New from Cliffside Inn and the Legendary Inns of Newport RI… For the luxury and romance lover in your life, Holiday Gift Certificates with automatic getaway savings to Newport, Rhode Island’s most luxurious Bed and Breakfast Inns.

Buy a Holiday Gift Certificate for $500 – $999 and you receive $100 in Preferred Guest reward savings, good for any Legendary Getaway in 2008. Certificates $1,000+ provide you $200 in rewards.

Gift Certificates $250 – $499 receive $50 in 2008 getaway savings. Available for a limited time only by phone 401-847-1811. Details

The Legendary Inns of Newport Rhode Island, is Newport’s premier collection of small luxury Bed and Breakfast hotels. In addition to Distinctive Inns of New England founding member Cliffside Inn, the Newport Bed and Breakfast group includes Abigail Stoneman Inn, and Adele Turner Inn. Check availability or Book Online for all three Legendary Inns.

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As soon as Jim & Ibby Cooper crossed the covered bridge to Jackson, New Hampshire, and saw the Inn at Thorn Hill, they knew they wanted to buy it. Hospitality is in Jim’s blood, being from a family in the business and working for 20 years for various hotels. Ibby was a teacher whose skills would be applied to training staff and developing programs.

Yet there were surprises to come. the Coopers had three children in college and one in seventh grade when they bought the inn, and shortly after, Ibby became pregnant with their fifth. Their new son was popular with their guests, as Ibby waited tables with him on her back.

“I thought I could do this for five years,” Ibby says, “but it’s now been 16 years. New England was an adjustment, as we’d lived before where it was warmer. But we’ve learned to enjoy the four seasons.”

An even bigger surprise occurred on October 13, 2002, when a fire destroyed the inn. All guests and staff were safe and sound, but the Coopers faced a decision, whether to walk away or rebuild. They chose to build a new inn like the original but with a long-range vision for growth.

Now the main building at the Inn at Thorn Hill and Spa has 16 guests rooms (up from 12), an award-winning restaurant, a wine cellar, a cooperage, and a spa with exercise room and dry sauna. After more than a year, the inn reopened on December 22, 2003 to welcome new and previous guests.

Jim & Ibby see their warm and attentive hospitality, which they instill in their staff, as key to the fact that 35 percent of their guests have been there before. “They come back to try different rooms, new menu items, and the various seasons here,” Jim explains.

The Coopers were among the three inns in northern New England that founded DINE. The group encouraged Europeans with their long vacations to come to the U.S. and stay at all three inns. The DINE idea grew, and now guests (like you) from anywhere in the world can plan a vacation with stays at Distinctive Inns throughout New England.

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For the fourth year in a row, the Legendary Inns of Newport RI has been honored as Rhode Island’s top AAA Four Diamond luxury lodging group. Both Cliffside Inn (a Distinctive Inns founder) and Abigail Stoneman Inn have again received the prestigious AAA Four Diamond Award.

While just over three percent of the more than 32,000 AAA rated inns and hotels in America are given the coveted Four Diamond Award, the Legendary Inns of Newport owns and operates more than one-quarter of all the AAA Four Diamond hotels or inns in Rhode Island.

Only seven Rhode Island bed and breakfasts, inns, or hotels have been honored with AAA Four Diamonds for 2007. Two Rhode Island restaurants also received AAA Four Diamond Awards at the annual ceremony, held at The Westin Providence Hotel.

“This unprecedented AAA Four Diamond award in Rhode Island for our flagship Newport bed and breakfast inns – four years in a row – is truly gratifying, ” said Winthrop Baker, Group President of the Legendary Inns of Newport. “This AAA recognition speaks to what we’re all about: extraordinary guest experiences, warm hospitality, personal service and grand style, all set in luxuriously detailed, historic Newport, RI inns.”

Each year AAA inspects and rates lodging properties across America. According to AAA Southern New England President Mark Shaw, AAA only awards Four Diamonds to properties that consistently deliver first-class hotel experiences, superior personal service, deluxe amenities, and impressive surroundings.

Abigail Stoneman Inn became Rhode Island’s first luxury bed and breakfast inn awarded the Four Diamond rating in 2003. It was followed later that year by Cliffside Inn.

Named to the “Great Tea Rooms of America,” the luxury Newport, RI bed and breakfast inns also feature a unique array of personal service and deluxe amenities including pillow menus and bath butler soap bars, exotic bathing salons with whirlpools and steam baths, iPod sound systems, in-room spa services and artwork from renowned Newport artist Beatrice Turner.

In addition to Abigail Stoneman Inn and Cliffside Inn, this year’s Rhode Island AAA Four Diamond hotels, inns, and bed and breakfasts include: The Hotel Providence, The Westin Providence, Point Pleasant Inn & Resort, The Chanler at Cliff Walk, and Hydrangea House Inn. The top Rhode Island restaurants include L’Epicureo, and Spiced Pear Restaurant.

The Legendary Inns of Newport is a distinguished group of three luxury Inns. All set in historic, Victorian homes, they have been meticulously restored and seamlessly blended with the finest modern amenities to produce unique, luxury bed and breakfast Inns known for their refined elegance, grand style, warm hospitality and attentive service. The group includes Distcintive Inns member Cliffside Inn, plus Adele Tuner Inn and Abigail Stoneman Inn. Read the release. See all Spring Getaway Specials to Newport Rhode Island

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It was nearly 30 years ago when Brian and Mary Ellen Shields began to dream of operating a B&B like the best of those they visited. For them, the love of travel eventually led to the love of innkeeping at the Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness, New Hampshire.

When their two daughters graduated high school, the couple began their search in earnest for an inn to call their own. They knew they wanted to be in New England. Mary Ellen explains, “We have always enjoyed the change of seasons, the diversity of the Northeast, and most of all the freshness of the air and the beauty of the landscape.”

Their previous careers had prepared them well. As a senior manager for Procter and Gamble, Brian had traveled the world and experienced quality hospitality. He also had became skilled at fixing infrastructure problems and creating good management systems. Mary Ellen had been an accountant, an interior decorator, and a culinary school graduate, developing skills she now applies at the Manor.

“When we travel,” Mary Ellen says, “we enjoy having all the comforts of home with added pampering from our hosts. So we ensure that experience for our guests.” Brian enjoys serving the breakfast and acting as concierge for guests who are planning their days. Mary Ellen loves the pace of the evening diningroom and the satisfaction of serving guests a wonderful meal.

Together, they have improved and expanded the inn’s services and facilities, and they have developed a highly skilled staff. Their efforts, combined with the inn’s beautiful setting overlooking Squarm Lake, have earned the Manor many accolades. Now approaching their eighth year as innkeepers, Brian and Mary Ellen continue to relish their dream come true.

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