The Inn Side · The Churchville Inn

Five Places Our Neighbors Told Us to Visit This Fall

You named them in our comments, and we have gathered the best of them here, from the oldest town in Bucks County to an orchard that sells its own cider.

An orchard at golden hour

Every few weeks someone leaves a comment on our Facebook page or under a Community Table post that begins with the words “you should also go to,” and the places that follow are almost always the ones we would have named ourselves. This past month we took your suggestions seriously and went looking, and what follows is a short list of five, chosen because the season suits them.

When the afternoon is over and you want somewhere to sit down, our private event rooms are open to book.

One · Bristol Borough

The oldest town in Bucks County

Bristol was founded in 1681 and still lives by the Delaware, with a waterfront lined with monuments, a Mill Street of shops, restaurants, and distilleries, and Victorian mansions on Radcliffe Street. Historic Bristol Day marked its fiftieth year in October, and the season carries on in a quieter key. The Grundy Museum offers free house tours Tuesday through Sunday by registration, and the Spirits on Mill ghost walks run through November 19.

Read the full story on Bristol Borough →

Two · Solebury Orchards

Apples, applesauce, and cider

On Creamery Road outside New Hope, Solebury Orchards grows apples, peaches, and blueberries and runs a market known for its applesauce and cider. It is open Thursday through Sunday from nine to five in November and December. Pick-your-own has finished for this season, so what draws you now is the market itself, and the pick-your-own page is where next year’s picking dates will appear.

Read the full story on Solebury Orchards →

Three · Fonthill Castle and the Mercer Museum

Two castles in Doylestown

The Mercer Museum is a six-story concrete castle holding more than forty thousand everyday tools and artifacts from early America. A short drive away, Fonthill Castle was Henry Mercer’s own home, built between 1908 and 1912, with forty-four rooms, eighteen fireplaces, and walls covered in his handmade tiles. Both are open Tuesday through Sunday from ten to five, and Fonthill is by guided tour only. The castle closes November 9 through 13 to prepare for Holidays at Fonthill Castle, which opens November 14.

Read about Fonthill Castle →  ·  Read about the Mercer Museum →

Four · Pennsbury Manor

William Penn’s country estate

In Morrisville, Pennsbury Manor is a reconstruction of William Penn’s country estate on forty-three acres along the Delaware. Guided tours run Wednesday through Sunday, and Holly Nights marks its fiftieth anniversary on December 3 and 4, from six to nine, with bonfires, carolers, and candlelit tours of the Manor House. The manor’s own hours page is the one to check.

Read the full story on Pennsbury Manor →

Five · Byers’ Choice

A Christmas tradition made by hand in Chalfont

This last one is ours rather than yours. In the late 1960s, Joyce Byers sculpted her first Caroler figures on the family’s dining room table in Chalfont, and by 1978 the garage had become a workshop. Around forty artisans still sculpt, paint, and dress every Caroler by hand. The Visitor Center is best early in the week, when you can watch the production floor from the gallery above, and inside there is a cobblestone street out of Dickens’ London and more than two hundred nativities. Now that November is here, the doors are open seven days a week.

Read the full story on Byers’ Choice →

We point our guests toward these places the way neighbors do, because we have enjoyed an afternoon at each of them and we would like you to have the same. If there is a place we have missed, leave it in the comments on Facebook, and we will do our best to visit it next.

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