December 23, 2009 Wilfred Joseph

Romantic Getaways on the North Fork of Long Island are awesome at any time of year.  Enjoy a little romance around the Holidays and reserve a special getaway package from the Arbor View House Bed and Breakfast.  This would even make a wonderful gift for someone special!  Let us tell you more.
Reserve our Romantic Holiday Magic package and get ready to be pampered!   A welcome basket awaits you upon arrival, chock full of chocolate truffles, assorted nuts, cheese, crackers, and Champagne.  Slip into the fluffy bathrobes and slippers and relax in front of the fireplace or in your private Jacuzzi.  During your stay, you will each also enjoy a sixty minute massage and a luxurious Aromatherapy Bath.  During the day, visit our local North Fork Award Winning Wineries and take advantage of discounts provided by the Arbor View House Bed and Breakfast.  As the evening hour approaches, enjoy a romantic dinner at one of local restaurants, as a gift certificate of $100 is included within this special getaway package.

Romantic Getaways: North Fork Long Island

Sadly, the getaway will come to an end but you will always remember the memorable breakfasts and moments shared during your romantic getaway.  This is sure to become part of your Holiday celebrations!



December 17, 2009 Wilfred Joseph

TripAdvisor says that the Arbor View Bed and Breakfast is #1 of 5 inns in East Marion
They also list us as #1 out of 75 Long Island Bed and Breakfasts!  Little old  Arbor View Bed and Breakfast. How did we get to be #1 on TripAdvisor?  Our loyal guests and we would like to say thank you for sharing your experience with others.  
We currently have had 83 reviews.  29% of the reviews came during 2009 and 98% of the reviews gave us a thumbs up with a 5.0 rating!  We are deeply flattered, and we want to again thank our guests for sharing their comments on their stay at the Arbor View Bed and Breakfast.  Among the comments, we hear raves about our breakfast.  Breakfast is the most important thing that an Innkeeper can do as it is the last experience a guest has at the Inn before they leave.  Our breakfast is relaxed and can last as long as 2 hours!  A relaxing breakfast is a wonderful way for our guests to unwind and enjoy their getaway. 
Other comments include our hospitality, quality of our beds, knowledge of the area, and making each and every one of guests feel welcomed.  This to us is just what owning a Bed and Breakfast and being an innkeeper is all about.
Here are some of what our guest are saying:

The breakfasts and the conversations were superb.
“We have just returned from a three day weekend at the Arbor View House Bed & Breakfast Spa. The Room we stayed in the Zinfandel Room is well laid out with a four-poster bed that reminds me one my grandmother had with a ladder to get up to it. We had some many bouquets of flowers all over even in the bathroom. My wife and I travel all over the country and we try to stay at B&Bs whenever we can and find one, this is one of the nicest and cleanest ones we have stayed in. It has all of the amenities of a four star hotel, plush robes and slippers and even an flat screen LCD TV with a DVD player.
The breakfasts were a treat, each day a surprise. One day we had champagne for someone’s birthday. There was no shortage of food at any time, most day we skipped lunch. We loved that they used fresh herbs and spices and served fresh fruit everyday. On our arrival they served tea and scones, scones to die for.
We have never been to Long Island wine country before and visited several wineries and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. The wine was good but not world class yet. There are some up and comers.
The hosts at the Arbor View house were charming as we expected from B&B hosts. What we didn’t expect was the lively conversation that lasted hours after breakfast was finished. We all talked about wine , food, and all the solutions to the world problems. It was reminiscent of my old college days. It was fun.
We did not take advantage of all the Spa services but had two massages on our second and third days. They were just what the doctor ordered.”
 

In 2005 and 2006 and hope and plan to again in 2007
“Christmas 2004 our daughter presented us with a gift to Arbor View B &B. We went May 2005. Pleasant drive from Nassau county, not to long to get there, all is well. Well, all got better! What a beautiful, immaculate house it is. The best of all is to have met Vida and Wilfred. We had a delicious banquet style breakfast. The physical need of nourishment, by candlelight was outstanding, but the conversation, the joy and laughter we shared with them nourished our heart and soul. We came home gave our daughter and family a big hug and thanks. Told them it was the best gift to have received and how thankful we were. Christmas 2005 we were surprised again with the same. WOW!!! We had hoped to go during the summer, unfortunately Joe was set back with health issues and it wasn’t until October that we were able to get there. We arrived to a big hug and welcome by Wilfred. We missed Vida who was away taking care of her father at the time. We hope he is doing well. Wilfred is a wonderful person to have a conversation with. No matter what the topic; health, the woes of the world, anything at all. He is very knowledgeable on many subjects, a great listener and conversation flows easily. We missed Vida and hope to see both Vida and Wilfred next time. Carmen And Joe”

We are always happy to hear that we are living up to guest’s expectations!



October 28, 2009 Wilfred Joseph

FALL ON THE NORTH FORK

Its fall the leaves are changing slowly because the weather is so wet.  It has been raining for what seems like every other day.  Its causing the winemakers a lot of pain  At this time of year what they want is SUN, sun for ripening the grapes.  So at this point they are praying and hoping.
The farm stands are busy selling their harvest:  apples, pears and  pumpkins and many have corn mazes.
The day-trippers are out in full force and Route 48 has become slower than usual.  Not to worry, this  is all winding down now that November is here.

LONG ISLAND RESTAURANT WEEK

This week is Restaurant Week( November 1st  –  November 8th) on the North Fork.  A reminder that on Saturday you can enjoy the advantages of Restaurant Week after 7pm. You can get more info here  http://longislandrestaurantweek.com/

NFBBA HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR

The North Fork Bed & Breakfast Association is having their annual Holiday House Tour on December 5th, 2009.  There are nine B&Bs chosen to be part of the tour.  They are divided into two groups, the Champagne Tour and the Merlot Tour and the prices will be $75  and $25 respectively.  The irony here is that Arbor View House whose rooms the tour groups are named after was chosen to be on the Merlot Tour.  No mind next year we will be on the Champagne Tour and visitors will see the suite the tour is named after.  Full details can be found  at the Arbor View House website.



September 30, 2009 Wilfred Joseph

BLOG OR DIE!!!
To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question.  This is why we have created this New North Fork Wine Country Blog.  Whether it is better to get lost and left behind as a Luddite and suffer the thought that you are growing old and losing touch with your youth or to go to the computer and write and share and join forces with the youthful masses.  And, by opposing, do nothing.  Therefore to turn old, to be disconnected, to be left back in the 20th century, to be dead is not my choice.

I like life, so therefore I blog.

As you can see, I am attempting to paraphrase Shakespeare (and trying to be funny, too)  to explain the difficulty that I have been experiencing these last few months since I recognized that I was going to write a blog.  And as I am no Shakespeare, I will not bore you with any more prose like that and proceed with my Blog.

FOUR REASONS TO BLOG
Blogging is all the rage now for businesses.  Business people now get to share their experiences with those interested and willing to read.  As I understand it, there are three main reasons to blog.

  1. To Brag about your products, services, and events (Veda’s delicious date nut bread and excellent breakfasts)
  2. To share your personal stories and experiences (The joys of maintaining a 200-year-old house) that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places)
  3. To drive people to your website and grow your business ( I like this one)
  4. Search engines love it because the content is fresh and more accessible to update than a website

WHAT TO EXPECT

I have a lot that I want to share with you.  Therefore I am excited to announce to our fans that we will be sharing things about the B&B, The North Fork, the wineries, and my thoughts with you, our fans, clients, and others.  I am very excited, as in every new project, I must temper my enthusiasm with common sense and not overwhelm you.

The Greenport Carousel
This antique carousel was donated to the town of Greenport by the Grumman Corporation.

 

OUR TENTH ANNIVERSARY
Arbor View House Bed & Breakfast is celebrating our 10th year in business.  We started our B&B in Late August 1999.  We really thought that we knew what we were doing.  In that time, we have seen so many things change, new additions and upgrades to the B&B, 9/11, two wars, two new grandchildren, a black president, additional B&Bs in the area, and many new wineries, among other things.  One thing that has remained constant is our love of what we do being Innkeepers.  Veda and I love what we do and love our guests.
We get tremendous pleasure from providing service and seeing the pleasure they derive from it.  We would be unable to do it all without guests, supporters, friends, relatives, and suppliers.  This has been a blast, and we are looking forward to having fun on the roller coaster.
We started out by saying that we would get the best guests, and we have, and that we would do two things exceptionally well, BED and BREAKFAST, and we've managed to do just that.
NORTH FORK WINE COUNTRY

To remind you and me, we live in a beautiful piece of Nature’s handiwork called Long Island’s East End.  Specifically, here on the North Fork, as opposed to the Hamptons, we experience the bucolic Nature of the area.  Here we have wineries, vineyards, farms, pristine beaches, hiking trails, preserves, ponds, fishing, and, best of all, “the light.” Painters often describe light as a source of light that makes things luminous.  In addition, the weather is so much different and milder than in New York City.  Check out our rooms and visit us sometime soon.



September 15, 2009 Wilfred Joseph

Arbor View House North Fork Long Island Bed and Breakfast Blog

I am new to WordPress.  This is my first blog post.  I knew I had to write a blog; Google says that content is essential and new content is king.  Every website needs to have fresh content regularly and consistently.  I started writing thin May and completed it in September 2009.
Things I might blog about:

  • The Art of “Doing Nothing.”

This is writing about the technique of clearing the mind while doing something or nothing.  It is the philosophical and spiritual discussion about the ability to do nothing.