Our April monthly award recognized the Top 10 Culinary Inns. These B&Bs offer over-the-top food experiences, from cooking lessons with experts to wine-pairing seminars.

Two BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection inns won a place in the top 10:

Elm Creek Manor Luxury B&B & Resort in Gainesville, TX
Farm-to-table dining, five-course gourmet dinners, cooking classes with wine tastings

Hartstone Inn & Hideaway in Camden, ME
"Chef for a day" cooking classes, European culinary tours, award-winning dining

This week, we released "An Innkeeper's Guide to Napa," our sixth travel guide based solely on tips from local innkeepers. We love the fact that innkeepers serve as local experts, offering guests the inside scoop on the best spots to dine, shop, and explore, plus where to go on day trips.

According to Russ Herschelmann, innkeeper of Napa Old World Inn, “If you want to truly immerse yourself in this region's wine and food culture, stay with a local. Innkeepers will help you discover wine, food, and truly memorable experiences.”

Other participating BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection inns in Napa include:

• The Inn on First

• McClelland Prist B&B Inn

• Churchill Manor

If you are planning a trip to Napa anytime soon, be sure to read our travel guide so you can avoid the tourist traps and experience only the best that Napa Valley has to offer.

We are thrilled to announce that the BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection™ program has reached a major milestone: It now has over 400 member inns across the U.S. and Canada! Established over three years ago, this program offers luxury, value and memorable, one-of-a-kind experiences to travelers.

Our recent survey of nearly 2,500 travelers reveals that this winter, more than one in four (28%) plan to enjoy a “splurge weekend” and stay in luxury accommodations.  Of these travelers, more than three out of four (77%) plan to stay in a luxury bed and breakfast, and nearly half (48%) say they would be willing to pay more than $100 a night extra for the high-end accommodations.

“Travelers are increasingly looking for ‘smart luxury’ accommodations providing pampered experiences along with special touches and extra perks that provide great value,” says BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection Manager Tim Wilson.  “Diamond Collection inns exemplify smart luxury and are the perfect choice for travelers who want more out of their travel experience.”

In addition to having fantastic traveler reviews on BedandBreakfast.com and offering luxurious and modern amenities and services, Diamond Collection inns participate in a comprehensive third-party annual inspection conducted by InnConcierge. “When we evaluate and pass an inn for BedandBreakfast.com’s Diamond Collection status, it has to pass a 400+ point ratings criteria, which is the most stringent of all ratings programs,” says Stephen Tallon, InnConcierge founder.  “Innkeepers across the nation have sought out the Diamond Collection program from BedandBreakfast.com because it highlights and markets the unique offerings these special bed and breakfast inns offer to their guests.”

Thank you to all of our participating Diamond Collection inns and travelers for supporting this wonderful program! Pictured is Castle in the Country in Allegan, Michigan, which has been a Diamond Collection member since 2009.

By Emily Starbuck Crone

In case you missed it, last month we announced the winners of our 2012 Best of BedandBreakfast.com Award winners. Each fall, we select winners by a thorough qualitative and quantitative analysis of guest reviews from the past year. We have over 13,000 member inns, and with so many having stellar reviews, it's a very difficult to pick just 30!

This year, eight of the 10 U.S. award winners and two of our Canadian winners are BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection members. The inn names that are bolded below are in the Diamond Collection.

Top 10 B&Bs in the United States

• Bed & Breakfast on Tiffany Hill in Mills River, North Carolina
• Belfast Bay Inn in Belfast, Maine 
• Bufflehead Cove in Kennebunkport, Maine
• Chestnut Hill Bed & Breakfast in Orange, Virginia
• Historic Webster House in Bay City, Michigan
• Hoyt House Bed & Breakfast* in Amelia Island, Florida
• Port d’Hiver Bed and Breakfast in Melbourne Beach, Florida
• The Farmhouse at Veritas in Afton, Virginia
• Twin Pine Manor Bed & Breakfast in Ephrata, Pennsylvania
• Villa D’Citta in Chicago, Illinois

Top 10 B&Bs in Canada

• Abbeymoore Manor Bed and Breakfast in Victoria, British Columbia
• A la Carte B&B in Montreal, Quebec
• A Touch of English Bed & Breakfast in Kelowna, British Columbia
• Binners’ Bed and Breakfast in Victoria, British Columbia
• Cartland Estate Bed and Breakfast in Niagara Falls, Ontario
• John Lewis House in Victoria, British Columbia
• Queen Anne Inn in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
• Sweet Dreams Luxury Inn in Abbotsford, British Columbia
• The Refuge Bed and Breakfast in Mont Tremblant, Quebec
• Trout Point Lodge of Nova Scotia in East Kempville, Nova Scotia

We do not yet have a Diamond Collection program outside of the U.S. and Canada, but here are our top 10 international winners:

• Bed & Breakfast Pegaso in Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy
• Casa Lima Bed & Breakfast in San Jose, Costa Rica
• Casa Roa in Mexico City, Mexico
• Estinfil Guesthouses in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• Le Roulage in Longueville, France
• Lippergüt’l in Füssen, Germany
• Los Artistas B&B in Ajijic, Mexico
• Maison Maurice in Biron, France
• Suites Plazza del Popolo in Rome, Italy
• Villa Los Paraisos in La Puebla de Cazalla, Spain

By Emily Starbuck Crone

Yesterday, the votes were tallied and the winner of our first annual Breakfast Recipe Challenge was announced. The victorious dish was bittersweet chocolate waffles topped with mint buttercream and strawberry sauce from the Lyttleton Inn in Littleton, MA. The dish is pictured below, and you can view the recipe here. Congrats Mary!

Overall, we received nearly 100 recipes from innkeepers all over the world. A team of BedandBreakfast.com employees, along with the help of guest judges Danielle Contray of Budget Travel and Helen Anders of The Austin American-Statesman, narrowed them down to The Savory Sixteen. The contest took place on Facebook. Our fans voted on the recipes, which went head-to-head in match-ups until one winner remained. We're thrilled that we were able to spread awareness one of the best benefits of staying at a B&B--the delicious homemade breakfast!

We're also proud to announce that four Diamond Collection members made the final 16. They are:

1. Mill House Inn in East Hampton, NY
2. Forty Putney Road Bed & Breakfast in Brattleboro, VT
3. Hartstone Inn & Hideaway in Camden, ME
4. Casa Laguna Inn & Spa in Laguna Beach, CA

Thanks to all the innkeepers for sharing their recipes and to all the travelers for voting!

By Emily Starbuck Crone