Like a curvaceous young woman in a flirtatious summer dress, The Inn at Canal Square caught my eye on a Southern Delaware press trip that passed directly through the tiny coastal community of Lewes. She was a head-turner — a destination I was determined to see again.

The inn looks imposing from the outside, with the towers and turrets befitting a local landmark, but the location is even better than the architecture.

The 22-room inn, which also has a pair of two-bedroom suites, not only overlooks the yachts that line the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal but lies less than a mile from the oceanfront beaches of Cape Henlopen State Park. The smoke-free, family-friendly property is fully justified in promoting itself as a bastion of Nantucket style on the Delaware coast.

Although the lure of the sea is strong, guests staying in the Admiral’s Quarters or Commodore’s Suite may be reluctant to leave. Each suite features a large living room accented with art and fireplace, full kitchen facilities, two bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, WiFi Internet access, multiple TVs and porches perched above the harbor.

Those who prefer reading to watching will find a myriad of daily newspapers in the inn’s breakfast nook, where a full English breakfast is served daily at no additional cost. There’s also a fitness room where guests can work off the extra pounds acquired at area restaurants, although most guests of The Inn at Canal Square don’t need to worry; they’ll do so much walking that the rich food won’t pose problems. Bistros, restaurants and living history lessons are literally footsteps away.

Guests can take advantage of the free parking lot and walk to all their meals, including lunch at Gilligan’s, right next door, or Azafran, a Mediterranean Café, and dinner at The Buttery, where both fare and service are surprisingly upscale — an unexpected delight in such a small town.

The town’s historic legacy is as rich as the food. Lewes (pronounced Lewis) was a Dutch settlement long before it became the first town in the first state. Founded in 1631 as a whaling colony called Swanendael, its leading museum still bears that name — or a close derivative. Most of the exhibits in the 76-year-old Zwaanendael Museum reflect the region’s maritime history, including artifacts from shipwrecks and cannons fired in the War of 1812. Some of those cannons still line the waterfront.

There’s even a Cannonball House Marine Museum, housed in a 1760 structure that was enlarged 30 years later. A stone’s throw from The Inn at Canal Square, it earned its name during a 22-hour British naval bombardment on April 6–7, 1813 (the only casualty was a chicken).

Another Lewes building, the Ryves Holt House, is even older. Believed to be built in 1665, it was a colonial inn when Holt arrived in town, then called Port Lewes, in 1721. The house made its claim to fame when its namesake became naval officer of the port, high sheriff of SussexCounty, and eventually chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court — 30 years before the Revolutionary War.

For a community of its size, Lewes has a disproportionate number of architectural treasures. Beyond the Ryves Holt House, the oldest standing structure in the state, are a maze of buildings with roots in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Not surprisingly, the National Trust for Historic Preservation includes Lewes in its “Dozen Distinctive Destinations,” and First Lady Laura Bush, honorary chair of Preserve America, named the town a Preserve America Community.

Almost everything in Lewes revolves around the water. Tales of pirate treasure and shipwreck, mixed with a myriad of war stories, are local legends, shared by long-time residents who love the salty air carried by the daily sea breezes. Lewes, located at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, is never too hot in summer or too cold in winter. But it is not exempt from occasional gales, which force captains rounding Cape Henlopen to seek shelter behind the man-made Delaware Breakwater, commissioned by President John Quincy Adams some 200 years ago.

Nautical names permeate the waterfront town. There’s a Frog Alley, a Ship Carpenter Street, and a Pilot Town Road and even a Fountain of Youth.

It’s surprising not more people have discovered it; the year-round population of Lewes is still less than 5,000. Drive time to Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia is two hours, while the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, gateway to Virginia, is 145 miles away.

The town is located 110 miles from Baltimore by car but is linked to Atlantic City, New York, and points north by the Cape May-Lewes ferry, a fleet of car-carrying vessels that take 70 minutes to make the 17-mile Delaware Bay crossing to South Jersey. Each year, they take more than a million passengers — some of them day-trippers who transfer from ferry to trolley for a 45-minute narrated tour that costs $5.

A paradise for ecotourism, Lewes is a hop, skip and jump from Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest freshwater marshes on the East Coast. Even winter doesn’t stop dedicated birdwatchers and kayakers from plying its vast network of shallow creeks.

The sounds alone are worth the trip: sea-gulls calling to each other in a language only they understand, foghorns warning other vessels of their proximity in the morning mists of the bay and toots from fishing boats headed out to sea in search of trout, bass and stripers.

Although Henlopen is the largest and most famous park in the area, Lewes has a surprising number of pocket parks; the mix of cannons and flowers in the 1812 canal-side park near the drawbridge is especially photogenic in spring and summer. Something is always blooming around the gazebo at Mary Vessels Park, where four-season plantings surround the gazebo.

Lewes also has a floating history lesson: a red-hulled lightship that measures 114 feet long by 26 feet wide. The Overfalls, built in 1938, carried a crew of 14, flashed a beacon that could be seen for 12 miles on a clear night and had a foghorn that could be heard five miles away.

Two lighthouses, anchored to one location permanently, are also open for inspection by the public. The Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse, built in 1885, and the Harbor of Refuse Lighthouse, built in 1908 but replaced in 1926, both opened for visitors in the last five years. The latter was the last Delaware lighthouse with resident keepers before automation came in 1973.

Wise patrons will plan carefully: the Lewes Historical Society operates a dozen museums, all but three within a small historic complex, and offers two-hour guided tours of the area.

Numerous events, including an annual garden tour, mark the Lewes social calendar. In 2007 alone, Canalfront Park was dedicated in June and the first class of the Delaware Maritime Hall of Fame was inducted at the Lewes Yacht Club.

Visitors will be delighted to return to The Inn at Canal Square to relax after an event-filled day in Lewes. Rates reach their peak from Memorial Day through fall foliage season in early October and are lowest during the first six weeks of the year. Each of the VIP suites, both of which are ideal for couples traveling together, cost $600 per night in peak season or $500 per night otherwise.

For information, contact The Inn at Canal Square, 122 Market St., Lewes, DE 19958 (Tel. 888-644-1911, www.theinnatcanalsquare.com); the Lewes Historical Society, 110 Shipcarpenter St., Lewes, DE 19958 (Tel. 302-645-7670, Fax 302-645-2375, tours@historiclewes.org); or Southern Delaware Tourism, P.O. Box 240, Georgetown, DE 19947 (Tel. 302-856-1818, www.VisitSouthernDelaware.com).

Dan Schlossberg, a former AP newsman, and of Fair Lawn, N.J., is president of the North American Travel Journalists Association, author of 34 books and contributor to numerous in-flight and AAA publications.