Sample country living at bed and breakfasts

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The election is over, and the holidays beckon. It's toast-your-tootsies-by-the-fire weather, and what better way to do that than off in the country at a cozy bed and breakfast?

An hour or so beyond the Beltway is a world of farmer's markets, small-town shops, and history. The landscape is as diverse as the people: beaches and waterfront views in one direction, mountains and winding roads in another.

"We've lived in many areas, but the Greater Washington area is unique," says Susan Hilyard, the owner of Chaffinch House, an 111-year-old bed and breakfast on the Eastern Shore. "There's so much available within a short drive."

Staying at a B&B is one of the best ways to experience the countryside. You won't find all the bells and whistles of an upscale hotel, but you'll be pampered far more personally than any VIP.

Forget the standard-issue bedspreads and antiseptic smell of a side-of-the-highway chain; bed and breakfasts are full of quirky qualities like heirloom quilts and the scent of baking bread.

Not all B&Bs are created equal. It's easy to get stuck with a place where you can hear the host family quarreling through a pasteboard partition, or where the sheets haven't been changed since the last guest.

The key is research. Listen to friends' recommendations. Use the Internet to check B&B associations that review and inspect their member inns. Look for magazines -- such as Arrington Publishing's Inn Traveler Magazine and Bed and Breakfast Journal -- that celebrate excellence in innkeeping.

The four bed and breakfasts described here are all scrupulously clean, thick-walled, well-lighted places. One, to be sure, is a converted Victorian, but it's not filled with potted palms and overstuffed couches. Among the others are a Federal-period home and a very modern one.

Most have working, toast-your-tootsies fireplaces in the common rooms -- though these tend to the gas-fired variety -- and some have non-working fireplaces in bedrooms. Most serve a full, cooked breakfast; Barney House's breakfast, though continental, is nonetheless quite a spread.

By definition, B&Bs offer only one meal. Most of the B&Bs mentioned here, however, have tea, coffee and snacks available all day. Some innkeepers will offer a glass of wine to guests in the early evening in the common areas, and rooms themselves are often equipped with soft drinks or a coffeemaker.