at The Inn at Occidental

Reviews
Marin Independent Journal
September 20, 2001
It is simply amazing how managing partners Daniel Shapiro, a jazz keyboardist, and Lisa Holt, who has experience in hotel design, ever envisioned such a transformation. They stripped the place practically to its foundations and went to work. Holt and San Francisco designer Paul Davis furnished the rooms in understated fashion, painting most walls a light mossy green, and adding such accessories as palms, pineapples, rattan and other semi-tropical woods. Private decks offer river views and bird-watching opportunities.

Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report
The Inn at Occidental Nestled on a redwood-studded hillside above the historic village of Occidental (an hour north of San Francisco), this photogenic bed-and-breakfast offers an engaging base for touring the Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley wineries. An English- style walled courtyard garden and relaxing wicker- spiffed verandah provide entrance to the Victorian residence, artfully hewn from a homestead originally built in the late 1800's.

Traveler Holiday
May 2000
An hour's drive north from the buzz of San Francisco lies the I.. at Occide.t:al, a restored 1877 Victorian homestead set among the red- woods and rolling hills of the Sonoma Valley. Perched on a tree-shaded hillside in the town of Occidental, the inn has 18 inviting, antiques-filled rooms outfitted with fireplaces and beds dressed in crisp white linens and cloudlike down comforters. Although visitors may not want to stray far from the inn's breezy veranda or sunny cottage garden, they can explore the trails in nearby Armstrong Redwoods Reserve or soar above the area's farmland in a hot-air balloon.

San Francisco Magazine
September 20, 2001
Last year, Lisa Holt and David Shapiro bought the Country Garden Inn, a frilly pink and blue confection at the foot of the Silverado trail, and went at it full bore with sanders, blasters, and strippers. A half=dozen layers of wallpaper and paint later, a charming, stylish hotel in a palette of olive, putty, and white on white emerged.