My 10 and 4 year old and I and my mother took off from Atlanta Sunday for a 4 day stay at a state park lodge in Kentucky through this Thursday. My son loves hiking, I love water, and my daughter loves everything so we’re all happy to be here.
Unfortunately, I’ve learned that ‘lodge’ doesn’t always mean the accommodations will be beautiful, plush, fancy, or clean. I am not a big complainer, as you know if you are a regular reader. But I’m having a really hard time keeping my mouth shut about some of the stuff I’ve seen and experienced here.. I can’t however bring myself to complain to the staff. I’m a non-confrontational person. That’s why I’m not going to say where exactly we are.. I’m not trying to bash the place but I’m pretty frustrated.

First, the good stuff about the lodge:

• My 10 year old loves the hiking trails. My mother and aunt have taken him hiking both mornings so far. They went 3 miles the first day and 6 miles today where they saw waterfalls, streams, a turtle, and a crawfish.
• The cottage bedrooms are a good size and have two double beds each.
• The pool is nice, with a walk in entrance.. great for the little kids.

Here are my gripes:

• The septic tank just behind our cottage is overflowing/leaking.. there is toilet paper on the ground. Here is a photo – don’t click if you’re easily grossed out.
• While the pool has been my favorite amenity at the lodge, the kids were a little bummed that the ‘mushroom waterfall’ in the pool doesn’t work.
• The lobby in the lodge, where I’m working now and is the only place to sit besides the dining room, doesn’t have anything for kids to play with.
• The couches and chairs in the cottage are made of a terrible material, some kind of vinyl or something, and are not comfortable at all. It’s like sitting on hard plastic.
• The kitchen is tiny.. the refrigerator door hits the chairs when open.
• While there is Internet access in the lobby of the lodge, the cottages and cabins do not have internet access at all.
• The game room looks like the inside of an institution (all gray and white.. no color) and has a ping pong table, a foosball table, and a chess, and checkers table.. all very flimsy and cheap and you have to pay to get a ping pong ball, golf club and golf balls, and bow and arrow, at the front desk in the lobby.
• We had to ask for more dishes and they were delivered in a black garbage bag just like the clean towels are delivered every day.
• The swings and playground equipment do not look clean.. most of the equipment is moldy. Sad for the kids. 🙁
• There isn’t a DVD player in the room. We’ve been too busy to need the TV on, but it would be nice to know that we could pop a fun movie in for the kids if needed.
• There are no laundry facilities which is very strange for a place where people hike (get sweaty) and swim.
• No garbage disposal

This experience has taught me that it is very important to ask a lot of questions and do a lot of online research before making reservations anywhere. The website for this lodge shows beautiful cottages, pool, miniature golf, archery, and the inside of the lodge look beautiful when in fact they are not extremely impressive.

This lodge has tons of potential if they would just spend a little time checking things (like leaking septic tanks) and cleaning (playground equipment).

Here are a couple of photographs of the kids having fun at the lodge.