I'm planning on attending a conference at Swarthmore in mid July -- alone -- and want to expand the trip to a long weekend, taking in Longwood Gardens and, perhaps, Winterthur. I will have a car and was thinking a nice Bed & B'fst would be ideal. Any recommendations or links to sites that rate B&B's? Other activity suggestions would also be useful. Thanks!

Are you staying on campus during the conference or planning to commute every day from the B&B?

I can tell you where NOT to stay (anywhere on the Baltimore Pike), but I think most of the best B&B's are out in the Brandywine area, which is a bit of a hike from S'more. (My beloved alma mater, blush -- love that campus.)

You've picked the two best things to do, IMO, outside of Philly itself, but do include the Wyeth Museum in Chadds Ford -- a gem of a place in a lovely setting (and there may be a B&B nearby). The Barnes Collection would be my other recommendation, but I'm unsure what its status currently is.

Will be glad to chase down some B&Bs if you'll let me know whether you need to be able to commute to Swarthmore from there or not.

Also should have asked about price range. As for ratings, tripadvisor.com can be good on this, although less good about the less-traveled areas.

Swarthmore itself has this guide for visitors, including a list of B&Bs toward the bottom of the page: http://www.swarthmore.edu/visitordas...nt_lodging.php and note that two are right IN Swarthmore-- although I don't know a thing about them.

Several links pulled up:
http://www.hamanassett.com/ in Media, which is commutable although somewhat congested at rush hour.

http://www.selectregistry.com -- which is upscale and/but may be slightly out of date on info.

The Pennsbury Inn is right in Chadds Ford: www.pennsburyinn.com

Anyway, please come back and let us know what you did.

There are some lovely B&B inns in the Brandywine Valley area. The Fairville Inn looks great and is between Winterthur and Longwood Gardens:
http://www.fairvilleinn.com/

The Wyeth Museum is called The Brandywine River Museum. It is in a renovated mill right on the Brandywine River and is definitely worth a visit.

We stayed at the Fairville Inn last year, and really liked it. The location is perfect for the Brandywine. I do believe it has changed owners since then, as the innkeeper at the time had sold and was moving out within a month or 2. but it was quiet, charming and the breakfasts were good.

Winterthur is amazing, and if you like the decorative arts you can easily spend an entire day there. The tour of the main open part of the house is good, but the smaller tours are even better, where they take you into some of the rooms you are not allowed in by yourself. Plus riding the tram around the grounds. Its really an incredible place.

The Wyeth museum and Longwood, both mentioned are worthwhile of course.

there were some other interesting historic homes we didn't get to, Hagley House and Nemours.

Thank you all for your responses! These are the best tips I've gotten on this site to any questions I've asked (not many). I'm going to look at a map to check distances. Lodging is off-campus, so I wanted to find something nice and, since I'm not traveling much this summer, price isn't a limiter.

I'm a big Wyeth fan -- loved the exhibit in Philly a couple of years ago -- so that's a gr8 heads up, as are all the links and comments. I'll return with follow up questions once I do my homework.

Thanks again!

Thanks again for the responses. Just in case anyone else is looking for similar info, I thought I'd post what I've done the past couple of years:

I stay at the Longfellow House a block off campus (she has a website). There are only 3 rooms, so I've already booked for my two visits this year for the Woody Plant and Perennial conferences in July and October, respectively. There is off-street parking and evening snacks, including wine, and a wonderful hot breakfast. Magnolia House is also nice, and just a block or two farther from campus. After the conferences, I have driven to near Longwood (almost 1/2 hour away, so not really an easy commute the a.m. of the 8 a.m. conference) and spent the weekends touring gardens in the area. I did stay at Fairview Inn once, and it was lovely. I splurged and took their only room available, which was $275/nite, but was furnished with Kindel. Nice snacks and b'fst too and nice grounds. Inspired to frugality subsequently, I've been staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, where an upgraded room costs less than half and is an amazing value. It's right across from Longwood and very quiet with friendly staff.

I agree with the recommendation on the Brandywine museum and it's extra special if Wyeth's granddaughter gives the tour. Her family stories bring his wonderful works further to life.

In the Chadd's Ford area, the gardens I visit are Longwood, Winterthur, the newly reopened Nemours, Mt. Cuba center. I know there are more, but that's what I can do in two days. On the way home to north central New Jersey (2 hours nonstop), I stop at Tyler arboretum, Chanticleer, and Morris arboretum. If in the spring, I'd stop at Jenkins arboretum, which has 5K rhodies and azalea. For shopping plus house/garden tour, I'd stop at Meadowbrook Farm (bring your PHS membership to get a 10% discount).

BTW, the Scott arboretum, which essentially is the Swarthmore campus, is a phenomenal destination in itself: the iconic tulip polar amphitheater, the rose garden from which each senior plucks a flower to wear to graduation (in amphitheater), the allee of dawn redwood, etc. The conference etc. is gr8 value, with world-class lecturers, box lunch and snacks and walking tour with horticulturists for $99, and this includes free admission to Longwood, Chanticleer (cosponsors) and Tyler & Morris (July only). I have reciprocity with my local arboretum membership (Frelinghuysen) and get into Winterthur for free. So, if you're into garden viewing and education, as I am in my retirement, you can see why I plan to reprise my itinerary at least twice a year!