Jess B.
Yelp
We stayed here in a Bower cabin for 3 nights during the New Year holiday. After we booked online, an Itinerary Designer from Wildflower reached out via email to help plan our stay, and to tell us about the different workshops and experiences they offer. We were excited to have such a customized experience, but found the process of emailing back and forth to be clunky and not very helpful. For example, it was not expressed that these workshops and other offerings can only accommodate a small number of people and needed to be reserved weeks in advance. By the time we made some decisions (the week of our stay), most of what we were interested in was already full to capacity. The itinerary designer also offered to assist in making spa reservations at Thistle, but when I inquired about specific days and times, the response I received was essentially: oops, you should have booked further in advance. I would have liked that information in the very first email. I was able to call the spa directly and get on a waitlist, which eventually got us an appointment, but by then it was a 'take it or leave it' situation. I will say, the staff I spoke to at the spa were lovely and helpful though, so kudos to them.
When we booked our stay, we chose a room rate online that included "daily breakfast for two", but there was no explanation anywhere of the details of that. After we checked in, I asked three different staff members what it included or if there were any restrictions, and I received different information each time. It wasn't until we checked out that we were finally told we would receive a $60 daily credit upon checkout. (And FYI for anyone else wondering, it is a credit toward your dine-in check totals at Clay during breakfast hours - it excludes room service and brunch).
We reserved a table at Clay for the 9pm seating of their NYE Tasting Menu, which happened to be our last evening of the stay (we ate dinner off-site in nearby towns the first two nights). The menu for the night was entirely pescatarian, which was fine for us (not sure if there were other dietary options available), but it ultimately felt like too much seafood for one tasting menu, and there were some small issues in execution. Two of our courses came out in the wrong order from the kitchen, which we didn't mind until we realized it didn't match up with our wine pairing. Our server noticed and brought the correct wine, but then we had multiple glasses and dishes on the table, and it just wasn't quite right. I could also tell that things were plated well in advance because the food temps were off. The broth for the cooked fish course wasn't hot, the first caviar bite wasn't cold enough, etc.
Also, I'm aware this is a mellow, relaxing place meant for wellness, but I was surprised there was no other planned itinerary for the rest of the evening, seeing as it was New Year's Eve. There was a string quartet playing live music during dinner, but the countdown at midnight was a bit lackluster and then everyone sort of dissipated and the bar staff started cleaning up. There is definitely some room for improvement if they do something like this next year.
Aside from all of my critiques above, our Bower cabin was clean and comfortable, and the property is beautiful. We did the full hiking trail loop both mornings and enjoyed that very much; especially walking along the river and visiting the farm animals. The Great Porch area was our favorite though of course - we spent a ton of time hanging out around the fire. The staff were very friendly and helpful in general, and started to recognize and chat with us by the second night, which was a nice touch. Shoutout to the servers on the porch and the valets, especially.
As other reviewers have stated, I think this Auberge property is still just very new and figuring out what it is. For the high cost, the overall experience should be...better. We enjoyed many things about our stay, but there were just too many strikes (I didn't even list them all) to give Wildflower a better rating.