this cute little cottage has several different rooms and cottages on site. it overlooks a stunning field and is so adorably decorated that you feel like you don't want to leave. the main house is perfect for a large group with several rooms all uniquely themed, and has great art and artifacts hanging on the walls.

juniper is a great hostess and keeps this place so well. i HIGHLY recommend this to anyone staying on san juan island!

I called around to several B&B's only to find out everything was booked. I finally reached Juniper and was told that the rooms I was interested in were already booked. She was very accomodating and offered a large discount on the hikers room. This is a large room that sleeps 7 people. My husband and I were traveling alone but I was getting desperate to find a room on the island. I should have called here first and forgot about the B&B's. The house is very clean and well situated near the ferry harbor. We checked in and out with ease and never did personally meet Juniper as she has a great system in place which allowed us to make our schedule and not conform to our host's schedule. Thanks for offering such wonderful accomodations at such a fair price.

Juniper Lane Guest House is such a great find on the island. We spent two nights in the Mandala room, which is on the ground floor and has a shared bathroom with one other room. At $85/night, this room is an unbeatable find on the island.

Getting there: My husband and I did not have a rental car so we walked from the ferry with our bags. We are both in good shape, though it is a bit more than a mile and uphill, so if you aren't able to walk that distance or if you have a lot of bags, call a cab. The walk is very easy without luggage, and there is sidewalk for most of it but about five minutes where there is no sidewalk. Just listen and look for cars (and bikes!!) and you'll be fine, though we only walked it when the sun was still up. Seriously, watch out for bikes since they are hard to hear. One a car pulled over and offered us a ride but we kept walking since it was really nice out and it's not too far. We got there early and Juniper showed us where to leave our bags since it was too early to check in, then we walked back to town to go see some orcas :).

Kitchen: The shared kitchen was great, we bought groceries in town (note: these are way more expensive than in Seattle, so bring food if you have room in your bags or car). We cooked two pasta dinners, bought some stuff for breakfast and lunch, and had no problem with other people taking our food. The kitchen is complete with pots, pans, plates, bowls, silverware, cooking utensils, pasta strainer, everything you need to make a good dinner. There is a dishwasher but we washed most of our dishes so other people could use them that night if they wanted to. There is a bottle opener and there are wine glasses, perfect for enjoying outside and watching the sunset over the field (which we did both nights).

The common room: Nicely decorated, smells good, clean, there's a TV (that we didn't watch), a wall with brochures for activities and restaurants on the island, couches, etc.

The grounds: Beautiful view of sheep farm, two hammocks, outdoor table with chairs, and firepit with benches. This property is just off the road, but when you are sitting facing the field it feels like you are very far from town. Besides, the road is not very busy (one lane each direction) and we were there during San Juan's busiest month (August is Washington State's Whalewatching Month).

The bathroom: each room has different bathroom situations. Our room (Mandala) has a shared bathroom, but it is only shared with one other room. The shower is large, the toilet, floor, and sink were clean. CLEAN. The soap provided is environmentally friendly, which is a plus. There is a cupboard with clean towels (even special washcloths for removing makeup) and a hamper for dirty towels, but we only stayed for two nights so we reused our towels. Obviously the cleanliness of the bathroom (and any shared area) depends on how clean the people you are sharing it with are, but our bathroom sharers were clean. Besides, it gets cleaned every day... how often do you clean your bathroom?

Our Room (Mandala): This room has a queen bed, and while we were there it had incredibly soft sheets. I just emailed Juniper asking her what type they were since I want to buy some! The bed itself was comfortable. We slept well! There is a private porch to this room with two chairs and a table, as well as its own door, but we hung out on the common grounds area. Other comments have complained about the noise of other people moving around upstairs, but we didn't find it a problem. Again, this sort of thing depends on who is there when you are, but the people upstairs were quiet walkers during our stay (or at least went to bed early). I woke up in the morning when they got up and started walking, but fell back asleep very quickly (see previous comfortable bed comment!). My husband didn't wake up, but he sleeps like a rock. Street noise was a non-issue. The road is right there, so you can hear when a car drives by, but it wasn't loud enough to wake me up. If you don't want that, then request a room not on the street side of the house, or stay somewhere more removed, further out of town, with a long driveway, etc. If you are a light light sleeper then bring some earplugs. I am a light sleeper (though not a light light sleeper) and was not bothered by noise. I have no regrets about staying in this room.

Checking Out: The ferry back to seattle didn't leave til 4, so we left our bags for the day, then came back to get them.

Suggestions: The only two suggestions I could come up with are 1) finding a safe place closer to town that guests could store bags when arriving early or staying late would be helpful for guests who don't have a car (Juniper told us she is looking into this) and 2) adding a key-code lock to the back door.

This guest house is a huge bargain, it really is beautiful, clean, and comfortable. We saw Juniper twice and she was friendly (as well as helpful when I originally made the reservation). I would pay more than $85/night for such a nice room, though as a recent college graduate I sincerely appreciated the value.

We came to Friday Harbor without a hotel reservation (don't do that) and managed to find a night at Juniper Lane. They only had one night available so we had to move to another place the next day, but really wish we could have spent the whole three nights there.

The guest house is about a mile and a half outside of town and away from the port, but this wasn't much of a problem as we had a car. It's easy to find. No sea view, but we loved the view from the back of the forest and fields. We watched the sunset over the fields and it was as good as any sunset over the water. A very pleasant place to sit out back, with a very friendly cat nosing around.

We had the Tea room upstairs which was good-sized, comfortable, with a big bathroom. Very nice. Plenty of space for our bags and a great wi-fi connection.

Only downside is this is not a B&B, there's no breakfast. They do provide coffee and tea and a full kitchen to make whatever you want, but no food is provided. Given the good price we got we were fine with going into town for breakfast (Rocky's), but if we'd thought ahead we would've bought something in town the night before to have with coffee.

There may be better B&B's on the island, but I don't imagine there are any that are a better value. Juniper Lane deserves a higher rating on this site.