Each year Trip Advisor selects Travelers’ Choice Award winners in a number of different hospitality areas and destinations. Trip Advisor has become the most prestigious travel website offering travelers an honest, unbiased look into the potential destinations they may want to visit with reviews posted by you, the traveler or guest. Well, because of you, we could not be more proud to announce that the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast was selected by this prestigious organization as the #1 Bed and Breakfast in the United States for 2012!!!

We were, and still are, in absolute shock, and cannot thank all of you who felt your experience at our Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast was worth sharing with others.  It means the world to us that you not only had a wonderful and memorable experience at our Bed and Breakfast, which is our ultimate goal for you when you walk through our doors, but that you felt others should know about it!

We are also deeply proud to represent our stunning port city of Duluth, but also the Bed and Breakfast industry in general.  Bed and Breakfast’s across the country are still fighting many unfair stereotypes, and we are continually striving to “de-bunk” those stereotypes by providing guests at the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast with wonderfully comfortable modern amenities, while still providing the warmth, comfort, genuine hospitality, and privacy of a historic home that guests are looking for when choosing a Bed and Breakfast.  

This #1 ranking also placed us as the #11 Bed and Breakfast in the World!!  We are deeply grateful, and also very proud to represent not only the Bed and Breakfast industry, but our gorgeous port city of Duluth!!!

If you haven’t had a chance to share your experience yet, you can just click on this Trip Advisor review link and share your wonderful experience at our Duluth Bed and Breakfast with others!

Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL!!!

We wanted to share some of our garden photos with you on this quick post to give you an idea of what is in bloom. The lilacs have ended, but the peonies are in full bloom with the hydrangeas not far behind.  And the many, many annuals that we have planted and potted are absolutely stunning on the grand veranda.  The perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee as the sun rises, or a glass of wine while the sun sets!

We are very excited to have been asked to be one of the gardens on 2011 Garden Tour put on by WDSE/WRPT local PBS station.  We will be enjoying avid gardeners as they tour the grounds on July 17th. We hope to share with you some of the video that will be taken of the grounds and gardens while they visit.

A great summer continues at the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast, we will continue to share our gardens as they progress on our Facebook page, so be sure to sign up to “Like” us and join the over 1300 that already have.  And we hope to see you on your next visit to Duluth!

Enjoy this little photo tour and then catch more photos on our Facebook page…

We have enjoyed an unusually busy year so far at our Duluth Bed and Breakfast.  If the first quarter of 2011 is any indication of how the rest of the year will be, we better hold on tight!  We are deeply grateful to all of our guests, past and future, for choosing to spend their valuable time and resources with us.  We are excited to see many of you again, and look forward to making new friends!

We have managed to complete some projects we had planned; here is a quick update!  Painting has been the project of the year so far with the grand entry way of the Inn getting a beautiful new color on its walls; a welcoming and warm Benjamin Moore “Mineral Alloy.”  The dining room also has been updated, along with the Salyards Room.  The entry way of the Carriage House has a new trim and wall color, and the North Shore Retreat is now complete with new trim and wall paint.  Good thing Tim’s a very, very good painter!!

You can follow all of our projects, and get updates and photos by “Liking” us on Facebook and following us on Twitter too!  We hope to complete a few more projects before the whirlwind of the season begins.  We are very excited about some outdoor additions and changes we will be making once the weather allows!  Keep posted!

We were incredibly excited to learn we were chosen for several prestigious awards and recognitions in 2011.  We are grateful and humbled by the recognition, and know that we could not have accomplished what we have without the support of our wonderful guests, friends, family and colleagues!  We love Duluth, and are very much aware of how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful destination area that allows us to share our home with you!

Here is a brief update of what your support has helped us realize this year:

• LanierBB.com awarded the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast with the “Best Amenities” honor
• iLoveInns.com selected the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast as a “Top Ten Romantic Inn in North America”
• Duluth~Superior Magazine’s “Best of” poll for 2011 awarded the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast in five categories: “Best Bed and Breakfast” (second year in a row), “Best Amenities”, “Best Romantic Getaway”, “Best In-Room Dining” (second year in a row),  and “Best Hotel Rooms” (second year in a row).  And we came in second place for “Best Hotel.”  Wow!  We thank you all for taking the time to vote for us.  We were told that over 700 votes came in for the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast! Simply amazing!
• Midwest Living magazine puts out a Travel Guide each year and the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast was named a “Best of the Midwest” in their 2011 issue.  We are the only Bed and Breakfast in our North Shore region to receive this honor.  

We will continue to keep you updated via our Blog, Facebook, and Twitter so be sure to bookmark these pages. You can also become a subscriber to our You Tube channel, and check out our Flickr page.  And don’t forget, to become a subscriber to our quarterly newsletter too!

Happy Spring to all of you!

One of the biggest and most anticipated events taking place this summer is the Tall Ships Challenge scheduled to begin on July 28th through August 2nd. A fleet of eight international vessels will sail into Duluth’s port, one of only six cities chosen in the US and Canada, and the only Lake Superior port! It’s a rare chance to catch a glimpse, step aboard, and even set sail on some of the grandest ships of yore. The festival grounds open Thursday, July 29 with sounds and sensations ranging from a pirate school for kids to four days of performances of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, a musical presented by the UMD School of Fine Arts.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating ships included in the fleet is the Freedom Schooner Amistad. It is the official flagship and tall ship ambassador of Connecticut, and more notably, holds historical significance as one of the ships used in the trading of slaves. The Amistad made history in 1839, when slaves aboard the ship revolted to secure their freedom while being transported from one Cuban port to another. The current mission of the Amistad is to provide visitors an intense and direct reexamination of the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade and its legacy found throughout the nations of the Atlantic Basin.

Of course, while you are visiting this great city, the A. G. Thomson House Bed and Breakfast should be your choice to stay!  We have spent our quiet season continually working on our Inn, improving and increasing our amenities, and looking forward to each guest that walks through our doors!  This year we were named the Best Bed and Breakfast in the area, along with the Best Hotel Rooms and Best In room Dining by Duluth~Superior Magazine – an honor we are very appreciative and proud!

So as you plan your summer vacation; or short getaways this season, be sure to put Duluth and the A.G. Thomson House on your schedule. You will be surrounded by superior natural beauty while taking in some spectacular events and activities along the North Shore. Mark your calendar for the Tall Ships right away and give us a call to book your room!  In 2008, the entire city sold out as soon as news hit the major newspapers!

Join us at the A.G. Thomson House Bed and Breakfast; we look forward to seeing you this summer in spectacular Duluth, Minnesota!!

The categories we were named and recognized as the “Best of” are: 

1) Best Bed and Breakfast

2) Best Hotel Rooms

3) Best Hotel In-Room Dining

The April issue of Duluth~Superior Magazine hits newsstands by March 31^st, and will be online by April 1^st.

We are grateful to all of you who voted for our Inn!  We are proud and humbled with an invigorated sense of purpose – to continue to exceed our guests’ expectations each time they choose our Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast to spend their valuable time and resources.

We have worked very hard to bring back the beauty of this incredible home and the reputation of the Inn as well as the genuine hospitality that our guests deserve each time they step through our doors!  And we thank you for acknowledging our passion and desire to be the best Innkeepers we possibly can – because we believe you deserve it! Thank you, thank you!