My husband and I have stayed at a few inns and b&b's in the Shenandoah area over the last few years, and now we can add Blue Rock Inn to the list of places to which we'd like to return. We stayed there last weekend to celebrate our anniversary. The property is in a rural and pretty setting just off Lee Highway and near the small town of Washington, VA. The inn has warm and welcoming staff and attractive and comfortable public areas, which were nicely decorated for the holidays. In the library/hospitality area they provided complimentary wine, tea, coffee, and biscotti.
We had the Chardonnay room, which is on the second floor at the top of the steps leading from the dining room. The room has a lovely view over the pond and fields. The room is a good size and decorated in an antique but not "precious" or frilly manner, mostly brown and beige but with a blue stripe chair. (Note that the decor of the Chardonnay room, or at least of the bed, on the website looks quite different from what we had. I got a more "masculine" vibe from the room than I did from the website photo.)
The queen-size bed and pillows were very comfortable. There are lamps on either side of the bed but overall the room seemed dim in the evening. It would have been nice to have a reading lamp next to the comfortable chair. A large bottle of San Benedetto artesian water was on a tray with glasses.
The bathroom was fine, though nothing special. It has a tub/shower combination, and the shower had good water pressure. There were nice thick towels and a flexible pull-out makeup mirror over the sink. Shampoo and conditioner were provided, but it surprised me that there was no body lotion (although there was hand lotion in the dispenser next to the hand soap on the sink) and no shower cap. I was also surprised that a box of tissues was not provided in either the bedroom or bathroom--not sure if this was a housekeeping oversight.
Someone in a previous review mentioned stinkbugs--yes, there were a couple but I don't hold that against the inn since it seems to be impossible to get them all (at least that is true in our area). Overall the room was very clean.
One thing that annoyed me, though it didn't bother my husband, was that when we went up to our room after dinner we periodically heard noise from what I assume was the kitchen below us--slamming doors and people talking loudly. In at least a couple of cases they were definitely talking about kitchen business. It got quiet after about 10 pm, but while it was going on it certainly detracted from the otherwise tranquil feeling of the inn. If we go back there (and I hope we do), I might request a room down the hall rather than at the top of the steps.
Breakast was good and included several different items--creamy sweet hot cereal, poached fruit, ginger pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, coffee, and tea.
We had a delicious dinner at the inn's restaurant--see my separate review for details.
