We went to Robers in early August. We used a campsite and tented for one night, then moved into one of their cabins.
First, the tenting/campsites: The camp sites are all backed up against the drainage ditch for the site. This is kind of nasty. Not only is it a real risk that children will fall into this nasty wet ditch, but it is a Mosquito breeding ground. The site was very buggy, with the campfire ring immediately next to this ditch.
Second, the "cabins": The reason I put "" around the word is that they are not what most "resorts" would consider cabins. I've stayed in cabins all over Minnesota throughout my life, dozens of them, in all seasons. The "cabins" at Roberds are basically trailer-homes from the 1950s. They are long-due for replacement. The building itself was just falling apart. There is a reason that trailer homes don't last 50+ years, they just should be forklift-replaced after that much time. The appliances were from the late 70s/early 80s. The cabin had a newer wall-type AC unit, which cooled the kitchen/living-room area very cool, but the bedrooms got no airflow and were hot and humid the entire time. We actually went into town and purchased a small fan to help with air-flow. Also, sitting on the chair in the living room, you could see daylight in-between the edge of the AC unit and the framing...not insulated at all, obviously an amateur installation job. The beds were newer (a year or two), but the furniture in the living-room area was ancient, and in need of some extreme steam-cleaning. The chair and couch had grime-stains on them from years of sweaty, dirty hands using them. I lifted the cushion on the chair, and underneath it was fairly dirty and nasty. The cabin experience was not what I have seen at other resorts, and not what I've come to expect. I've stayed in cabins as old as the 1930s, but they were permanent buildings, properly maintained and cleaned. These cabins at Roberds are in need of complete replacement.
Third, the lake. I have been to lakes in Minnesota my entire life (36 years so far), during all seasons. I've always gone north of the Minneapolis metro area to vacation, I've never gone to a lake south of the metro area (as Roberds is). This was a mistake. The lake, in early August, was nasty. I've never seen an algae plume like the one on this lake. Thick, coating everything. The docks and shoreline were coated in several inches thick algae, rotting in the sun every hot day. The smell in the morning, when the dew was moistening it slightly, was awful. We tried to swim/tube in the middle of the lake on our boat, and it was just as bad. The entire lake was covered in this plume. When fishing, we'd pull up black weeds, meaning sunlight wasn't even getting to the weeds and they were dying. Fishing was only Drums and Sunfish. We also checked at 4 surrounding lakes, but all were similar. It's too bad, There are lakes in the southern part of MN, but they are just gross.
Since we intended for this vacation to be our 'fun in the water' vacation, and the water was gross, we went to neighboring towns to find interesting things to do (there is nothing in Faribault). Owatonna has a water park, which is nice. We also went to Northfield to see the Jesse James stuff, which was neat. Other than that, the resort office has a food shop where they make donuts every morning (which were good), and they have ice cream and such-but again, that office building is 'temporary' construction from the 50s, in need of replacement as well. We felt stuck a bit in the nasty cabin with the nasty lake. Roberds would only let us reserve the cabin if we took the entire week, which at other lakes we've been to would be fine. At Roberds, however, we were searching for things to do because the lake and Resort were nasty.
I really hate to give low reviews, but I have no choice on this resort. None of these are things the owners could have really 'done' anything about on the spot, so I didn't raise issues with them... read more
