Recommendations on which town in Brandywine Valley to stay

My husband and I will be in PA in August and are planning to visit the Brandywine Valley area. Does anyone have a recommendation on which town would be good to use as a base? We plan to go to the Riverfront Blues Festival in Wilmington, but would also like to do some hiking and see cultural highlights of the area.

Recommendations on which town in Brandywine Valley to stay

Sorry that I don%26#39;t have any suggestions for you, but I%26#39;d like to hear more about Riverfront Blues Festival.

Recommendations on which town in Brandywine Valley to stay

Try motels and hotels along Rt 202 in the Fairfax or Talleyville, DE or Chadds Ford, PA areas. The hotels in the city of Wilmington are rather expensive.

Check http://www.thebrandywine.com/. There are special getaway packages that might help you decide where to stay based on the included features. There%26#39;s also a page on recreation in the area, with info on parks for hiking. Plus tons of info on the cultural attractions.

Note that except for downtown Wilmington, most of the rest of the hotels in the area are not in ';a town'; at all. They%26#39;re along highways so there%26#39;s not much else within walking distance if that%26#39;s important to you.

Thanks. I found www.thebrandywine.com yesterday after posting my inquiry here and that site has many useful listings, including an area map.

www.riverfrontbluesfest.com/schedule.html

I recommend either West Chester, PA; Chadds Ford, PA; or the Kennett Square, PA area. If you like B%26amp;B%26#39;s check out www.bvbb.com for some options. Longwood Gardens is a must; West Chester, PA is a great town with great restaurants; if you like art (and particularly Wyeth) the Brandywine River Museum should be on your itinerary. If you like to hike, Ridley Creek State Park is a few miles east of West Chester; Brandywine State Park in northern Delaware is very nice.

I may be biased, but I have lived in this area most of my life. I moved just over the Pennsylvania line from Delaware and I find the Chadds Ford/Mendenhall area to be the best central location for everything in the Brandywine Valley. Some suggestions for accomodations:

If you like hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn in Longwood, PA is very nice. As posted previously, there are some nice hotels in the rt 202 corridor in both DE and PA. The Mendenhall Inn on rt. 52 in Pennsylvania is wonderful. It is like a nice hotel and country inn combined. It is about 20 min to the Wilmington waterfront from there.

Another great place to stay is the Brandywine Valley Hotel on Rt. 1 in Chadds Ford. Nice little hotel in the heart of Chadds Ford and you can walk to some great new eateries like Hank%26#39;s place for breakfast or lunch (a very popular country diner), the Bisto on the Brandywine, and the New Brandywine Prime restaurant. Across the road is the famous Brandywine River Museum with the original paintings of Andrew Wyeth, NC Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. You can also do a canoe trip on the Brandywine.

Personally, I love B and B%26#39;s and the Fairville Inn on rt. 52 is great. Another country inn is the Inn at Montchannin in Greenville Delaware -- wonderful place! Both of these places are 20 min to the Wilm Riverfront.

If you are at the Riverfront, there are some great restaurants there and if you can catch a Wilmington Blue Rocks baseball game - even better!

Olde New Castle in Delaware is great, too! There are wonderful B and B%26#39;s there and you could just spend all of your time there. Lots of History (like a mini williamsurg)

Must do while you are here:

Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Just a spectacular place to visit with amazing gardens. Make sure you go on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday afternoon and stay for the illuminated fountain show at 9:15pm. www.longwoodgardens.org

Winterthur Museum and Gardens. Awesome original duPont Estate on rt. 52. www.winterthur.org

Lots of nice parks and hiking trails. I am not sure what to recommend since there are so many. Post again with where you plan to stay and I can help you find the best options for your %26#39;base%26#39; location and length of stay.

If music is your thing, I can let you know where the best local talent will be playing.

The Inn at Chester Springs. A+

The Inn at Chester Springs is undoubtedly lovely, but it%26#39;s 45 minutes (25 miles) from downtown Wilmington. I don%26#39;t think it%26#39;s considered to be in the Brandywine Valley. Lots of better choices mentioned above.

Hi Austin-1975

I was raised in the burbs near Philly and now live in North Wilmington. The Brandywine Valley area is gorgeous.

For hiking, check out the Woodlawn Trustees. They have beautiful hiking / biking trails along the Brandywine River in Northern Delaware. There are several areas to park (one is off Creek Rd near the intersection with Smith Bridge Rd). I drive through this area to take my son to school. Ask AAA or the BV visitors bureau for a detailed map. I will try to find the website for you. Driving through this area (around Rt. 100 and Rt 52 and Smith Bridge Rd) is spectacular. Much of it is pastural with horse farms and beautiful estates.

That is why we call this area Chateau Country. At dusk be catious of the deer! If you find yourself on Rt. 52 (Kennett Pike) in Delaware I recommend Buckley%26#39;s Tavern for lunch, dinner or Sunday brunch. It is in the cute little town of Centreville. There are several antiques shops in the area. Also in this area is the Brandwine State Park. There will be a small entrance fee. You could picnic and hike.

Places to stay in the area are the Inn at Montchanin, and the Fairville Inn as previously mentioned in another post. The Inn at Montchanin has a great restaurant name Crazy Cats. I ate there several years ago and loved it. In Wilmington proper is the Hotel DuPont. I have had friends that stayed there and loved it. I have eaten there many times over the years and it is very nice.

I second the motion on Winterthur. Lovely gardens and mansion. It is a must see in this area. You could do plenty of walking there.

Another great place to visit is the Nemours Mansion and Gardens. This is another duPont estate turned museum. It just completed a $39 million renovation.

Check out www.nemours.org. It is on the grounds off our children%26#39;s hospital and across the street from the DuPont country club.

On Delaware%26#39;s riverfront I recommend Harry%26#39;s seafood.

There are several other restaurants as well. Iron Hill Brewery has decent food and a patio which looks out on the river. There is a walkway along these restaurants which is a pleasant stroll, if it is not to hot.

Up in the PA part of the valley there a few interesting spots. The Dilworthtown Inn is a historic Inn which serves fine food. We just celebrated an anniversary there. We stayed at a B%26amp;B called Hammanasett which I can not adequately describe. They took such good care of me and my husband. A beautiful large home off of RT 1 Baltimore Pike. I would love to go back there. We stayed on a second floor room and had a guest pantry outside our room. They upgraded our room because the B%26amp;B was empty and they knew we were celebrating. It was about a twenty min. drive to Dilworthtown Inn.

In the morning we had a candlelight breakfast in a gorgeous dining room. This B%26amp;B would be a good place to explore Chadds Ford, the Chateau Country, Media,PA

and West Chester. If you have trouble finding info on the B%26amp;B send me a PM.

The %26#39;Main Line%26#39; area in the Western suburbs of Philly is also a nice place to stay/eat/shop. Towns would be Wayne, Radnor, Bryn Mawr. There are several hotels along the Rt 30 (Lancaster Pike) corridor.

Well I could go on and on. I hope you enjoy your visit to our beautiful area. Let us know how it goes!

Here are website you may find useful:

Woodlawn trustees for hiking www.woodlawntrustees.org

www.destateparks.com. Look up the Branywine Creek State park. There is info on trails.

www.Hamanasset.com for the B%26amp;B. This B%26amp;B is in Chester Heights, PA.