Gaige House

With one foot in the old world and one foot squarely in the new, the Gaige House is a California wine country bed and breakfast unlike any you’ve ever seen. From the outside it’s a classic Victorian mansion of the sort that’s for some reason peculiar to Northern California; inside, though, it’s simple, minimalist, not just vaguely Zen but really quite identifiably Japanese in style.

Glen Ellen, by the side of the Calabasas Creek in Sonoma County, is where the Gaige House makes its home. This is one of the quieter wine country towns, and thus ideal for exactly this sort of cozy and quiet getaway. Though nominally a B&B, it’s edging up on luxury-boutique status; with twenty-three rooms it’s definitely on the small side, but offers big-resort amenities like a forty-foot pool and a full-service spa.

Rooms, too, are better equipped than your average bed and breakfast. Even the smallest have private entrances and private decks facing the pool; others have private gardens, and the new Zen suites and Spa suites are strikingly modern in style, with flat-screen televisions and massive granite soaking tubs. As for cuisine, this particular region of California is home to some of the nation’s best — breakfast, though, is handled on-site by a chef who’s worked with the likes of Gary Danko and Philip Jeanty.