Holiday in Town

The Governor's inn (Photo By Romina Derra)

The Governor's Inn

When you think West Campus, you may think of unwashed hipsters and ponytailed sorority girls sharing the same loud, littered apartment complex. You may think three-legged couches, spilling their foam guts onto the lawn. You may think cases of Milwaukee's Best and skull-shaped bongs. For our purposes, you can scrap all that. Instead, think silver trays of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies placed on crocheted doilies. Think slow evenings spent on the porch swing, mornings soaking in a clawfoot tub, and in-between, retiring to an antique four-poster bed draped in spools of floral fabric. No, it's not your grandparents' house -- it's the Governor's Inn. This bed & breakfast, with its ornate, creamy-yellow façade, gives an injection of good old-fashioned taste to the vast Urban Outfitters jungle that surrounds it. With 10 rooms, all named for former Texas governors, the elegant home is ideal for guests who like their B&Bs intimate -- but not too intimate. Although the serve-yourself breakfast of quiche and croissants and fresh fruit is just as good as grandma used to make, you can read the paper or head to the porch without worrying whether or not you cleaned your plate. The location also places guests in proximity to downtown, the Capitol, and -- of course -- the university. At various times an office building, a student co-op, and even a frat house, the Governor's Inn, now under the ownership of Lisa Wiedemann, has been voted Best Bed & Breakfast in the Chronicle's "Best of Austin" poll for three years running, proving once and for all that West Campus hosts more than great keggers.

$59-119