain and Amon have is whether to include all the modern amenities — WiFi, flat-screen TVs, printers — at Cinnamon House.
“Whether you have all the amenities and perks really depends on the type of client you want to reach out to,” Allen said. “Younger people still expect the modern conveniences like TVs and WiFi.”
Cain understands the necessity of giving people what they need, but she is still debating whether to have TVs and other distractions at the B&B.
“I really feel you should sit on the porch and enjoy watching people walk by,” she said. “People might get itchy if there’s not a TV anywhere nearby, but I just feel some quiet simplicity, serenity and getting closer to the land and God and nature and peace is important.”
Cain wrote on her Facebook page, “Our vision is to unite Cinnamon House and our nearby Innisfree Farm to promote sustainability, local consumption and production, personal growth and well-being through nature and restful joy. There will be a special emphasis upon the arts, visual and literary, and social justice, local music, storytelling and history.”
“We have lots of ideas,” Cain said. “We just have to see what the good Lord has in mind for us.”
– Tanya J. Tyler
Country Charm
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David and LaVonna Snell don’t mind waking up to find strangers in their home. In fact, for this Bourbon County couple, it means their business is flourishing.
David and LaVonna, both retired teachers, are the owners of Country Charm Historic Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast, located at 505 Hutchinson Station Road in Bourbon County. They opened the bed and breakfast in 2003, after a series of events made the decision practical for financial and social reasons.
Francis Hall, land owner, entrepreneur and cattleman, built the two-story farmhouse about 1869 on 600 acres. In 1945, when David Snell was 6 months old, his family moved into the house, which was then owned by his grandfather. Currently, the property includes a two-acre yard and 60 additional acres that the Snells lease to a Millersburg farmer.
The Snells, who will be married 44 years in June, have lived in the house for nearly 40 years. A fire in 2000, though, caused extensive damage. The 10-month restoration was handled by Jeff Wolfe (JWI) out of Winchester, Ky.
“The restoration went so well after the fire damage, we thought, we’ve got this really nice home — it looked better than it ever did — and we need to do something with it, so we decided to give it a try,” David Snell said of the bed-and-breakfast enterprise.
And it wasn’t just to show off the new interior of their old house that the Snells made their decision to open their home to the public. A lengthy and costly restoration made opening the bed and breakfast a wise and necessary financial move.
“We were underinsured. We had two insurance companies we worked with, and they maxed out the coverage, but there was still some restoration to pay for, so that was part of it,” David Snell said. “The restoration was supposed to take four months, but for various reasons, it took 10 months to complete.”
Since opening their home as Country Charm, the Snells have become members of the Bed and Breakfast Association of Kentucky (BBAK), a group of nearly 100 bed and breakfast establishments across the state.
Todd Allen, BBAK president and owner of Maple Hill Manor Bed and Breakfast in Springfield, Ky., said the 20-year-old association is good for this type of small business — and this type of small business is good for Kentucky.
Allen said that across the United States, there has been a 40 percent drop in bed and breakfast businesses.
“There is a similar trend in Kentucky,” he added. “The economy has certainly dealt a real blow to bed and breakfasts, but we don’t do it for the money. We do it for the joy of sharing our home with others. There is a rich historical significance with the bed and breakfast.”
Despite the national drop, the Snells say they have noticed a steadiness in their business.
Country Charm offers three upstairs rooms for their guests, at prices that are about $50 less per night than the state average of $140 per night. Country Charm also has satellite television, wireless Internet, DVD players, a private patio, basketball court, and a two-acre yard where couples or families can relax in the country setting.
The Snells said they usually stay busy from April through October and have entertained guests from as far away as Japan, Germany, Australia, Argentina and Holland.
“We really like the people. The part I guess I like the best is that over breakfast, we usually solve the world’s problems,” David Snell said with a laugh.
LaVonna Snell agreed and said she is looking forward to playing host to “strangers” who soon become friends for years to come.
“We haven’t really thought about when we will hang it up,” she said. “We won’t expand at this point, but we have no intention of stopping just yet.”
– Kristi Robinson
Journey’s End
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Where the rolling landscape of central Kentucky meets the foothills in a remote area of Bath County, the 15-room retreat Journey’s End Lodge has been playing host to a variety of visitors who want to get out and play.
The rural respite was purchased in 2009 by Jim Ross only four months after Ross and his wife, Darlene, became the owners of CCC Trail Vineyard in Morehead, Ky. Ross, who came into both innkeeping and winemaking after achieving a career as an emergency room physician, splits his time between Kentucky and Savannah, Georgia, where his wife is invested in a law practice. His youth, however, was rooted in Kentucky, having grown up in central Kentucky and attended Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky’s medical school. His heart, it appears, never left the place.
Ross sees his vineyard as one of many appealing diversions in the area for travelers who want to get away from it all, with Journey’s End serving as a convenient home base to those looking to experience the outdoor activities, historical attractions and natural beauty of the area.
Like the hub of a wagon wheel, Journey’s End, which originally opened in 2003, is 45 minutes from the Interstate 64/75 split, and 45 minutes or less from just about anything else you may want to do.
“We are ready-made for central Kentucky to visit us,” Ross said. “We get a lot of family reunions over the summer, and we host a football camp, hikers, hunters, boaters — we get all kinds here.”
From the windows on the second floor, guests can see the trail that leads into the Daniel Boone National Forest at the back of the property. Hunting enthusiasts visit the lodge each spring and summer for various game in the National Forest, Ross said. Two miles of hiking take travelers to the Sheltowee Trace Trail. Across a gravel road, Bath County maintains a football field, which also hosts soccer games and a baseball field, making the location perfect for sports camps.
Carrington Greens Golf Course begins just past the baseball field, and the lodge is just 30 minutes from two championship courses: Eagle Trace in Morehead and Old Silo Golf Course in Montgomery County. The White Sulpher ATV Trail also crisscrosses the hills to allow excitement for riders from the most novice to the most experienced. In addition, a 20-minute drive in either direction takes guests to Cave Run Lake for world-class muskie fishing, or to Red River Gorge, where hiking, rock climbing, rappelling, ziplining, and simple sightseeing attracts travelers from around the globe.
Among the daytrip destinations that Ross often suggests for his bed-and-breakfast guests are Cave Run Marina, his own CCC Trail Vineyard, the Kentucky Folk Arts Center, and the Center for Traditional Music, all in Rowan County. Additional tourist sites in Bath County, Montgomery County and Menifee County also hold interest for the nature enthusiasts and history buffs who spend the night at Journey’s End. And thousands of people travel to the area in the early fall each year for the Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival (Sept. 11-15, 2012) and the Cave Run Story Telling Festival (Sept. 28-29, 2012.)
For those who wish to remain close to the lodge, Journey’s End offers amenities usually associated with more mainstream lodging, such as a pool and WiFi access. And the bed and breakfast also hosts weddings, as well as church and corporate retreats.
– Leeann Akers