Claudia S.
Yelp
About a year ago, I saw a photo of Lied Lodge in a AAA magazine. It was just one picture, but it was a stunning view of their lobby and I was instantly interested in a visit. It's only a couple of hours drive from Kansas City, so we put it on our to-do list. I set up reservations for April 2019 online. I had some issue with their website, but was able to complete the process by calling to get the package that I'd been interested in. They have a lot of options and add-ons. You'll have to read through them and decide which are important to you. Some of them seem a little petty or even unnecessary, but at least there are options. Anyway, I ended up getting sick and had to cancel the April reservations. I actually had several reservations for that road trip and I'll say that this reservation was the easiest to cancel, which I really appreciate.
Anyway, October came around and we decided to take a truncated version of our original road trip and spend the day in Nebraska City and the night at Lied Lodge. We were there a little too early in apple season, but I won't say that impacted our stay all that much except for being able to miss out on what was probably bigger crowds of families staying at the Lodge.
The Lodge is very pretty, but besides that stunning lobby, there's not really that much to it. It's a huge lodge and you have to walk down these really long hallways with your stuff. The way it's built with the large logs kind of gives you a feeling of being in a coal mine as you hike to your room. Once you get checked in and have a key, there are some other doors where you can park closer to your room, but not all of them are as accessible for those with mobility issues.
We chose not to dine in their restaurant so besides standing on the back patio and looking at the trees, that was pretty much all they had for entertainment. There is a pool but we're not really pool people. I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that unless you plan to do one of the dining packages or the packages with entertainment at the Tree House things nearby, you might as well just stay at a basic hotel and come over and look at the lobby while you're in town.
Our room was nice, a little small, but we didn't do the upgrade to having an orchard view or vaulted ceilings, etc. We just did a 2 bed room. A lot of the space is taken up by more of those decorative logs. I get it, it's a theme but they take up a lot of space in the room. And one was right outside the bathroom, so you'd walk into it during nightly visits when you don't want to turn the lights on.
Ok, so I know some of this description already hasn't maybe sounded the most positive. But, all of those things are just observations that I had, not that it kept me from enjoying my stay. We paid a little more to stay here than just a normal hotel, but I'm okay with that.
The part that bugged me the most was our room had BUGS. I guess it was stink bug season and since this is a hotel that wants you to experience nature, they have windows that actually open. There are screens, but they had tears and didn't fit perfectly, so I'm guessing past guests had left the windows open and the little buggers decided inside was nicer than outside. So, I spent a good hour or so of the evening trying to come up with different ways of baiting and trapping the stink bugs that were marching around our room. I finally got one lured into the empty ice bucket, but then realized he/she had other friends crawling around too, so just gave up and let them co-habitate with us.
Our room also needed a thorough cleaning. Maybe the bug hunt got me to notice more nooks and crannies, but there were some pretty hefty dust bunnies hanging around on lamp shades and in the vents. The curtains also were quite soiled (the white gauzy curtains). In fact, I don't even want to know what that brown substance was, but it was suspicious and unappealing.