your boutique Isle of Bute guesthouse – launchpad to the dramatic west coast and Highlands of Scotland.
It's that time of the year to have fun with pumkins again.
We'll never forget our first Canadian Halloween on Vancouver Island back in 2003. Fortunately, we were prepared.
Around 200 youngsters of all ages converged on our Cilaire neighbourhood and quickly depleted an enormous refuse bag of chocolates.
We've never replicated that incredible Halloween but enjoyed some fabulous ones in our darling French village of Daglan.
Happy Halloween week, everyone!
Following on from the previous post, consider the following three descriptions that most likely distinguish a true “boutique B&B”:
Starting with the focus on design, look at The25 Boutique B&B in Torquay. The owners simply personify “design focus” contributing to The25 being the epitome of a “boutique B&B”. Their masterful blend of unwavering attention to detail, guest pampering and exquisite bedroom design has, among other hard-working factors, secured them the fantastic and deserved accolade of being “Best B&B IN THE WORLD”
The25 has five guest rooms, which seems perfect for a “boutique B&B”. Arguably, a B&B with, say, 10 rooms is going to struggle to be identified as “boutique” since guests are going to be less likely to receive the same personal attention as that offered at a 5-room B&B.
“Sophisticated” was touched on in the previous post and perhaps Glasgow University's professor of English, Faye Hammill, does define it best as “a measure of refinement—displaying good taste, wisdom and subtlety".
When you introduce the term “eclectic” and marry it with “sophisticated”, a better picture emerges of “boutique B&B”. Both terms suggest an atmospheric B&B elegantly designed, furnished and presented as a melting pot of the owners’ worldly experience.
At Highlander House, we welcome you to what is, inevitably, a melting pot of our experience of living in Africa, Australia, Canada, France and now Scotland over the decades.
Original artwork collected from our lives lived on four different continents, adorns Highlander House. At breakfast, you’re as likely to be offered Scottish black pudding or lorne sausage, South African boerewors, or French equivalent of saucisse de Toulouse.
Book your boutique B&B melting-pot experience by visiting our website at highlanderhouse.co.uk
We confess we'd no idea before eventually stumbling (via our world-wide meanderings) into quite possibly creating one here at Highlander House.
Research of the term delivers nothing definitive, only a collection of descriptions:
- small and sophisticated
- personal
- eclectic
- stylish
- intimate
- urban location
- design focus
All B&Bs are small, personal and intimate, and many are urban located.
"Stylish" is in the eye of the beholder.
Sophisticated?
Research that term and you'll find some unpleasant definitions. Fortunately, Glasgow University's own professor of English, Faye Hammill, quotes it "common as a measure of refinement—displaying good taste, wisdom and subtlety rather than crudeness, stupidity and vulgarity." ?
Sophistication in the world of technology defines state of the art and superior.
With this pic of an unassuming dining nook in the Bens & Glens guest room at Highlander House, we wonder whether we've in this one pic ticked some of those "Boutique B&B" boxes?
The half-moon table is up-cycled from a cherry-wood dining table we brought back to Scotland from our previous home in France.
Whilst not in this room, most Highlander House guest rooms have original 1851-built fireplaces rediscovered with the inserts replaced by smokeless charm.
Technology-wise, today's automatic coffee machines like the one featured, offer guests a playful and experimental choice of creme-topped coffees and fuzzy-warm hot chocolates.
Behind the coffee machine (and well placed around guest rooms) wall sockets offer plentiful USB charging for tablets, phones etc
Above the tea/coffee caddy (and also at bedside locations), a dedicated Cat6a hard-wired internet jack is available for those who require seriously fast internet speed as opposed to the limitations of wifi.
In the following posts we'll consider other elements that contribute to the concept that is "Boutique B&B".