Very peaceful

Best time ever!

It was a nice lodge room

Stay somewhere else unless you want to hear your neighbor ALL NIGHT LONG I will start with the good about this place. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed the hikes we took. The staff are very kind and when asked to do something or provide an item/service, they were very responsive. The rooms have a small refrigerator and blow dryer, both of which were very convenient, and my king size bed was very comfortable. We also enjoyed the fire pit, which one of the staff was kind enough to prepare and light for us within a matter of minutes. Now to the things that would keep me from ever staying here again. I don't know if it's because April is not their busy season, but this place was like the set of a horrible reality show. We stayed in the lodge (versus the offsite cabins) and it was clearly being run by a skeleton crew that looks like they're being worked to death. The staff were very pleasant to deal with one on one, but they all looked like they've been wearing the same, wrecked uniforms for days on end. The breakfast buffet is like the continental breakfast you get at a Holiday Inn type of establishment, except for the fact that it makes Holiday Inn look like a Michelin star restaurant. The breakfast that you can order off of their menu is equally as bad, as is their coffee (drive a few minutes away and go to Sweetwater Coffeehouse to get a great coffee and breakfast). The only good thing I can say about the breakfast is that everything is consistently bad across the board. The tavern was slightly better for lunch, but that's not saying much. The lodge buildings that house the guest rooms do not have an elevator, so if you need one make sure to ask for a ground floor room. With that said, each of these lodge buildings have a common/living room space on the ground floor, with tables, seating area, fireplace and microwave. That SOUNDS lovely, except that the walls of the lodge appear to have been built with tissue paper and keep out none of the sound coming from outside your room. So if there are any guests that were raised in a barn and forget that they are not alone in this world, you will get absolutely no sleep because the noise coming from this lovely common area will drive you mad. This problem extends to the rooms, where you can hear what your neighbor is watching on TV at midnight or what your other neighbor is discussing on speakerphone at 2 AM. Yes, I was sandwiched in between two of the most inconsiderate guests on this planet. On the bright side, when I called the front desk the first time, they were very quick to contact the guest and resolve the issue. The second time I had more fun knocking on my neighbor's door like a SWAT officer and asking him to stop screaming into his phone, which was also quite effective. Luckily, I was reassured that there is a God, because the lodge emptied out on Sunday morning and this left us with a civilized, quiet facility for the remainder of our stay. That said, I can only imagine what this place is like when it is at full capacity. After experiencing the bedding, I'm thinking these must be the same materials used to construct the walls of the guest rooms. I woke up shivering on my first night and had to turn the heat on because I had two ice blocks for feet. I hunted for an extra blanket, but no such luck. I'm sure if I asked the front desk for one, they would have happily provided one, but for the love of all things holy, just provide a better comforter to begin with. For anyone wondering about laundry facilities or a business center: the laundry is nowhere near the main building so you either need to drive or walk about 1/2 mile down the hill to get to it. I did not have a vehicle, as I was part of a tour group, so there went that idea. They do have a shuttle, so that might be available to get you down the hill, but I didn't ask. I was going home in a day and had just given up at this point. Their business center is basically a room you can go into to use your own laptop. The staff explained they used to have a computer available for guests, but it broke and was never replaced. Bring your own laptop if you are going to need access to a computer.

Historic barrel cabins- great stay! I had found many reviews of these, many were poor, but I knew that the management changed in the past couple of years and these cabins had been recently renovated. I was intrigued by them, they looked really cool. We checked in, was early March before the season started. The guy said we had a choice of cabins- could be close to parking or have a lake view but it would be a bit of a walk. We picked the lake view. We were very happy with the cabin. It was clean, could see all the renovations they had completed- new kitchen floor, new dining table, some new furniture, tv worked fine, new curtains, new cover over the deck, new granite counters in bathroom and kitchen. The microwave was not new, vent smelled funky. The range is older and is the coil burner type. The toilet had a weird odor (maybe septic tank?). These issues were minor and did not detract much from our enjoyment of the accomodations. We travel often so know to bring our own nonstick frying pan- you def need that if cooking at all. The view was spectacular, beds comfy, good water pressure, decent amount of hot water, cabin temp was just fine (used a little heat in the evening). Add to that the location, we were so close to the water, good trail around the lake. We also parked at shelter 7 and did the lake trail to the beach (there was an eagle nest in the pine tree at the second cove). Also, the activities were great (boys did 3d archery and airgun), we all did the fly fishing class. And we got laundry (complimentary) done over at the visitor's center- felt comfortable leaving our clothes there while we grabbed lunch, returned to move clothes to dryer and again did not hang around during the dry cycle. Add to that the proximity to Helen- just 2mi away. And waterfalls and other park trails. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and we will definitely return.

One and done place We had 2 in our party and we paid for 2 nights at the squirrels nest. Needless to say, we only stayed one night. We can say we have tried it and that will be enough for us. The comfort station was not unlocked after me calling twice. We used a metal wagon to bring our stuff down the long hill to the bottom of the platforms but it had not been cleaned off as we had to move/push off a few downed trees. We enjoyed the walking trails and the zip lining though.