Starlight Pines Bed And Breakfast

We took an impromptu overnight vacation to Flagstaff and arrived in town without a reservation. We had always wanted to go to a Bed & Breakfast, so when I started to make calls to check availability, my naivete showed. The first B&B I talked to told me that B&Bs are usually booked a month or two in advance, but he knew that the Starlight Pines might still have one room available. That gentleman also served as Flagstaff's B&B Ambassador by telling me that the tax rates for hotels in Flagstaff is 14%, while the B&B rate is 3%. That was super information to know as we were trying to make a decision on where to stay.

I immediately called Richard at the Starlight Pines B&B, and yes, he actually had two rooms available because of a last-minute cancellation. We headed over immediately.

Richard had us at "hello"! What a warm, welcoming man he is! Not having had a B&B experience before ("B&B virgins," as Richard called us), we didn't know what to expect. But how wonderful to feel as if we were being welcomed into someone's home! We took a walk through the beautiful home. I think Richard said it was built 16 years ago, but it's a replica of a Victorian home. Beautiful porch. Beautiful decor. Very, very clean. A kitchen to die for.

Richard asked what we planned to do while we were in town, and we mentioned that we wanted to go to the Lowell Observatory. He disappeared for about 20 seconds and came back with two discount coupons for the observatory! What nice service!

He told us that breakfast (souffle) would be served at 8:30am. Because I am recovering from breast cancer treatment and still moving pretty slowly, we told him we would forgo breakfast and sleep in.

We stayed in the Art Deco bedroom, which was just wonderful. We told Richard the next morning that our only learning was that we should have opened the window in the bedroom to let the cool evening breeze in before we went into town. That would have made the room temperature much more pleasant for us (we love a cold room to sleep in). We won't make that mistake next time! We're from Phoenix, so we love cool weather!

The bedroom was immaculate, and it has an attached bathroom. Claw-foot tub, beautiful antique fixtures and furniture. Again, very, very clean. We were entirely comfortable there.

One side note: Richard has two beautiful small dogs that had been very well behaved when we arrived. When we returned from dinner in town at about 10:30pm, we used our guest key to get into the home. We laughed because those two pups were sacked out on their beds in the foyer and didn't open their eyes when we came into the house! They're obviously used to folks they don't know coming and going. GREAT B&B dogs!

Sure enough, we got rolling well after the 8:30am breakfast, but Richard greeted us with an offer of coffee and a beautiful fruit bowl, which he made on the fly. Given that we had declined his regular breakfast fare (which sounded so yummy), we were so touched that he would drop everything to create those beautiful and delicious fruit bowls for us.

We are definitely going to return to the Starlight Pines B&B. Don't hesitate to make a reservation here. You won't be disappointed!