There are B&B's where the innkeeper's touch is effective, but light--you see the effects of the work and care, but the people remain largely behind-the-scenes and the overall picture is a polished one. There are others in which you feel like you're not so much a guest at an inn, but a visitor to someone else's home (and participant--sometimes involuntarily--in the rituals and habits of the family who live there). The Londonderry Inn is the second kind.

The room was fairly spacious, the attached private bathroom was huge and well stocked with nice toiletries and cushy towels, and the breakfast was tasty and filling.

We felt a bit claustrophobic, however. The Inn is not right in Belfast proper, but sitting amid farmland along a busy thoroughfare leading into town. We would have preferred a location that allowed more access to the cute downtown, or at the very least one that was less prone to road noise. (Our mistake, not the Inn's, but don't book this property if you're hoping to have walking access to Belfast...or to anywhere.)

A night at this inn felt like a stay with eccentric relatives. The Inn itself is large, but felt somewhat mazelike and closed-in on itself. The weather was muggy (it was the end of July, and rainy), and while the room's window a/c blocked out some of the highway noise, it was itself too loud to sleep to. Furnishings were kitschy and a bit much...that sort of describes our overall experience.

Breakfast was served AT a specific time (other B&B's we've stayed at had a set range, and you come when you're ready) at a communal table in the kitchen alongside the family, and it came one course at a time. The family cats roamed the house, and someone came by to knock half an hour BEFORE check-out time to make sure we were leaving (apparently people occasionally lumber upstairs after breakfast and fall back asleep?)

I realize now that I value privacy and flexibility along with hospitality--in short, I prefer the first kind of B&B, where it seems like the house is perhaps kept by elves. This stay was not a bad experience--in fact, I would recommend it heartily to someone who has awhile to unwind and likes to feel like they've joined someone else's family for that time. It just wasn't what we were looking for.