This was our third bed and breakfast experience, and one thing that sets the Hummingbird apart from our previous ones was the amount of personal care from the hosts. You'll notice that many reviews mention "Patti and Dan" by name; that's because they are part of the experience. The last place we stayed at, I had about two minutes of contact with the hostess, whose name I have completely forgotten, as she showed me to my room. That particular inn, also, had very little information readily available in the room--I had to hunt someone down to find out when breakfast was served. In comparison, as soon as we walked in the door of the Hummingbird, Dan met us, had us set our bags down, and gave us the grand tour of the inn, keeping up a running narration of the inn's "life story," and a bit of his own as well. Our previous bed and breakfast stay felt basically like staying in a hotel, except with somewhat eccentric interior decoration. The Hummingbird, as many have noted, feels like staying with relatives, mainly because Patti and Dan treat you like family. This affects the way the guests interact, too; at my last stay, I exchanged no more than a passing greeting with another guest; at the Hummingbird, all five couples bonded over the course of the weekend. There is still room for shy guests to keep to themselves, but the overall experience is still more enjoyable.

The other thing the Hummingbird does much better than my other stays is stock the rooms with information. The desk in the front hall has daily print-outs of events going on in the nearby towns, and the rooms have pamphlets for attractions. We purchased a Living Social package that came with extras like theatre tickets and restaurant vouchers; these were waiting for us in an envelope with maps of the area, driving directions, and Patti and Dan's descriptions of various nearby attractions, their hours, and how to get to them.

I should mention that the Hummingbird is sort of "in the middle of nowhere." This could be a con, but Patti and Dan have turned it into a pro. For one thing, it's on the edge of the huge George Washington National Forest, so for any outdoors types it's perfect for hiking, etc. It also means you drive through gorgeous, twisty mountain roads to get to it. The main centers of civilization, though, are two small towns, Lexington and Staunton, both about a half-hour's drive away. Patti and Dan, however, got so many local businesses into their LivingSocial package that we visited and enjoyed several places we wouldn't have known about or probably bothered to visit on our own--a winery, a gelato shop, and so on, not to mention the theatre and restaurant. The result was that, even though "in the middle of nowhere," we got a chance to appreciate the "nowhere." Just driving to the winery meant driving twisty roads through mountainous farms with cows and brooks and gnarled oaks and so on.

Finally, as many have mentioned, you need to be warned about the trains. The inn is yards away from an active railway line, which means that occasionally a train passes with window-rattling noise. During our two-night stay this happened some 3 or 4 times, of which I think only one was in the middle of the night. For me, that's hardly a deal breaker, but I've seen some reviewers react much more negatively (maybe they're more used to uninterrupted sleep than I am, as a father of two toddlers!). If a 50% chance of being woken up for about 60 seconds in the night is unacceptable for you, you might want to think twice; otherwise, this is a charming, comfortable, hospitable place to relax and indulge in a little low-intensity tourism.