The cottage is located on a quiet street with many historic homes. We enjoyed sitting on the front porch catching up on our reading and savoring a slice of chocolate cake from the South Bend Chocolate store down the street. The bathroom and kitchen had been updated but still had many features in keeping with the character of the cottage. A huge benefit was the dedicated/private detached garage which allows us to unload and load our SUV (with bikes) securely. It is walking distance to the downtown shops, restaurants and the two beaches without crossing any big streets.

We came in for a quick weekend with family in the area and our stay was fantastic. Very close walk to the beach/pier and to downtown St Joes. Lots of stuff to do. The house itself was exactly as listed in VrBO

The house was perfect. Everything was what I expected from the listing and I would definitely stay again.

Such a cute cottage within walking to the beach (pretty ice-covered lighthouse and frozen waves) and Amtrak station. Very easy to communicate with Jennifer who was flexible with our last-minute booking. I’d definitely return.

Location was ideal and the style fit us 100%!

Very nice and loved how close we where to the lake. Beautiful area to relax and walk our fur babies everwhere.

Very nice and loved how close we where to the lake. Beautiful area to relax and walk our fur babies everwhere.

Location was ideal and the style fit us 100%!

The only thing needed was towels as I fly up and bring towels is a pain

The only thing needed was towels as I fly up and bring towels is a pain

Nice place and great location, very walkable.

Walkable to beach and downtown.

We enjoyed our stay. Lovely neighborhood and neighbors. Loved that feel. The place is very homey. Small but nice. The kitchen has basic stuff but don't expect to do any real cooking here. The other was very resoonsive when we had a question or issue. Internet isn't great and cable wasn't working but we weren't there to watch TV. St Joseph is one of our favorite places and every year we find new gems.

It was just what I wanted and as advertised. It was a very old house in a historic Victorian neighborhood and in walking distance to beach and town. Don’t expect brand new furnishings and old squeaky doors but bathroom and kitchen completely updated and good air conditioning. We walked into beach pulling wagon and town several a couple times a day which avoids finding parking. Owner responds to your questions promptly but I wish there was more initial information on the site as to what to bring especially.

I am so glad the Sunflower was available for our last minute trip to St. Joseph. The Sunflower is an adorable little “shotgun” style home with detached garage located in a historic neighborhood in St. Joseph. We had a great stay but I do wish more information had been available about the property on the VRBO website so I would have known what to expect in advance. There are two bedrooms (1 queen and 1 full) connected by a large walk-in closet in which we put our own inflatable twin mattress because our kids didn’t want to share the full size bed. There is a dishwasher in the kitchen, a washer/dryer unit in the basement, and one flat screen tv in the living room. Limited local network channels are available on the tv. The home also has good, fast WiFi connection. The owner messaged us beforehand to let us know that we would need to bring our own sheets and towels. We did have one problem with the WiFi connection but the owner was able to call the WiFi company and it was fixed within an hour. We were very pleased with the owner’s communication and responsiveness! We did notice a sewer smell that another reviewer mentioned. But it wasn’t overwhelming and we were able to air out the house by opening windows. It is a very, very old property but that is to be expected in the older neighborhood and we found the home to be really quite charming. The owner has updated the furnishings since the current photos on VRBO were taken. The bedrooms could use a little TLC—one set of blinds is broken and another is missing leaving us feeling a bit exposed in the master bedroom. Other than that the only improvement I could hope for would be the addition of a working streaming device as the blue ray streaming box would not connect to the internet no matter what we tried. We didn’t report this to the owner because we spent most of our time at the fabulous nearby beach anyway. If you have a large truck or van you may want to check with the owner before you book to make sure there will be space for your vehicle. For example, we had to remove our roof-top storage off of our Honda CR-V in order to fit in the garage and street parking was not allowed through the week. Overall, it was a wonderful stay and we hope to rerun someday!

We have been trying to bring the four of us together for almost 2 years. Finally found a place that had space, was clean and close to downtown area to walk and chat and browse. Great time.

My son and I enjoyed our 6-night stay at this house in St. Joseph. We were just a few blocks from both Silver Beach and downtown St. Joseph. The house itself was nicely decorated in the style of a seaside cottage and had everything we needed to make our stay comfortable.

Moral of the story is we never got comfortable because the place was not clean. When you finally get over that, you notice the smell. When you finally get over that you realize the dishes were not clean. When you finally get over that it’s time to leave. Although, we left a day early. Ran out of paper towels and toilet paper. We decided to go home rather than buy another pack of TP. Beach was nice. Downtown vs. location was even better.

My husband, two daughters (5 and 18 months), two dogs and I stayed in this little house over Fourth of July weekend. The house is cute, on a quiet, residential street in St. Joseph. It could be considered walking distance to Silver Beach for two adults, but definitely not with kids and beach gear. However, it took us less than two minutes to drive to the beach (if you don’t count the time it took to find parking 4th of July weekend). The house itself had almost everything we needed to cook (had pots, pans, utensils, dishes, supply cups, aluminum foil, zip locks, paper towels, coffee pot and filters etc.), so we were pleased with that. The house was clean (not sparkling, but I’m pretty particular and felt good enough to stay there during coronavirus). It could use some minor updates as far as bedspreads and furniture are concerned (pull out couch, dressers that struggle to open), but it doesn’t take away from the functionality of the house and some might consider it adds charm. My only complaint was that the listing could be more specific on what to bring. You need to bring your own sheets and towels (no sheets in the house and maybe two towels for bathing), but it DOES include a pack and play and box fans (we found this out after packing our car to the seams and bringing a pack and play and two fans from Illinois). In general host is very responsive but I did still have to contact her the day we left to double check on what exactly we had to bring. Adding these specifics to the listing would have eliminated that step. Also, a book with recommendations on area favorites would be a nice touch (parks, beaches, restaurants, ice cream, where to rent bikes etc.). On the whole, we had a lovely stay and I would return again.

The location was within walking distance to the beach and several restaurants.

Cute cottage within walking distance of beach and downtown!

Exactly what we expected. Cute and close to everything we wanted. Could have used more curtain privacy.