This is a review I don't want to write…read more
Our 12-day road trip in honor of our being married 20 years was an incredible experience, which we shall cherish for the rest of our days. As much difficulty as I had planning it (for a variety of reasons I won't bore you with), everything ended up turning out GREAT. Ironically, though, the one place I was MOST excited to experience... Topside Inn... turned out to be our least favorite, and that makes me sad and even a little angry, and that's why I don't want to write the review.
I've written many a negative review if a place warrants it, but this one still bothers me. It wasn't that it was horrible. No. In fact, I would probably say that our stay was even "decent" overall, but there were some annoyances and disappointments.
I'll start with the disappointment. We stayed at this inn during our actual anniversary. The person assisting my travel agent friend who booked it said how excited they were at the inn. Here's the irony... not only did they do NOTHING for it, they couldn't even muster saying "oh, we heard it was your anniversary. Happy anniversary." NOTHING. Not one word. Not one gesture. Did I need them to do something? No. We had our own celebration, but at every other place we stayed for our 12-day trip, the other places somehow acknowledged our anniversary with kind words and/or some gesture... like a little box of chocolates or a 1/2 split of sparkling wine/champagne. Something. Did I expect anything? Not at all... but again, when the reservationist made an initial fuss over our anniversary being at THEIR place and how exciting it was, yeah, I expected at least a greeting.
Now for the annoyances. I have a bad back and bad knee. The reservationist was given a full explanation of what our room needs would be. No stairs, easy access, difficulty with uneven ground, and they assured my travel agent friend they had the perfect room for us. They said the room would be on the ground level with no stairs involved. The problem is that they did not pay attention because I ended up dealing with very uneven ground walking up and down a gravel incline, along with a few stairs to boot, and they could have given us a room on the same level as the parking lot where we'd only have to wheel our suitcases a few feet to the room without any stairs, gravel or inclines. In a few words, they BLEW IT. It wasn't easy for me to deal with the slippery gravel, not to mention the incline and the few stairs, but I dealt with it. I just know it could've been MUCH EASIER if THEY had paid attention. I had never been to their property before, so I would have no way to know how things were laid out or what room would suit me best... but they did.
The room itself was clean and SOMEWHAT comfortable. I say only somewhat because the mattress, at least in the room we stayed in, was very weird. The sides of the mattress severely sloped downward, so that when I would sit on it or even lay, I felt like I would roll right off... esp. on the side of the bed where I slept. This was an issue throughout our stay, and it definitely posed a challenge to deal with it. Another issue I had with the room was that the shower was small, but worse than that, it was incredibly slippery. I was terrified I was going to fall because there was nothing to hold onto; nor was their any non-slip mat or strips.
People rave about the breakfasts served here. I was expecting some incredible elaborate feast, based on what we read and were told. However, I was completely underwhelmed with the breakfast when we were there. Basically, we were given scrambled eggs and sausage, neither of which was anything special in taste or presentation. There was some kind of strawberry sauce over a biscuit, and while it looked pretty, it had no flavor. I'm not a cereal eater, so I didn't have any. I don't know... it was a big miss to me. I just didn't see or taste why people think this is so wonderful. It completely eluded me.
We paid a lot of money to stay here. It should've been a lot better for what we paid, and by the way, we paid less everywhere else and got much better service, much better comfort, and we were treated better by any of the other places we stayed at. There are enough other choices in this town that if we ever return, it won't be to this establishment. Again, it wasn't bad... it just wasn't great either.