We're located in the southwestern corner of Massachusetts, a scant three hours by car from New York City or Boston. The area offers visitors a remarkable variety of experiences.

First, the beauty of all four seasons:

Summer is famous for Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow, lots of theatre, good weather, and a multitude of cultural events. Autumn, known as "the Leaf Season,' has foliage displays famous the world around, clear, crisp, and spectacular. Winter, we have skiing, downhill and cross-country... every holiday scene ever pictured with snow on a greeting card. Spring is the best of all. In spring, the foliage returns muted, the lawns bright green. Our gardens explode with color. Whatever the season, you'll be here at the right time.

What will you choose to do? Do you want to prospect for antiques? Shop "Antiques Alley" through Sheffield and South Egremont! Botanize? Bartholomew's Cobble, or the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Go hiking? Explore the Appalachian Trail, walk Monument Mountain, the Ice Glen, Bash Bish Falls, or enjoy our numerous State Forests. Bicycling? Our quiet back roads are described in detail in several cycling guides. Skiing? Butternut is famous for its family ski school programs and Catamount's vertical drop is one of the most challenging . Great Cross Country Trails are in abundance. Canoe on the Housatonic, swim or fish the Green River. Is it history you want? The new Norman Rockwell Museum and the Hancock Shaker Village. Art? or Crafts? We have auction galleries with sales year 'round, and dozens of craft shops and potteries. Hidden "treasures" include the Clark, Crane, Chesterwood, and Berkshire Museums.

Every one of our towns has its own particular flavor, its own wonderful collection of traditions, architectural period pieces, 17th and 18th century history, its own Indian and pre-Revolutionary sites, "local characters" and rural identity.

For instance, Great Barrington, the market center for the region, was the location of the American colonists' first armed protest against the British Parliament, in 1774, the year before the battles of the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of the American Revolution. Where will you choose to stay?

Whether it's a Country Inn, a Bed & Breakfast, a "Guest House" or a Motel, our Southern Berkshires offer you first rate, attentively-operated lodgings, giving you value and variety. Whether you want the bustle of nearby village activity, the gentle whisper of pines, the murmur of a brook, or rural isolation amid a panorama of hills, the proprietors of these Southern Berkshire Lodgings will unfailingly provide you with friendly advice and "inside" information.

And: Where will you choose to eat? Remember that this area is known as 'The Dining capital of the Berkshires!' We can proudly claim the greatest selection of excellent and diverse restaurants to be discovered anywhere in our beautiful Berkshires. Many will happily pack picnic lunches for you.

So, plan to stay with us. Use a Southern Berkshire lodging as home base. Explore from here all of Berkshire County's myriad enchantments.