The tale of two hotels

Home after a long weekend in Georgia. The trip was planned to meet up with friends, who are attending a wedding this Saturday. It was great to see them again. We met them whilst he was on a work secondment in Chicago 5 years ago and we have stayed close and have both added a child to the mix.

We did have one night on our own though, so we chose to stay in the very agreeable Buckhead at the St Regis on Friday and were taken aback by how majestic the hotel was. After a Saturday morning sat by the adorable swimming pool which resembled a roman bath, and followed by an afternoon of shopping at Lenox Square, we drove the 40 miles north to Lake Lanier (photo), a vast 38,000 acre lake that is Atlanta’s main source of water.

We arrived at Lake Lanier Islands in the dark so failed to see it’s beauty but sadly what we did get to see was our cockroach infested lake house villa. Our friends, who were on route from the airport had booked it and the plan was that we’d crash with them.

The Legacy Lodge at Lake Lanier was meant to resemble a Centre Parcs, but it was nothing like. First impressions were not good, but it was our friends gig, so we started to unpack the car. They soon arrived and obviously it was not what they were expecting either. It was at this point that we saw the first cockroach scurry across the room, then another and when a roach flew straight into the face of our friend’s 2-year old, it was our cue to move out and kick up a big stink.

We were then moved to a couple of hotel rooms in the main building that resembled, with the best will in the world, your grandmother’s bedroom. 11pm and we were making our case to an uninterested front desk. We were eventually told that we would be moved again in the morning and we were, to a much nicer lake house with adjoining rooms and they were fine but the damage was done and I ranted merrily on Trip Advisor.

As my shrewd-other-half said, any hotel with the word ‘conference’ in the title should be avoided unless work make you go on expenses. The Legacy Lodge & Conference Centre at Lake Lanier without a doubt had more words than accolades.

The paradox of the whole thing was that when we left the St Regis in Buckhead on Saturday evening there was the most swankiest wedding taking place with chic guests dressed up to the nines. Hopefully our friends friends have a great day next Saturday at Lanier Lakes but i hope they have the roach spray handy!