Sunnyside Knoll: 14

There’s a stove top but no oven, which seemed like an odd choice. The place is fine, but you’re on your own and need to call if something goes wrong. Our room had a few electrical code violations, though nothing serious.

The cheap price and mostly clean room were the good parts. The interior was cool enough, and the private hot tub was okay. The bad parts were a lot to deal with. We had to take out our own trash and bag our own laundry, something I’ve never seen before and don’t want to see again. You get what you pay for. Outlets in the room didn’t work, and 2 of 3 switches were dead. It was so dark outside our door that NASA is considering an observatory on site. The maintenance people weren’t great. It felt like no one on site spoke English, so getting something simple like a towel was hard and slow. You have to call a remote office, they call someone else, then that person comes over. Wildly inefficient. The outside of the place felt run down, and the hot tub itself didn’t work well. The floor in its room was chipped, enough that cutting your foot felt like a real possibility. There was also an open hole under the table, right by a chair leg. The hot tub room felt like being on display, with 0 and I mean 0 privacy. It’s made from something like under decking fence to keep a raccoon out, and sits about 3 maybe 5 feet into the parking lot. It isn’t directly connected to the room, which is odd. Cut a hole in the wall? The whole setup just feels odd. The concept is okay, but it felt off to be sitting in the tub as someone pulled up for the night in the parking lot. The place just felt kind of unsafe. Even as a guy, I was nervous because it was so dark, and there are animals and people you can’t see. Edit: adding a picture of the chair and a comment. I believe ace hardware down the road has pavers too, or Home Depot in Loveland.

We booked through VRBO and stayed in cabin 1 for the private hot tub. The room was very clean, with plenty of towels, and the owners communicated well. The cleanup procedure was reasonable. There was a mini fridge, microwave, and coffee maker, but the only water was from the bathroom sink. The hot tub was clean and well maintained. We used it a couple of times and really liked having it just for our room. The location was very convenient for getting into RMNP. The king bed took up most of the sleeping area, so bathroom access was a one-at-a-time situation.

This is the spot if you want to get away while staying close to nature and shopping. It’s in a beautiful, quiet location among the pines and mountains, just 3 Miles From Rocky Mountain National Park, Just West of Estes Park.