At 660 feet, the Grand Hotel, on Mackinac Island, Michigan, has the world's longest front porch according to the property owner. With a panoramic view of the Straits of Mackinac, between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, the front porch has been the hotel's social center since it opened in 1887. The three-story porch, which features white columns and white rocking chairs, is adorned with American flags. The 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time," starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, featured the front porch. The hotel was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
The Palmer Home, a bed-and-breakfast in Charleston, South Carolina, has a white-columned, two-story porch that locals call a "piazza." Both levels of the porch are wide and furnished with wicker seating, plants and rocking chairs. Most guest rooms have direct access to the porches, which have views of Charleston Bay and Fort Sumter. The Palmer Home, built in 1848, has been in the Palmer family for three generations. Frances Palmer now owns the home, which is furnished with antiques collected by her ancestors. The house has been featured on the Travel Channel and in "Travel & Leisure."
Barclay Cottage Bed and Breakfast, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, has wraparound porches on two levels furnished with hanging ferns and rocking chairs. Pamela Lanier's Guide to Bed and Breakfast Inns gave the property an award for Best Front Porch in 2011. Parts of the white-columned porch are screened, while the rest is open. Guests will enjoy homemade cookies each afternoon on the porch, which is also a great place for relaxing, reading or playing board games. Barclay Cottage is a AAA Three Diamond property.
Hubbard Mansion, in New Orleans' Uptown district, has a two-level front porch with views over St. Charles Avenue, a prime parade route during Mardi Gras. The mansion, which functions as a bed-and-breakfast, is a replica of a historic Greek Revival house in Natchez, Mississippi. The front porch features rocking chairs where guests can watch the parades under canopies of live oaks or curl up with a book and smell the kumquat blossoms. The Hubbard Mansion, which has five guest suites and a carriage house, has been featured in the "New York Times."
