Caribou Highlands Lodge

The hotel was disappointing from the start. In general the problems were minor but when taken as a whole the experience was not as expected. The room and bathroom were both dark. This made it hard to shave and the window shade had to be open to see clearly when selecting clothes. This was complicated by being on ground level with a sidewalk outside of room. A wastebasket in the bathroom would have been nice. We were staying in the main lodge which meant room entry after 11:30 pm was via an unmarked and unlit service entrance. Unfortunately we were not informed of this. Room maintenance was inconsistent. One day the coffee was not refilled, the next day the cups were not cleaned. The hotel lost power during a wind storm and the staff was helpful and passed out fueled lamps for the room. However, the emergency lighting in the stairwell leading to the room did not work. Luckily I had my own flashlight to assist in navigating the stairs. The Moguls restaurant, like the hotel was passable but not great. The prime rib was grey and without flavor The whirlpool in the lodge was lackluster to say the least and generally grubby. However, the main pool and whirlpool were nice. As a quick stop in the night, the hotel would have been ok, but as a destination center we won't be back. We would have checked out but we were liable for the four night reservation.

When we arrived they said they had overbooked on the web site & they upgraded us to a condo rather than a room. Condo was very nice. Thought it would be a very nice place for a family - great swimming pool outdoors, playground, indoor pool - many things to do on site; great view of mountain. The only thing we did not like is there was no coffee to be found - none in the condo although there was a coffee pot & filters & when we called desk to see if we could get a packet or where we could get a coffee in the morning, they said they didn't have any & the restaurant didn't open until 8:00. We planned to get up early & leave by 7:00, so that was a disappointment to us as we had to wait until we got on the road to stop and get coffee. Otherwise, we liked the place very much & would go back.

Reserved 2 beds got 1 bed and a sofa-bed. Not very comfortable. Water draining from upper floor was right in the bedroom wall pipe chase. Unpleasant and noisy.

We enjoyed our stay at the Caribou Highlands Lodge. The view from our room was very pretty. We enjoyed hiking the Cascade River and the Temperance River area. We enjoyed having a picnic down by the lake.