Nevada B&Bs provide quaint getaway

Usually accomodating only a handful of guests, these tiny inns provide travelers with charming alternatives to cookie-cutter motel rooms and typical cafe-style breakfasts. Many travel veterans prefer the personalized service that characterizes bed-and-breakfasts, as well as the opportunity to meet like-minded fellow guests.

Most guest houses and inns in the Silver State are members of the Nevada Bed and Breakfast Guild, which lists 16 guest facilities scattered across the state. Individual descriptions and contact information can be found on the group’s website: NevadaBandB.com.

Nevada’s bed-and-breakfast inns invite guests to explore unique locations such as ghost towns, historic communities, urban districts or rural serenity. Proprietors often arrange for adventures such as ATV rides or guided horseback treks. They know the best walking routes, points of interest, eateries and scenic drives.

Not suprprisingly, the Reno-Carson area offers the most bed-and-breakfasts. In Reno’s Truckee Meadows arts and shopping district near downtown, Wildflower Village B&B offers five refurbished rooms of a former motel, each with its own entrance.

Carson City’s Bliss Bungalow Bed and Breakfast is a vintage home with five guest rooms in the state capital’s historic core. A walking tour acquaints guest with the Governor’s Mansion, the Nevada State Museum and the Capitol Building.

In pastoral Carson Valley, country sounds and scents and star-spangled night skies are part of the bed-and-breakfast experience. Three ranch B&Bs welcome guests. Deer Run Ranch offers two guest rooms in a rural house near Carson City. Near Gardnerville, Cottonwood Creek Ranch, a working horse ranch, has three guest rooms, and K High Five Ranch, which raises cattle and hay, also accomodates guest in three rooms.

Two historic houses cater to guest in Virginia City in the mountains between Reno and Carson City. The B Street House Bed and Breakfast offers three charming rooms near Piper’s Opera House and the lively downtown. The Cobb Mansion offers Victorian opulence to guests staying in its six lovely rooms.

In Northern Nevada, the Stonehouse Country Inn has eight rooms in beautiful Paradise Valley north of Winnemucca. The area offers opportunities for hunting, fishing, hiking and biking. Old Unionville, a silver mining ghost town with about 20 residents, boasts a cabin once occupied by Mark Twain and the Old Pioneer Garden Country Inn, dating from the 1870s. The quaint inn has 11 rooms.

In north central Nevada, the Paradise Ranch Castle offers two rooms in rural Reese River Valley about 12 miles from the former mining boomtown of Austin. Near downtown Austin, the 1860s Union Street Lodging House offers four rooms. South of Austin in beautiful Kingston Canyon, the Miles End Bed and Breakfast is a lodge with three rooms in a group of cabins.

In eastern Nevada near old Pioche, the Pine Tree Inn and Bakery is located in Panaca, a town settled by Mormon pioneers. Guests can choose from four rooms inside the house or beds and a bath in an adjacent cabin. Guests enjoy ATV or horseback rides and can visit nearby state parks with fishing, boating and hiking.

In Southern Nevada, Dar’s B&B in Pahrump welcomes visitors to a spacious home with three guest rooms. In Boulder City’s Old Town, Milo’s, a popular restaurant with beer and wine tasting, also features a four-room inn. Guests enjoy a private patio with water features and an outdoor fireplace. Old Town offers antiques shops, arts galleries, shops, a museum in a historic hotel, parks and many cities.

Margo Bartlett Pesek’s Trip of the Week column appears on Sundays.