About our Eco-Friendly California Wine Country Inn

Lucinda (“Cindy”) & Daryl Sullivan designed and built Lucinda’s Country Inn to be an eco-friendly bed and breakfast with green lodging practices. In doing so, we hope to reduce our Inn’s footprint on the environment around us and help keep our little corner of California a beautiful spot for our guests, their children, and their children’s children.

The building was constructed using engineered wood in many places. (Engineered wood means lots of pieces & chips of wood were glued and pressed into the dimensions needed.) ChoiceDeck is a recycled plastic-wood product used for our deck floors; James Hardie cement fiber siding, CertainTeed cement fiber trim board, solar panels, Takaghi Tankless Water System, and the Pex Tubing water distribution system are sustainable products used in the construction and are extremely efficient in energy consumption.

Everything here at the Inn is recycled: paper, cans, cardboard, glass, plastic bottles & bags, the food scraps go into the compost piles. We even recycle our guests: see our Friends of Lucinda’s page for the details of how you too can be used over and over as our guests.

Lucinda’s Country Inn is bathed with daffodil-colored ceilings and mustard walls for a warm, comfortable feeling. A large fireplace in the Great Room keeps the Inn cozy on cool nights. Our breakfast buffet bar in the dining room is warmed by the wood-burning stove. The pine floor was milled from the Ponderosa Pines cut while clearing the building site. We have front and rear decks to enjoy your morning coffee or a glass of wine. While idling away your stay, gaze at the 125 year-old heritage oak tree from almost everywhere in the bed and breakfast.

High Speed, Large Bandwidth Wi-Fi is available everywhere on the property. You can do movies, books, or even watch your favorite Netflix, Amazon and Hulu programs.

There are lots of great photos of Lucinda’s Country Inn in this website. Please take a few moments to enjoy them, but if you want to look at Lucinda’s in a unique way through a virtual tour just click here. Turn your sound up to enjoy the music while you watch Lucinda’s Country Inn in this virtual tour.

 Awards for Lucinda’s

Luxury Travel Guide once again recognizes Lucinda’s, this time with the honor of Luxury Romantic Retreat of 2018

HotelsCombined has recognized Lucinda’s with their 2018 Recognition of Excellence with a 10.0 out of 10 rating by Guests from all scources across the internet.

Most Relaxing Country Inn – El Dorado County *** Best Upscale Bed & Breakfast – Amador County *** LUX Recommended Wine Country Getaway – Amador County

We have just been named these by Luxury Magazine and Travel Guides. The premier publication for luxury travel for those who seek the best of the best establishments in first class hospitality around the world. That’s right, Lucinda’s has just been named among the best in the world.

GoHotels.com has recognized Lucinda’s for Excellent Service with their 2017 Outstanding Service Award.

Lucinda’s Country Inn has been recognized by the US Commerce Association as the “Best of Somerset” in their Bed and Breakfast category four consecutive years in a row (2011, 2012, 2013, & 2014). And in 2015 inducted into their “Best of Hall of Fame” This is followed with the 2016, 2017 & 2018.

A Diamond Collection B&B designation means Lucinda’s Country Inn is one of about 400 high quality, upscale place in the country that have been inspected and evaluated for quality, service and guests reviews. This distinction by the largest B&B online hospitality directory for B&B’s is the most coveted award in the B&B industry.

The Innkeepers:

The Sullivan’s grew up on the north side of Sacramento, where they graduated from high school together. They raised their son and daughter in Elk Grove, 15 minutes south of Sacramento, back when it was not a city and had only one four way stop with a flashing red light.

After their kids left to be on their own, Cindy was offered a great job opportunity with the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California. There she worked in the technology advancement office in the alternative fuels incentives program. She managed many programs that provided funds for local agencies and businesses to integrate alternative fuels into their fleets; methanol, ethanol, natural gas, propane and the soon to be viable hydrogen fuel cell. She was instrumental in writing procedures for the statewide Carl Moyer Program that provides ongoing funding to replace outdated engines with new, cleaner engines. Cindy is very proud to be part of the group that made Carl’s vision for incentivizing the replacement of older technologies with efficient, clean technologies a reality. The program began in 1999 and has replaced literally thousands of engines throughout California. For many years Cindy was one of a very select few women in this male, “testosterone driven” industry. In fact, there were many conferences where Lucinda was the only lady in attendance.

They lived in Orange County where Daryl worked with the State of California Franchise Tax Board doing fieldwork in the enforcement side of the taxing agency. Daryl has some very interesting stories he can share, but it is not appropriate to discuss them here.

Their condo was two blocks from the famous South Coast Plaza Shopping Mall-Complex. The complex has three shopping malls with areas for pedestrian traffic only. The area has about 50 restaurants, 25 movie screens and the Orange County Performing Arts Center; all within one mile. This section of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana became known as South Coast Metro, about four square miles. This convenient location often let them park their car on Friday night after work and not drive until Tuesday; they worked a 4-10 work week.

When Cindy & Daryl moved to Orange County they knew they would return to Northern California after a few years. Since they were first married they used to drive the back roads of Fair Play, Omo Ranch, Grizzly Flat and Mt. Aukum doing road rallies. After living in Orange County a short few years they thought about what would they do when they would return to Northern California. Cindy wanted to redirect her life and not work as a bureaucrat forever; having an early “retirement” would be nice. She thought long and hard but finally decided she wanted to run bed & breakfast for her “retirement”.

Knowing they wanted to be in the foothills because of their long love of the Fair Play area and with all the wineries now (there were no wineries when they did the road rallies in the late 60’s and early 70’s) they knew a new, modern bed and breakfast was needed. Thus Lucinda’s Country Inn was born at the patio tables, drinking ice mochas, of Metro Pointe in South Coast Plaza.