Hotels in Virginia's Northern Neck

Stratford Hall Plantation now has guesthouses and cabins. Rates are $122 a night, including a plantation tour.

Of several bed-and-breakfasts on the Northern Neck, Back INN Time (tel. 804/435-2318; www.backinntime.biz) is between Irvington and Kilmarnock, thus convenient to Historic Christ Church and golf at the Tides Inn. Reedville has The Gables (tel. 804/453-5209; www.thegablesbb.com), a Victorian mansion built on the Main Street waterfront by a ship's captain who installed his schooner's wooden mast through the top two floors. Near Reedville, Fleeton Fields Bed & Breakfast (tel. 800/497-8215 or 804/453-5014; www.fleetonfields.com) sits beside a creek in the hamlet of Fleeton.

The closest motel to Irvington and Reedville is the Holiday Inn Express, 599 N. Main St. (Va. 3), Kilmarnock (tel. 800/465-4329 or 804/436-1500; www.holidayinn.com), which has an outdoor pool.