I love our state parks. All of them. But Jenny Wiley might be at the top of the list. Why? Well... The scenery...the lake nestled within the mountains is beautiful at all times of the year. The view from the dining room makes you want to linger over your meal for sure. And the hiking trails lead to some epic mountain views. The staff...always helpful, always friendly. The lake... fun fishing and boating. And again, you have the views of the mountains as you ride around the lake. Pontoon rental was easy and reasonably priced. Thanksgiving dinner--they know what they're doing with this. You don't have to make a reservation, and although it's busy, you don't wait forever for a table. There was plenty of comfortable seating while we waited. The food was great-- every Thanksgiving side you could want, and friendly waitstaff. The cabins are cozy, clean, and spacious. Ours had a nice screened in porch and a deck overlooking the lovely views. If you're a state employee, make sure to let them know so that you can get that state rate. It's a great deal! read more

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One of my favorite hikes ever. If you get a chance to check out the elevator, it's so much fun! Well...we had a ton of fun because there were trees down from the recent storm and it gave us an opportunity to be creative and make it through the obstacles. I would suggest checking out the outlook first, then find a path down the mountain and use elevator to come back up because it's a nice, steady (not steep) 2.5 mile hike back up taking that path. This park is beautiful and there are so many signs so you know which path you are on at all times. We did manage to get lost for a mile or two but that's mostly because we are wanderers haha. Do yourself a favor and download the app that was designed specifically for the park. It will help guide you in your hike! read more

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I stayed at the Jenny Wiley Lodge for a recent trip to Prestonsburg and came away impressed. The rooms look to have recently been updated and we're clean. My balcony overlooked the lake and had chairs to go out and enjoy the view. There are trailheads at the Lodge to take a small hike near the lake as well. The trails didn't seem well marked or maintained but were adequate for a mile or so hike to get some fresh air. For the price you can't really beat staying here if in the area. read more

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We revisited Jenny Wiley Lodge after a year, and am sorry to say we were disappointed. The servers were still very nice and hustling around to serve everyone. But the buffet was so sparse that my wife ordered from the menu. Her 'Hot Brown' was the worst concoction she ever had, and convinced her to never order another 'Hot Brown'. I did the buffet. The catfish was OK, but the bbq chicken was not appetizing, the Mac-n-cheese was mushy and not edible, the hush puppies were very heavy and oily, etc. The banana pudding I had for dessert was cold and had very little bananas and practically no (but very mushy) wafers. This was not a satisfying meal. Sad to drive two hours for this poor result. The management and kitchen staff must be totally different than a year ago. read more

This is the place. Traveled here to get away from crowds and it worked. This is a beautiful wild sanctuary with wonderful lodging, a perfect lake, sunsets, trails, boat rental, big warm swimming pool, and excellent food. You can't go wrong staying here. And a large campground with camp store. They are cleaning extra well because of COVID-19. Kentucky has great state parks and this one is superior. About 10 minutes to town for groceries, etc. Gas stations close also. Relaxing and friendly staff. read more

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Visited in Jan 2020. We came out for the Elk Tour. They offer an overnight stay package that includes 2 tickets for the Elk Tour, dinner at the grill, and a light breakfast before the tour. This place does allows dogs for an extra $30 fee. I was surprised how nice and clean the rooms was and the amnesties. Small fridge was in the room along with caribou coffee and coffee maker, hair dryer, soaps, decent TV channels and excellent cell phone coverage. The only issue I had was after I showered I noticed my hair smelled of sulpher. Ick. If you visit bring plenty of bottled water as I wouldn't want to drink too much tap water here. We will definitely be back as we enjoyed our stay. Food at the grill is OK, not great. I would like to try one of the specialty dinners they offer throughout the year...the Elk dinner was highly recommended. Elk tour: very educational and we did see several elks plus a light breakfast was included. We met at the lodge lobby at 6am and finished the tour around 10:30am. read more

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This review is for the campground, which currently doesn't have its own Yelp page. We were there for Memorial Day weekend. We booked months in advance since it was a holiday weekend. As with any Kentucky State Parks, you have to book through Reverse America. I hate that! Why? Because of the $7 reservation fee. It's not like any other state park that I've been to. I think the employees and management do an awesome job putting their personal takes on the grounds, activities and overall atmosphere. The locals are amazing and nice. Just like most KY State Parks, the majority of the campers are locals. My husband was born and raised in Eastern KY, so we try to get back at least once a year. We thought that JW would be closer to Paintsville, but it wasn't all that close after all. So, if you're looking for a certain distance of convenience factor, map it out before going. We arrived fairly late on a Friday. They were hosting a line dance class and people were crowded around the amphitheater area. I was too tired to join, but it looked fun. Speaking of fun, after check-in, they gave us an activity schedule and it was like 5 pages long, full of activities that would appeal to most. I have to admit, I was a party pooper that trip and didn't partake. There were 3 different sections of the campground and other than the sewer hookups only available at certain sites, all the sites were great and equally recommendable. Our site backed up to a small creek. The sites in the middle area were pull through. They currently don't offer wifi at the sites, but there is wifi surrounding the camp store. We sat at the camp store porch area, briefly, a few times to check email and such. Each time, every single person that passed or went into the store, either stopped to chat for a bit or gave at least a casual "the weather is great" comment. Eastern Kentuckians, I love y'all! read more

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This review is for Dewey's Bar inside Jenny Wiley State Resort Park... I was in town on business and stayed on the property.. Food is ok, Bartender Lady was very uknowledgeable about drinks, service is ok, when I was there it was kinda busy and you had to leave you're table to go to bar to order you're drink or get service most of the time... hours were posted online as 4pm to 11pm, Restaurant closed a little after 10pm on a Saturday.. If I knew this previously, I would have booked my stay elsewhere... If you're out for mediocre service and food this is you're place... read more

The food at dinner and breakfast was really bad. The large dinner salad was all iceberg lettuce. The bun for the catfish sandwich was hard. At breakfast the biscuit sandwich was burned. The ham was dried and overcooked. read more

This review is for the campground. Sites are okay size. Many in loops B and C are sloped but some have sewer hookup. The campground has recycling and many trashcans close to sites that they empty daily. Offered some activities like line dancing. There is a small playground and run down basketball pad. The bath houses were decent. The campground is tight when full. The dump station was in an inconvenient place. The campground had a shabby feel. The state park is run down. There is not a visitors center. The lodge and restaurant were smelly so we didn't eat there. The theatre and other places are badly in need of a paint job. I would suggest staying at Paintsville Lake State Park instead. read more

The facilities could use a face-lift but rooms are comfortable and clean. I mean, it's a state park, not the Waldorf. They seemed really under-staffed while we were there, with lots of little things left undone - I walked by a towel left outside one of the rooms that never got picked up, that kind of thing. The food though, ugh. Everything tasted like it had been sitting in a semi truck for a few days. For a state institution you'd think they'd have more local stuff on the menu than a few meats (that are then cooked to death). They do have alcohol now, so that's a plus, but I'd recommend hitting Lizzie B's about 10 minutes down the road if you want a good meal! read more

Avoid staying here. It's NOT that nice but the Staff and Lobby is the Best part. The bar is never open. No fridge or microwave. The whole wall with the TV has NO working outlets in the room I was in. Nothing delivers to eat plus everything to eat is closed by 9 and 10. Multiple time they would be out of towels or only give one for a double room. Didn't have heat in the whole hotel for first 3-4 days. Power went out one night for only 15 min but no hot water for 2.5hrs. I Wouldn't call it a resort. C- hotel in the woods maybe. Whole place needs updated. read more

This entire place was a joke! We rented one of the cottages because we thought it would be more private. So not true! The morons in the duplex threw a party. You could hear it straight through the doors. There was someone who really needed their revolting cough checked out by a skilled physician. Turned on the tv. Didn't help. Called the front desk around 4 in the morning. Begged, beseeched, & pleaded for check-out one measly hour later to sleep. They're check-out is a ridiculous 10:00 btw. The answer was NO. I was offer park rangers or a free breakfast. Their restaurant is moronic, as well. The waitress didn't know the drinks. We had to request menus 3 times. The waitress for the table behind us didn't know the drinks either. That couple asked what we were having. We finally walked out. The trail by our cottage was covered in caution tape. Got suckered in & payed WAY too much for a weekend to forget. read more

I am so upset! We booked a cabin in February, we had been planning a girls trip for months! The day before we were due to check in me and my friend stopped in to see which cabin we would be in so we would know where to tell everyone. We were informed we would be in a cabin between 407-410. The next day we all get there I go to check in and the lady at the front says a maintenance problem has all of the sudden occurred. Mind you no one bothered to call and tell me! There where no other cabins available and the man at the front also states that they had actually over booked a cabin. So this is around 7:00 pm, me and my friends drive around the cabins and ALL cabins are occupied by people! So after months of planning and people coming from different states we had no where to go! They offered us a room in the hotel which has bed bugs!!!! I would not recommend this place to anyone! If they are so inconsiderate and don't care about their guest enough to care about ppls plans or know what they are doing and have the sense not to over book. So are months of planning, time and money was for nothing. And they never even cared enough to call and tell me before we drove all that way. read more

Went here for a family reunion over this past weekend October 14,2016. First off we were supposed to have four cabins together and they gave one of the cabins away. My mother set this all up and spoke with the Manager Christy several times to arrange things. When we got there Christy was not there and the staff on duty was unable to help us... like oh well! My mother asked for a call from Christy when she got to work that day but she never called. So one of our family ended up in another cabin down the road. There was some kind of odor in the cabin we couldn't find where it was coming from. Then we went to eat dinner at the Dining Hall and they had a Democratic Party meeting there. We were told we could order off the menu but it would be approximately 45 min-1 hr before we would get it. We were offered to eat from the buffet which we did the food was ok. This was our first and last reunion there! read more

Very cool place Great staff and wonderful views. The Marina staff was awesome and the boat rental experience was great! I would recommend a trip to this part of KY . If u require or absolutely have to have sewage hookup make sure to ask before reserving Also depending on the time of the year you attend watch for snakes. There are poisonous snakes in this neck of the woods read more

Jenny Wiley State Resort Park - Sitting on the lake enjoying the view! - Hotels Near Me - Prestonsburg, Kentucky

Stopped by for a last minute stay. Seems like a nice place and the staff was nice. First set of room keys didn't work... neither did the second. Apparently they had been having trouble with that particular door, so switched us to a different room. Rooms are standard rooms. No complaints there, it was clean with a comfortable bed. (Although, after a trip out, one of the keys to our new room did not work. Luckily, the second one did. May be time to do some upgrades. ). Breakfast was a bust. The eggs were terrible: slimy with little taste. I had to keep pouring salt and pepper on them to give them any kind of texture and taste. Sausage was way overdone, dry and crumbly. Breakfast potatoes were good and the wife said her pancakes were very good. read more

This review is for May Lodge specifically room 103. This is an ADA accessable room. We booked through an online site and requested an accessable room, the hotel sent an email confirmation. When we arrived, they had put us in a regular room, to their credit they quickly changed the room to one with wheelchair access. Room 103 has a serious musty odor. Since it was just an overnight, and we only planned on being in the room to sleep we did not complain. Instead we continued with our plans and stopped to get some Lysol before going back to the room that evening. The musty smell permeated EVERYTHING that went into the room including the wheelchair cushions! All items that went into the room had to be washed several times before the smell came out. All things considered, the room was nice, not "resort" nice, but State Park nice. It is a shame that the wheelchair accessible room provided for us stinks. The is not a "house keeping" problem, the room appears very clean. The real problem is a leak somewhere and mold was allowed to grow and not properly removed by building maintenance. On a positive note, we went to the restaurant for breakfast and the food was absolutely terrific! If I were giving stars for the restaurant only.... 5 stars easily! read more

My husband and I are camping there this weekend while we watch our son play in a golf tournament nearby. We are in the A section and it is very quiet and nice. Right now I am sitting outside listening to the birds getting ready for bed and watching families enjoying the evening visiting and riding bikes while my husband and our dog are playing down at the lake. A man even came over this morning to chit chat with my husband while he was sitting outside. The employees are very nice and helpful and we took advantage of the "stay two nights, get a third free". Since the campground is so close to the golf course, we were able to bring our dog and run over and take her out for walks during the day. They taught line dancing this evening and had a college football game showing, for anyone wanting to watch. There is definitely lots to do here! I love this place and will come back! Oh, and it has an ice cream truck that goes around! read more

Loved this park. Very well planned out. Nice trails,nice landings on lake to park your boat or pontoon at, great park near dam.cottages are very nice and staff was super helpful and friendly. Pool needs updated. Seen lots of deer.lots of pull offs with pickinic tables to view lake read more

I tried to put zero but the website wouldn't allow me. My bed was infested with bed bugs and I was eaten alive. The cabins are run down and dirty. Save your money and do not stay here. read more