Yukari K.
My sister, a teenage exchange student and I stayed at this property during the Columbus Day weekend, and we were looking very much forward to trying an Under Canvas property out. Unfortunately, the stay left us very disappointed. Rather than rant, I'll mention a few specifics: ||- Check In: Typically, when you check in, there appears to be a whole spiel that you are supposed to get to show you around the property and explain how things like showers work in your tent. We arrived late because of a flight delay, and I don't know if it's because the usual staff were gone, but we got a very cursory explanation. The guy who took us to our tent, waved his hands around to point out obvious features. When we asked about pillows for the sofa bed, he fluffed up two of the sofa cushions and said we could use those (we later found pillows in the chest in the room). Later when we went up to the front desk to ask for more blankets, they provided them, but we had to carry them back to our tent ourselves in the dark on an unfamiliar property. ||- Food: I don't know if it was because it was the end of the season but there were substitutions made on multiple dishes without any prior warning. Meat that one member of our party asked for it be rare arrived well done, and meat that we asked to be medium well arrived rare (on multiple occasions). Once when we complained about the skirt steak, the staff readily admitted that it was a bad cut but it was what they had. When we asked about the trout, they actually warned us away from it saying that it's pretty bland. Breakfast took 30-40 minutes to arrive. ||- Cleanliness: Be forewarned that there is no housekeeping in your tent for the duration of your stay unless you ask for it. In the common areas, it was really nice that they had s'mores and fire pits out, but they didn't clean them periodically enough, so on two out of the three nights we were there, we found several to be completely trashed by previous guests - aluminum cans in the fire, garbage and dirty trays and plates in the chairs. ||- Pack and go food: They only had 3 kinds of sandwiches including an almond butter and jelly in their fridge. We also saw the same stale-looking sandwiches there two days in a row. When we inquired about lunch boxes to go from the restaurant, they provided us with an interesting menu, but we were told that they made them before 10am the DAY BEFORE you need them (In other words, by the time you eat them, they are more than 24 hours old). I would plan on making alternative arrangements. ||- Tent temperature: When we were there, it got cold at night. The tents provide a wood stove, which they are supposed to show you how to use. The staff person, who showed us to the room didn't, so when we tried to figure it out ourselves, we ended up with a ton of smoke in the room. (We did talk about how we would not want to be here during the middle of summer because we can't imagine being able to cool the tent down enough for it to be comfortable). ||- Shower: As part of the resort's eco-approach, the shower requires holding down a lever for the water to flow. That means that you have to wash with only one hand. In our case, the experience was further soured by the fact that the heater wasn't working, which we only discovered after I tried to shower. Maintenance person came relatively quickly in ten minutes, but it was just another thing that soured us. (The fix was relighting the pilot). ||- Basic golf cart safety: At the end of the stay, we asked for help to get our luggage. Two of us loaded our bags first and got in the cart. The driver started driving away as the third was loading her luggage in the cart. ||The good things: |- The property is beautiful. |- The night sky is as beautiful as they promise. |- The private guide they can arrange through a third party outfit was first rate (and very worth the price). |- The s'mores are really fun for kids, and a nice touch. |- Restaurant prices are reasonable. |- No one will tell you this, but they do have hot water bottles available if you ask for them. |- The common toilets are comfortable, but we found trash overfilling a couple times. |- If you snag them in time, they have a handful of hiking poles available for you to use. |- Free filtered water to fill your water bottles. ||All in all, the staff are friendly, but comically untrained and unhelpful. We did not see the resort manager on the property at all, and given how bad the experience was across the board, I imagined the problem is at a management level. I always worry about eco-resorts because sometimes resorts use it as an excuse to cut corners, and this one felt very much like it. ||Basically, I would expect this to be a DIY set up. It's glamping in the sense that there are tents there for you in a beautiful location, and they have food and alcohol there. If you don't expect service, you might be pleasantly surprised to occasionally get some during your stay. ||It was doubly disappointing because a couple we had met socially had raved about this property when they came before the pandemic. It made us wonder if something changed since then. ||It's possible that it's only this property that has problems, but it left me reluctant to try another.
