The Lavender Inn

An 1874 schoolhouse-turned-bed-and-breakfast in downtown Ojai, with eight rooms, herb gardens, and an on-site cooking school. The Lavender Inn is one of the older Ojai Valley structures still in use, and the cooking-school program is the property's distinguishing feature — most B&Bs on this scale don't have a working teaching kitchen.

The location, in central Ojai, is walking distance to Bart's Books, the Arcade, and Ojai Avenue. The price runs the lower end of Ojai's mid-luxury market — well below the spa-resort tier.

The setting

The inn is on Aliso Street, two blocks from Ojai Avenue and the central Arcade Plaza. Bart's Books — the open-air bookstore — is a four-minute walk. Ojai Mixer, the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company, the Ojai Vineyard tasting room, and Ojai's restaurants (Knead, Boccali's, the Farmer & The Cook) are all within five-to-ten minutes on foot. The Topa Topa range is east of town; Lake Casitas is fifteen minutes south.

The drive in from Ventura is 30 minutes up Highway 33; from Santa Barbara, 45 minutes; from LAX, two hours on a good day.

The building

The original 1874 schoolhouse — clapboard, gabled, with a porch and the kind of vernacular New England-via-California that's persisted in Ojai because the town leaned anti-development for decades. The interior was adapted as a B&B with rooms upstairs and on the ground floor. Public spaces include the lobby/parlor, the dining room (also the cooking-school space), and the herb gardens. Materials are wood throughout — clapboard, board floors, exposed beams.

Locally owned. The cooking-school program runs scheduled classes — Ojai-cuisine-leaning, hands-on.

The rooms

Eight rooms across the main schoolhouse and a small adjacent building. Kings and queens with quilted bedding, painted-wood interiors, claw-foot tubs in some rooms, walk-in showers in others. From around $245. Bathrooms have been updated. Some rooms have small private patios opening onto the gardens.

Food & drink

A full breakfast is included — the kitchen is the same one used for cooking classes, so breakfast is more ambitious than at most B&Bs at this rate. There's no on-site dinner program for casual nights, but cooking classes run on a published schedule. For dinner, walk to Boccali's, Knead, or Suzanne's; drive five minutes to Rory's Place. Pizza and sangria at Boccali's is the local Sunday-night option.

On the property

A small but well-considered amenity stack:

• Full breakfast included
• Cooking school with scheduled classes (book separately)
• Herb and lavender gardens
• Walk to downtown Ojai
• Open year-round

Who it's for

• Travelers who'd rather stay at a small B&B than a wellness resort
• Foodies who want to take a cooking class while in town
• Couples doing a low-key Ojai weekend with bookstore-and-coffee in the morning
• Repeat Ojai visitors who've moved past the spa-resort circuit

Who it's not for

• Travelers expecting a pool, spa, or hotel-style amenity stack
• Adults-only seekers — kids are accepted, though rooms are small
• Anyone wanting a property up in the Topa Topa hills with private gardens

Nearby

Bart's Books is four minutes' walk. Ojai Avenue's Arcade Plaza, Ojai Coffee Roasting, and the Ojai Vineyard tasting room are five. Meditation Mount and the East End view of the Topa Topa "Pink Moment" are 10 minutes east. Lake Casitas (rowing, swimming) is 15 minutes south. Channel Islands ferry from Ventura is 35 minutes. Santa Barbara's Funk Zone is 50 minutes the other direction. Ojai Olive Oil Co. tasting room is 10 minutes north on Reeves Road.