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Shakespearean storybook retreat
If you want charm and convenience, stay at The Garden Cottage. I have stayed at this inn twice while attending the Utah Shakespeare Festival (a must-see!) for many reasons:
1.The rooms are beautiful, spotless with all of the amenities and great attention to detail. This is one of the quietest inns I have stayed in, perhaps owing to no televisions in the rooms and the fact that they discourage parents with young children from staying there. Also the kitchen smells don’t permeate the house and rooms (a pet peeve of mine.)
2.The house is cozy — not the ubiquitous Victorian painted lady B&B — but more of a small storybook cottage living up to its name. It is resplendent in summer with climbing roses, hanging vines, towering shade trees, and head-high hollyhocks, frequented by butterflies, bumblebees and hummingbirds. (Hint: Stay in the Morning Glory room, where they fly right up to your window to take advantage of the flowers in the window box and enjoy nature’s “TV” without leaving that big, comfy iron bed!)
3.The breakfast is the best I have ever had at any of the 100-plus B&Bs I have stayed at across the years and country. When my sister and I stayed there in July, we sat down to our first course of homemade “Orange Julius” refreshers, fresh fruit/granola parfaits, and hot coffee. The second course was a piping-hot crust-less quiche pungent with herbs and cheese, and, the crown of the table, a giant, hot-from-the-oven pecan/cinnamon monkey bread, which received Ooohs and Aaahs from everyone. Our hosts, the Simpkins, paid great attention to detail with diminutive fresh pansies gracing everyone’s plating of quiche; embroidered linen coasters around the base of the stemware; all the fixings (including tiny marshmallows!) for hot chocolate; a selection of premium teas, and even decorated sugar cubes. (Diana takes a box of plain cubes to the bakery to have each tiny block iced with minute rosebuds.)
4.The Garden Cottage is cattycornered and just across the street from the Utah Shakespeare Festival theaters and conveniently just a few blocks from downtown dining and shopping, so you don’t need to get in your car, if you don’t want. I-15 freeway access is more or less only a mile away.
If you have never been to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, winner of the 2000 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, then do yourself a favor and plan a trip to Cedar City, Utah, about 3 hours from either Las Vegas, Nevada, or Salt Lake City. But before you go, be sure to make your reservation at The Garden Cottage first.
