County hotels, eateries shine on AAA list

By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: November 15, 2008

Four Albemarle lodging and restaurant sites have extended their stays at the top of AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Four Diamond list.

The Boar’s Head Inn and Keswick Hall at Monticello both made the prestigious list of Four Diamond lodgings in the Central and Western Virginia regions for 2009, each for the eighth year, AAA Mid-Atlantic announced Friday.

Fossett’s at Keswick made the list of Four Diamond restaurants for the fifth year, and the Old Mill Room at the Boar’s Head Inn stayed on the list for its 22nd year.

Also named to the list of top lodgings were the Berkeley Hotel in Richmond, for the 20th year; the Homestead in Hot Springs, for the fifth year; the Martha Washington Inn and Spa in Abingdon, for the 11th year; the Oaks Victorian Inn in Christiansburg, for the 14th year; and Wyndham Virginia Crossing Hotel and Conference Center in Glen Allen, for the fifth year.

Other restaurants capturing Four Diamond status were 1 North Belmont in Richmond, for the fourth year, and the Dining Room at Richmond’s Berkeley Hotel, for the 14th year.

Richmond’s Jefferson Hotel is the only Five Diamond recipient in the region.

AAA assigns the ratings after annual evaluations. Its rating system is the only one that covers all of North America and one of only two to conduct physical, on-site evaluations.

AAA’s Four Diamond and Five Diamond winners make up 3 percent and 0.28 percent, respectively, of the 58,000 lodgings and restaurants receiving Diamond ratings throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

The complete list of winners can be seen at http://www.aaa.com/diamonds. Details about the properties can be seen at aaa.com.