Crane Creek is the only place for me in Florida! This is the 4th or 5th time I have stayed and I think the Inn is beautiful - a home from home. The rooms are as clean and fresh as the first time we visited and the Inn got hit by hurricanes twice in one year! So hats off to Bob for keeping the standards up - the welcome is warm and the food and accomodations great. The beach is within 5 minutes and has protected areas for turtles, we also saw manatees and dolphins in the Creek outside the Inn this visit and the blue heron was sitting on the nest next door and just hatching her eggs, I could watch the world go by from the deck for hours - yes there is a train but it is not intrusive in fact I don't hear it anymore! Can't wait for my next visit....

I travel frequently, both for work and pleasure. I have no real desire to 'earn' points and privileges by staying at standard, cookie-cutter hotel chains. Frankly, these standard type hotels have given me more problems than I can remember.

Therefore, I actively seek out privately owned and operated establishments. Yes, the price can be higher. But, I've found the pride of ownership and the personal touch is so much more rewarding. I work long hours and expect both respect for my privacy and serenity when relaxing in the evening.

I have recommended the Crane Creek Inn many times to my friends and work associates. I feel quite at peace and welcome everytime I walk thru the front door. Sure, there is a train passing often, but I was raised in the country...to me..it's music to my ears. Reminds me of my boyhood home in Pennsylvania. If you want a quiet, conveniently located, respectfully private and charming get-away, then make a reservation at the Inn, you will be glad you did.

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The Crane Creek Inn has the understated and unpretentious charm that I associated with my stay in Key West: simple, attractive decor; great view of Crane Creek several yards away; privacy; and plenty of porches and terraces to soak in the southern atmosphere. Breakfast was plentiful and the Inn keeper was gracious about serving us early to accomodate our meeting schedule. A short walk to the many restaurants, bars, and stores in slightly artsy Melbourne.

We stayed at this inn for three nights. The positives are that the inn is attractive and the room we stayed was comfortable. Also, Bob the host was friendly and pleasant (we never saw or met Gillian).

However, there were a number of things that could have been better.

As mentioned by several other reviewers, there are train tracks that are only a few hundred yards away from the inn. On our first night, the trains ran through the night, sounding their horns as they went through downtown Melbourne, waking us repeatedly. Unless you are a heavy sleeper, you will need to have earplugs or be lucky with the train schedule. We bought earplugs at a local pharmacy and slept well the next two nights.

The breakfasts were okay, but not great. We have stayed at many B&Bs in Canada and the United States, and would rate the food at the Crane Creek Inn as below-average. A hot breakfast is provided only on weekends. Our experience at other B&Bs is that breakfast is cooked for you when you sit down (e.g., eggs & bacon, pancakes, waffles), but in this case we were served casserole-type dishes that were left on a hot-plate in the morning. Given the cost of a night's stay ($169 per night), we expected more.

Finally, some of the amenities that are promised on the website are not what they seem. There is no longer a pedal-boat and the canoe is full of leaves and cobwebs, and looks like it hasn't been used in a long time. Access to the creek was one of the draws of this inn for us. The pool, which was another one of the features that influenced our choice of this inn, wasn't clean, again with leaves and a dead crab (!) on the bottom.

My main feedback is that the inn has a lot of potential, but the owners need to be proactive in dealing with these problems. They could warn guests about the nearby train tracks and/or provide earplugs, make more of an effort at breakfast, and show some initiative when guests drop hints about the state of the canoe or the pool.

Our feeling was that Bob was "phoning it in" in terms of his efforts during our stay. I don't think we are being unreasonable or too demanding (esp. about being upfront regarding the train tracks & the state of the amenities).