Staying in Berea? Here are some tips from someone who...

I%26#39;ve lived in Berea all my life and have appreciated the viewpoints from this site for my vacations. Here are some simple tips for Berea. The cleanest, nicest and newest hotels in Berea are Comfort Inns and Suites and Fairmont Inn on Exit #76. Stay away from Econo Lodge and Super 8 Motels. They are old and and the Super 8 used to be the Prince Royal Inn before they smeared a little dressing on the outside. The Knights Inn is pretty old as well, but, they have redone some of it and made it fairly decent. The Holiday Motel used to be very nice...it has gotten a bit old and they cut off about half of it to accomodate the new Cracker Barrel built last year. The Holiday Inn Express on Exit#77 looks to be ok as well. The Days Inn was nice when they first built it about 1988...but it has slipped considerably. Berea is big on mountain crafts. I think they are a bit overpriced, but hey, if that is what you are into...visit ';Old Town Berea'; on Broadway Street. The town tourism center is located there in the old railroad depot building as well as a variety of craft shops and ';artisans'; nearby. A very nice craft attraction is the Log House sales room, uptown Berea. Berea College students used to provide them with all of their items years ago, but now they purchase most of them from Appalachian craftspeople or somewhere else. A dulcimer maker named Warren May has a shop on the Main Street block and they say that his shop is pretty neat to visit. Also located close by is the Appalachian Fireside Gallery on this block as well. Been a long time since I stepped in there, but they had some nice craft stuff and quilts as I remember. The Boone Tavern Inn and restaurant is on Main Street as well. A well-to-do place where the older more well off people tend to eat. I%26#39;ve eaten there twice in my life...it was common food...with an uncommon price. If you are just visting once, you may want to try it. Famous for their Spoonbread. You can find parking for these places behind the Main Street block. They have artisan fairs in Berea and the main ones are in the spring and fall..personally I%26#39;ve never been to one myself...note above comment about my appreciation of crafts, but people seem to like them when they come to visit. I would recommend traveling in from Exit #77 up 595 to Main Steet to the fairs as the other way from exit# 76 can get quite busy during the fair weekend. If you are more into antiques, downtown Berea has numerous shops along Chestnut Steet (the main drag into town) between Broadway (the entrance to Old Town)and City Hall. Make a trip west on State Road 21 (Exit#76)about one and half miles from I-75 to Todd%26#39;s Antique Mall on left. This is personally my favorite shop and Johnny Todd is a very friendly and helpful owner. This is a large antique shop with nice stuff, not junk and not new stuff like you see at most ';antique'; malls these days. Berea has Dinner Bell and Cracker Barrel restaurant which are both pretty good. The Cedar Village restaurant on Exit #77 is pretty good for home cooking and has a nice buffet...especially on weekends. Blondies Ice Cream and Marios Pizza, across from Mitch Tolles art studio (Nice art...nice prints...I have two in my home.) at the top of the hill going into Berea from Exit #76 is pretty good eating. Try the Cheeseburger platter...pizza is so-so but they have pretty good stuff on their all you can eat buffet. I%26#39;ve heard the food at the Rio Grande Mexican restaurant is pretty good, but, I%26#39;ve heard rumors of uncleanliness there. Those are just rumors, I%26#39;ve not seen it myself. WalMart is handy off the #76 Exit.

Berea is a nice town of about 12,000 people and has several interesting shops that can be pretty much covered in a weekend. Berea College and crafts are the big draw as well as a new Artisans Center that is run by the state off the Exit #77. They also have a cafe that is said to be good...but a tad high as well. I am not posting my real email addy as I don%26#39;t want to hear from the people that run the roach motels or the eateries that I wouldn%26#39;t recommend. Good luck and have a nice trip.

Staying in Berea? Here are some tips from someone who...

Hello all,

I am a TA employee, and through the nominations submitted, this thread was brought to my attention. First, many compliments on the excellent material submitted here.

Second, I just wanted to let everyone know that I took my first shot at preserving this information in a format that will allow you to link to it without always having to ';bump'; it to the top. This is with our new TripAdvisor Inside feature, where anyone can edit and update information.

The pages are here:

tripadvisor.com/Travel-g39187-s2/Berea:Kentu…

tripadvisor.com/PostReply-g39187-i3258-k5117…

To see (and edit/create) more Berea pages, go here:

tripadvisor.com/Travel-g39187-s1/…Inside.html

Again, this first pass was meant to be exactly that ... a first pass. From here, it%26#39;s up to you to update and maintain the information, and add things I missed from the thread!!! :-)

Have a great day!

Staying in Berea? Here are some tips from someone who...

Don%26#39;t forget to mention Papa Leno%26#39;s, located near Boone Tavern. Very casual and delicous food- love the manicotti! I try to eat there when in the area and highly recommend for lunch or casual dinner.

We took a side trip to Boone%26#39;s Tavern last summer after a gas stop. The hotel is very impressive on the outside and a quick stroll through the lobby confirmed it is impressive on the inside as well. If you are in the area and have a half hour or more to spare, we recommend at least stopping and looking in. There is ample free parking adjacent to the hotel/tavern. Seems like a nice college town, with lots of students walking around. Very interesting area.