Key to a restful vacation is... Rest. After a day of activities, sightseeing and exploring, a good night's sleep is pivotal and often difficult for people who don't sleep as well in a bed other than their own. Hotels and other forms of accommodation have responded to this by featuring pillow-top or feather beds, and a range of comfort-oriented features. But it can be the surroundings, as much as the sleep comfort that can dictate the relaxation and rest levels of accommodations.

In recent year, the basic concept of hotels versus motels had exploded and expanded to include boutique hotels, "residence" hotels, and return to the concept of smaller inns, and the historical notion of bed-and-breakfasts, revitalized, updated and renewed.

Time was that inns and B&Bs where the only form of accommodation for travelers, and in small towns the B&B was the only place for weary travelers to spend the night. Often the man who traveled for business purposes would stay at the inn, occasionally in a shared room, and a couple or small family would select a B&B.

As in the past, the people who stay at B&Bs have a different vacationer profile than those who select inns, hotels and motels and/or individual cabins. The perception is that families prefer motels and that vacation and business individuals choose hotels, inns and B&Bs. The other perception is that B&Bs are "romantic" and tend to be frequented by couples. Are you a B&B-accommodations type?

Bed-and-breakfast accommodations are located within the home, normally of the owner, often a couple, who open their home to guests. Modern B&Bs offer private en suite bathrooms and a host of luxuries on a competitive scale with fine inns or boutique hotels, but there are intrinsic differences.

When you stay at a B&B you are, no matter that you are paying for your room, in someone's home. You may have restricted access to parts of the home, but you are to some degree exposed to the residence and the lives of the owners. This particularly suits people who spend their days on excursions or outside activities and do not reply upon their room as much more than a place to sleep or change their clothes. Also, in a B&B setting, you are more intimate with the other guests, assuming the B&B has more than one guest room (local by-laws often limit the numbers of rooms, and given the size of a house versus a hotel, four rooms is the average size of a B&B).

B&Bs work especially well for people who like to socialize, to share travel stories over breakfast, and are open to new friendships, and to those who regard themselves as "morning people"; they are not as suitable for those who prefer privacy and anonymity or are shy. Ironically, B&B accommodations are probably the least suitable choice for a romantic getaway; solitude may be hard to find, and the walls between rooms are not as heavily insulated a they would be in an inn or hotel built according to commercial buildings codes.

B&Bs are perfect for people who are curious about how others live, like the intimacy of sharing space with other like-minded travelers and enjoy a quainter atmosphere (many B&Bs are located in historical houses for the primary reason that they are larger and have sufficient space to run a multi-room B&B). B&Bs can be unique in their location and style; some are architecturally significant and others carved out of buildings created for other purposes, such as old firehalls, banks and churches.

Prices for B&B accommodations vary as widely as the types, sizes and owners of the B&Bs themselves, and while some are less expensive than hotels and motels, others are high-end and quite costly.

The great advantage is the interpersonal relationship guests develop with B&B owners; they are knowledgeable about their region, things to do and places of interest, and have excellent recommendations for the best places to eat, if they don't handle lunch and dinner service in-house.

B&Bs are very personal guest accommodations for travelers, often very quiet and yet they are more social than other types of accommodations. Most western-style countries have B&B associations and that makes it easy to check out B&B options on-line. If you crave the comforts of home when you're away, B&Bs are the place for you to rest your head when you travel.