Five-star lodging at its best in Amish Country
Garden Gate Get-A-Way Bed & Breakfast is the perfect home away from home. Owned and operated by Carol and Herb Steffey, this bed and breakfast offers serenity both indoors in its well-appointed, garden-themed rooms and outdoors on the porch swings, patios and flower-lined walkways. Guests can unwind at a nightly campfire (weather permitting), indulge in a homemade buffet-style breakfast and get pampered with the many amenities found in five-star lodging facilities.
Guests rooms are on the garden level of this private home, where most of the year you can enjoy the birds and butterflies who are also at home here among sumptuous perennial gardens. The five guest rooms each have a private bath and outside entrance, as well as access to the Breakfast Room and Common Room.
In 2007, Garden Gate Get-A-Way B&B was named one of the top 10 B&Bs in the USA by www.bedandbreakfast.com. Carol Steffey said guests had the opportunity to rate their stay in several categories. Most guests gave the B&B the highest marks in all categories, which contributed to the overall high score. In 2008 they were named Best in the Midwest and in 2009 received a Best Value Inn in the USA award.
The Steffeys bought Garden Gate Get-A-Way B&B in 2002. The original owners dismantled a one-room schoolhouse and used the elements to add character to their home addition, creating a bed and breakfast. The bell tower from the school rests on the south peak of the roof and foundation stones created retaining walls and flower beds. Bricks from the schoolhouse fireplace were used in walking paths and steps. They used salvaged lumber, oak flooring, tongue and groove paneling, wainscoting and a chalkboard in their family living quarters. The name derived when the former owner gave his wife an old garden gate for a Christmas gift. The first guests stayed in June 1996.
All guest rooms, from standard to Jacuzzi, feature luxury linens. “Simple things make a difference,” Carol stated. “We order the better soaps and shampoos in a wildflower scent and supply our guests with generous-sized bath towels and high thread count sheets. We also put complimentary bottled water in our guest rooms and Coblentz Chocolates by their bedside.”
At Garden Gate, there are always home-baked items for breakfast. “Whenever I can, I try to offer local foods to our guests. Chocolates on the pillow come from Holmes County’s Coblentz Chocolate factory. We also have locally-made cereals, jams and jellies, and cheeses. If you treat people the way you want to be treated, people are thrilled,” she said.
This B&B has many repeat guests and “regulars,” who consider Garden Gate Get-A-Way B&B their home away from home. In fact, last year, one family from Gahanna came back 12 times, bringing friends and relatives for many stays.
Carol Steffey’s creative ideas continually bring new opportunities for people who return. For instance, each month she makes unique packages available to give guests special options for experiencing local culture. She has several driving tours that offer exact routes to lovely back-road scenery, stops at Amish businesses, and an optional meal in an Amish home. One package offers a 12-hour progressive meal with courses served in different Amish homes and a stop at the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center.
She usually offers Murder Mystery packages about once a month throughout the year. Guests enjoy a themed dinner, extras like wine and chocolate, and the fun of getting to know their fellow guest “characters” while they solve a crime. Wine tasting dinner tour weekends are another popular package, especially the designated driver.
A great believer in the power of pampering, Carol likes to set the stage for wine tours, Mother’s Day gifts and Valentine packages. Several new guests discovered Garden Gate when one of her Valentine’s Day packages was featured in Midwest Living Magazine. Carol works with a local spa to provide guests with a variety of services for individuals, couples or a group. These can be provided in certain guest rooms or in the second story veranda that overlooks the wishing well fountain and flower gardens.
Garden Gate Get-A-Way Bed & Breakfast is located at 6041 TR 310, Millersburg, at the corner of TR 353. For more information, phone 330-674-7608, e-mail info@garden-gate.com or visit www.garden-gate.com.
