Fodor's Expert Review The Farmhouse Inn

With a farmhouse-meets-modern-loft aesthetic, this low-key but upscale getaway with a pale-yellow exterior contains spacious rooms filled with king-size four-poster beds, whirlpool tubs, and hillside-view terraces. Larger rooms toward the back of the property are among the inn's most romantic, with an open floor plan and, in some cases, private patios or decks entered through wide French doors. Several rooms have double-sided fireplaces facing both spaces. The concierges to help with touring and wine tasting, smoothly efficient service, and dining options—the Farmhouse Inn Restaurant (prix-fixe dinner-only tasting menu) and Farmstand (more casual breakfast, lunch, and dinner)—qualify the Farmhouse Inn for top-tier status among Sonoma County luxury properties. But this place offers something extra the others can't match: the deep sense of the county and its rhythms that sister-and-brother team Catherine and Joe Bartolomei share as fifth-generation residents. Although their inn deserves its many press and online plaudits, the sublime experience most guests describe comes not from Farmhouse living up to the hype (though it largely does) but from the unstudied elegance and the staff's attention to detail.