The Best Independent Living Communities in Berkshire County, MA

"I toured Holiday at Devonshire Estates. The tour was wonderful. Our guide was awesome as well. He took us to several different size rooms, which was nice. So you could get an idea of the different sizes and the pricing. The tour was great. The room is just a kitchenette with a very small refrigerator. You're not allowed to cook in your room, which that part turns me off because it doesn't have a full kitchen. Certainly, they had cabinets and stuff, but it's just a kitchenette, so that didn't appeal to me."

"I would visit this facility about once a month if not more with my girlfriend to visit her grandmother. We found that with the buzz machine at the front door for her to unlock and let us in became a pain because she had a hard time mobilizing due to her age. But other than that she was a big fan of this facility due to it being very by the books and the facility was clean. She liked the staff very much but did complain about how her neighbors were loud and obnoxious and would use their tvs with the volume entirely too loud. Considering it is a larger facility they would have events and parties for the holidays and would have bingo nights that she liked very much. She would spend most of her days playing games with the rest of the seniors in the building and listening to the artists that they would have on occasion. "

"I had my mother at Sugar Hill. The staff is excellent, and it is fabulous for the money; you couldn't find a better place. My mother raved about the food. They did have wonderful activities going on that I have seen very briefly. She was in the locked ward and that could be more like the other areas. It was very, very nice, but they need more things for them to do. "

"89 South Senior Living Community had everything that my mom needed. It's been newly renovated, and it was just beautiful. They served meals there. It's like a community, so my mom will meet other people and always have people around her. The staff was very kind and accommodating. The apartments were absolutely beautiful. I would live there. They have a reading room with a fireplace and a room that they use for games and different classes. They have a little coffee bar and a lovely dining room."

"My mom is a resident of The Payn Home, and I think it's a phenomenal independent living place for seniors fifty-five and older. They give you three meals a day, they do your laundry, and it's located in this cute and beautiful little town of Chatham, New York. There are a bunch of little shops and stores, with anything you'd want around. Right across the street, there's a twenty-eight-acre preserve where you can walk around and do little hikes. It's just a beautiful place. The staff was friendly and fantastic, too. It's highly recommended. The food is good and adequate, but it's not that fantastic for me. I prefer eggs more often and a better variety. I personally love the facility, though. It's an old building, and the gentleman's wife who built it actually got sick, so in the late 1800s, he leveled his mansion, built this building out of brick, and housed twenty-to-twenty-five people. The whole concept -- that someone would do that to care for his wife -- is phenomenal, and in the next fifty or sixty years, he made it free for anybody who wanted to be there. It's only fairly recently that they started charging, but it is still very inexpensive for what you get."

"I toured The Spinney at Pond View. I liked the apartments. There were one- and two-bedroom apartments. I liked how they were all on one level. There were no stairs from the garage through the living area to the back porch. Everything was clean and new. The staff was outstanding, especially Sandra. The structure of the building was outstanding. It was beautiful. I was hoping my father would choose to live there, but he eventually went with apartments because those buildings are separate cottages."