The Inn is on the outskirts of Woodstock and located along the Ottauquechee River. I chose this Inn because they allow dogs. When we travel, we like to bring our 13 yo black lab rescue girl with us.
The Inn is decorated very nicely with so many antique pieces to look at. Old telephones, radios, jukeboxes, phone company cabinets, and hotel key boxes - all eclectic and interesting.
When I arrived at the front desk to check in during peak check-in hour, no one was there. A sign said to call a number and it brought you directly to a staff person. She said she’d be right there to assist, and was. She was replenishing a beverage station multi-tasking; which I interpreted that maybe they don’t have enough staff. She explained everything very thoroughly and was very pleasant.
We checked in, brought our luggage in and unpacked. The room was on the ground floor with direct access to the expansive back lawns adjacent to the river. The room was nicely decorated and clean. You could hear the children in the family above us running around the room. I was worried this might be an indicator of a forthcoming sleepless night, but it wasn’t.
We walked around inside and outside to check out the amenities. The pool area was very nice, clean and inviting. There was a game room that families were utilizing and having fun. We walked outside to investigate the beautiful river, the fire pit (where they have make your own s’mores every evening weather permitting), a pond full of spring peepers singing, and discs available to play disc golf.
There is a restaurant onsite at which we planned to have dinner. The front desk staff person highly recommended we make reservations but let us know on occasion they will take walk-ins based on availability.
We decided to check out the menu and vibe. Immediately the worker at the entrance asked if we had a reservation and we said no, that we were just investigating our options. While we read the menu a few other hotel guests came to have dinner and were immediately queried if they had reservations. I’m not quite sure why the push for reservations when the restaurant had only a few patrons. A hotel guest family came and said they were walk-ins and were immediately seated. We made a reservation for 6:30 pm (it was 5:45 pm) and headed back to our room.
The restaurant/bar is a really neat space with eclectic and interesting decor in line with the hotel’s overall decor theme. There’s a really nice set of leather couches in front of a fireplace right in the middle of the restaurant, which I really liked. You rarely see that so you know the restaurant welcomed patrons to linger after dinner. That allows them to turn tables over for additional dining patrons once you’ve finished dining, and you don’t feel rushed to leave.
We were seated by the same gentleman who turned out to be the only server that evening. The bar area was empty of patrons so the bartender served as busser and food deliverer.
Our server was very professional and skilled. My husband enjoyed his huge 8 oz beef burger saying the beef quality was excellent. We split the beet, blue cheese, pecan and arugula salad which was very good and large enough for both of us. My crab cakes were perfectly cooked and good sized, but you couldn’t taste them because they were drowning in the accompanying remoulade. The huge amount of sauce was under and on top of the crab cakes, making them soggy. All you could taste was the remoulade which made my meal disappointing. Note to the kitchen - please put the remoulade in a separate dish!
After dinner we sat in the leather couches by the fireplace and enjoyed the restaurant vibe. There were a few families and couples, but the restaurant wasn’t even half full. Puzzling about the push for reservations but maybe it’s to plan for staffing needs…? The restaurant is pricey ($25 for a burger and fries), but the Woodstock-Quechee area is a wealthy area so the prices are probably in line with other dining establishments in the area.
We’re early risers so the next morning we enjoyed the quiet and had the expansive back lawn all to ourselves to investigate with our dog prior to breakfast. A breakfast buffet is included in the room cost and was great. The breakfast was laid out
in the restaurant in a very appealing manner with interesting serving pieces and decorative flair. You could tell the kitchen staff took pride in their work.
Scrambled eggs, home fries, waffles, bacon, oatmeal and dried cereals, toast, pastries, etc. made for a very full meal and great way to start the day. It would be really nice to eat outside on their balcony in the warm weather.
We asked for a later checkout (by just a half hour) so that we could use the pool area. There was no one else there so we really enjoyed having it to ourselves. There’s no hot tub, but they have a smaller warm water pool running along the length of the main swimming pool that has jets you can turn on. We loved that smaller pool so much that we didn’t even make it into the regular pool.
Check out was easy and fast. We enjoyed our stay very much and felt the value and pricing were good for the service and amenities.
