My fiancé and I recently stayed at the Blueberry Hill Inn for 2 nights while visiting Vermont for a week.
We pulled up to the Inn and were stunned by the view with mountains off on the other side of the road and a beautiful pond and hillside in the back. We were greeted at check-in by a lovely young woman who was quick to answer any of our questions. We were shown where the "world famous" cookies are (which we found to be dry, but maybe we caught a stale batch), the fireplace (which they said they don't light until "it gets colder, like January," even though the lows were in the 40s both nights we stayed), the dining room (dim and dark, with one very long, uninviting table), and finally to our room in the back of the inn. The room was outdated, but everything was usable and it had a nice view of the back yard through the extremely sheer curtains.
After settling in, we requested our clothes from hiking be put in the dryer and the same woman who checked us in was more than accommodating. We noticed the main dining room table had been split into a couple smaller ones and requested if we could have one of those. Again, they were very accommodating and by the time dinner started, the one long, uninviting table turned into 6 separate ones. All of the B&Bs we have stayed at have done "forced dining" so that folks make new friends, so we are familiar with the setup. The issue here was that the one really long table that barely fit the length of the room looked awkwardly jammed into the room.
As we got ready for dinner we noticed that the room next to us was now occupied with guests which we could hear very clearly. Rather than the peaceful, relaxing stay we had at all of the other B&Bs on our trip so far, we had noisy neighbors and apparently very thin walls.
We decided to have dinner on site the first night we stayed and after dropping our wine at our table (dinner is BYOB) we made our way to the living room where cheese was being served as the hors d'oeuvres. The living room cannot accommodate all of the guests (20+) who joined them for dinner so seating was first come. After chatting with fellow guests, we were moved into the dining room where we started our "five course" dinner. First was butternut squash soup with homemade overly garlic-y croutons. My fiancé is Sicilian---no stranger to garlic---and even he said they were overwhelming. Rolls were in the middle of the table---hard and stale. The couple next to us asked for fresher ones but were brought out the same hard rocks. The butter was just as hard making it impossible to spread on room temp bread. Next came a salad which was again, overly garlic-y and the choice of greens way too bitter to stand up to the dressing. The main course was overcooked salmon with a thick pesto-like paste, rice and one broccoli floret, which lacked any seasoning. Dessert was a cheesecake with a lemon curd layer on top. Nothing fantastic, but it was edible. If you're counting, that wraps up dinner at 4 courses, not 5. Also, none of what we had was worth the $50 per plate (plus tax plus gratuity) we were charged. We headed back to our room and enjoyed hearing our neighbors and what we could only guess was them plunging their toilet at around 1130pm.
The next morning, breakfast was served at two shorter tables (a much more inviting arrangement than the very long table that was originally set up for dinner the night before) and consisted of their homemade, burnt granola, a strawberry rhubarb puff pastry, slimy eggs, sausage which was decent and one fingerling potato sliced in half. We ventured out for the day and thankfully had dinner elsewhere that night. Breakfast the next morning was grapefruit, which about half of the guests around us didn't eat (including my fiancé), a dry brown molasses cake with raspberry jam, two tough apple pancakes (some of which were burnt and some not cooked thoroughly), and one slice of bacon.
I didn't get the best pictures of the house and the poor state it is in, but what I got are attached. Cracks in the ceiling, water damage from the sky lights. The bathroom has dispensers on the wall for shampoo and conditioner which I would expect from a motel, not a $250+/night B&B. One of the fellow guests mentioned they had stayed at this very same B&B 9 years ago and nothing had changed since they stayed here last time.
This place has a perfect location and so much to offer. It's sad to see the house not being kept up with and the quality so poor, particularly for the price. We enjoyed all of our other places in VT and will be back again to see the beautiful fall leaves, but this place will be one we will be happy to forget. read more