Landmark Inn Gears Up For Valentine’s

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CASTROVILLE, Texas — Now that Christmas and New Year’s have come and gone and Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, it’s time to look forward to spending some quality time with that special someone in a special place.

Sweethearts and other romantics swear by Landmark Inn in Castroville, a quaint burg with an Alsatian flair just west of San Antonio. The historic site, which boasts a charming bed and breakfast inn more than 150 years old, is featuring a “deluxe romantic package” throughout the month of February.

Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, falls on a Wednesday this year, so the state-owned inn that dates from 1849, is offering the special package on any weekend of February. You’ll be pampered with breakfast in bed one morning and enjoy the serenity of antique-furnished rooms with no telephones, television sets or other distractions.

Guests booking the special package for the weekends of Feb. 10 and 17 also will receive free entry to an exhibit featuring handmade quilts from a handful of Castroville collections, according to Ken Conway, the inn’s superintendent. The quilts will be on display in the Landmark Inn’s new 800-square-foot reception/banquet hall that occupies the former location of the inn’s museum.

The package price ranges from $330 plus tax to $404 plus tax per couple. The package includes a two-night stay at the inn on the banks of the Medina River, one evening of fine French dining at La Normandie Restaurant and lunch at the Castroville Café. Guests will arrive to find in their room a fresh flower arrangement and gift basket.

Breakfast in bed will be served one morning, with the other breakfast being offered in the parlor of the riverside Vance House, one of several historic structures on the five-acre site operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Former inn owner Ruth Lawler, who once lived in the Vance House, donated the historic site to the State of Texas in 1974. Landmark Inn is only one of two TPWD properties operated as a bed and breakfast establishment. The other is located in Marshall at the Starr Mansion State Historic Site.

The Landmark Inn offers 10 heated and air-conditioned rooms, four with private baths. Six of the rooms are in the main, two-story inn, while two are in the old rock bathhouse and two others are located in the Vance House.

Ranked among the state’s Top 10 B&Bs by Texas Highways magazine readers, the Landmark Inn has been carefully restored and maintained to provide guests with an opportunity to touch Texas’ frontier past while enjoying all the modern comforts of home. The inn dates to 1849 when Swiss merchant Cesar Monod built a store on El Camino Real at the nearby Medina River crossing.

To reserve your special Valentine’s package, call the inn at (830) 931-2133 and “sleep where history was made.”

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