Our family (4 families total, all related) stayed at Shing Wako Resort two consecutive summers. The first time, we chose to stay there - the second time, we waited a bit too long to find vacation reservations in/around the Brainerd area, & Shing Wako was the only place that had four cabins available-three 2-bedrooms & one 3-bedroom.
~THE BAD~ I'll start the review right off by saying the 2-bedroom cabins are NOT what I'd call two actual bedrooms, but rather one bedroom & one screened-in porch with heavy wooden windows you pull up and latch during the day and that 'bedroom' can get awfully cold at night because those windows do NOT provide insulation whatsoever. That so-called second bedroom on the porch has a full-size bed & a pull-out couch, while the actual bedroom has only a full-size bed, too, whereas one may expect at least a queen bed. NOPE. Not EVEN.
The cabins seemed to have been fully decorated with garage sale purchases. Ok, thrift store at best. I saw paintings I think my great-great Aunt Mae had in the mid-70's. The carpet was industrial and thus very cheap, the shower was your very basic less-than-$200-at-Home Depot job (it was just gross....), no tub, natch & had almost ZERO water pressure, the mirror above the (also super duper cheap) sink was probably $10. The bathroom DID have decent enough storage for towels, toiletries, etc. so points for that. The kitchen was TINY. THINK: NYC studio apartment tiny. You're asked to separate your recycling & haul your cans to the recycle bin yourself (other places we've been to pick all that up with a golf cart or the like, each day). There's cable TV but no movie channels;the reception was decent. The front doors of the 2-bedrooms are locked by using-I'M even embarrassed to admit this-a tiny padlock!, while the back door (facing the lake) has an AMAZING locking system-haha, ready for it? It's killer. You shut the door, then move a small piece of wood on the door frame from a vertical to a horizontal position. Your cabin alarm system is now set. I KNOW, right? Whenever we left the grounds, we had to bring anything expensive/didn't want to lose (computers, cell phones, the kids' gaming systems, etc. ). That's just not right. IMPORTANT: the 2-bedroom cabins? NO air-conditioning. BOOOOO.
The 3-bedroom cabin: has air conditioning, waaaaay newer decor than the 2-bedroom jobs, but still can't EVEN justify the $1350 cost of the MINI vacation stay of 3-4 nights (we'll just call it four). My father-in-law & mother-in-law are up there in age, so AC & a bath tub were necessities.
Now, the free WiFi? I don't know if the owners have increased the speed since we were last there in July of 2013, but the upload speed was hovering right around 0.5, and the download speed was a sloth-like 2.0-2.5 AT BEST, so essentially, they offer a read-only internet connection. We ended up using cell phones as hot spots and having to suck up the extra data charges on our plan.
If you want to pay for your stay with a credit card (or even debit card), be prepared to add 3%. The resort is using YOU to pay the surcharge they pay to your credit card company & yes, it's all nice & perfectly legal, On top of an average N. MN 6.875% sales tax + 3% 'lodging' tax, that extra 3% tax brings a 4-night cabin stay charge of $675 way up to around $741.62 when all's said & done & if my math is right....
~THE PLUSES~ I know, you're all, FINALLY!, huh. Well, wait one sec, though, ok? This resort is located on Lake Edward & their beach is pretty dang great, not to mention the playground on site as well as is a cool old-school stand-alone swing set and a great wooden swing. Plastic beach chairs are plentiful, as well as water toys (kept near the front office) to goof around with. The dock is nice & long. A BIG draw to the beach area is that the water remains relative shallow even when it looks like you're quite a ways out, which is great for the kiddos. HOWEVER... ~ominous music plays~ The first time we were here, the majority of our group-the ones who went swimming-came down with... freakin' chiggers! Prior to this, I really had no clue what a chigger was, never heard of them despite being on dozens up dozens of beaches/lakes in MN & beyond. It was only when we went to the front office looking for calamine or cortizone did the female owner tell us, "oh, you got the chiggers, huh. should have told you folks, you can prevent these by drying off as soon as you're out of the water' (i.e, not air drying). I was all, 'that might have been useful to us YESTERDAAAAAY!!!' which was met with a blank thousand yard stare..... duh....
OVERALL: cool beach, crappy cabins w/bad 'security', 'ok' staff, clean grounds, very family-oriented so if your group laughs too loud, prepare to get 'shuuuushed' a lot, 20-25 mins to nearest (Cub) grocery store, 10 mins to gas station, feel it's overpriced, freakin' chiggers, & toads everywhere at night that won't shut up, lots and I mean LOTS of bugs. Other than THAT.... read more