Jessica T.
2/5
All in all, not very family friendly. Not as advertised. Owner is clueless. But it does have a great view.
If you want to be away from it all, this is the place for you. It's far from the city (we drove about an hour to any destination) and does have a beautiful view of the lake. The dock is a short walk down the road, its the closest 'campsight' to the lake, you don't have to go far. The cabin was about what we expected, relatively clean but a musty smell(that cleared very quickly). Of course there are bugs, its camping in the country.
Bullshoals lake was very nice of itself. The water was very high when we went but had a great time anyway, we had to drive to Theodosia to access the lake for swimming.
But NONE of our great time on our vacation was thanks to Ginny, the owner. The website says there is a fishing boat available for every cabin, a paddle boat, and several different motors to be rented. When I called she confirmed that the boat was available for our use whenever we wanted. The website also says there is a playground, sand box, games, and more for kids and family fun.
When we arrived we visited the dock where there was only one boat (a paddle boat was no where to be found) and the dock was in pretty bad disrepair. When walking near the dock there was a downed power line that had caused a fire recently (when we asked the owner about it she had no idea what we were talking about). It clearly seemed that she never or rarely left her own home and had little idea of what was happening on her property.
When talking with Ginny about the boat we found out there were NO oars available and her ONLY motor wasn't in working condition. Then she chastised us for not 'reserving' a boat and motor so she could have them fixed, even though we had spoken extensively about it on the phone and I told her plainly "we chose your resort because you offer boats". So the $32 extra a night we paid to stay at this resort vs any other was completely wasted and we were never able to use a boat at all. When we checked out days later she said the new oars had arrived. We stayed for 4 nights and either my husband or myself spoke to her everyday...she never mentioned that she had ordered, nor received, new oars for our use until we had all our kids and belongings packed in the car to leave. She did not care if we had access to the boat at all. She just wanted our money.
The 'playground' was a 20+ year old swingset covered in rust and barely standing. Every swing and the slide was snapped in half. There was no sandbox and the only 'game' was trying not to stub your toes on the random horseshoes hidden in the grass.
When we first arrived she sent us to the only cabin that already had people staying in it. Our own cabin wasn't exactly as advertised (there were fewer beds and the screens for the porch were all ripped and useless) but we made due and were only sleeping there anyway. She repeatedly reminded us that we hadn't paid her yet, despite our many attempts to. Every time we brought it up, she told us she hadn't written up the bill yet but always said 'well you haven't paid me yet'. She charged us extra money for every one of our 4 children, which baffled me because we used no more space, electricity, or water than we had if it was just my husband and I. She claimed we needed to pay extra because they would use the bathroom (not all of them are potty trained, so no) and sleep in the beds( they shared a bed, so no again). It makes me question, does she not wash all the linens after someone used the cabin anyway? How would she possibly know which beds have slept in and which have not?
We would definitely return to Bullshoals Lake but we would be choosing a different 'resort'.
All in all, not very family friendly. Not as advertised. But does have a great view.
