The quietly cultured town of Idyllwild, set a mile high in the San Jacinto Mountains, is one of our favorite weekend getaway locales, and whenever possible, we always try to take advantage of any lodging deals in the area. When a 2-night LivingSocial deal popped up I jumped at a chance to spend another budget weekend on "The Hill".
The Strawberry Creek Bunkhouse is a cute little motel off the side of Highway 243, and it's only a few minutes drive from the center of the village. However, many of the other reviewers are correct about this place: small rooms, thin walls- just remember that there are certain caveats to staying here, so it's best to get some 411 before your expectations get crushed.
We stayed in room #2, and when I made the reservation, I was warned that it was the closest room to the highway. However Hwy 243 is not the Sepulveda Pass; the traffic on this road is such that at night, there isn't a whole lot of commuting going on. Yes, you can hear the cars drive by- every once in a while, that is. The walls, however, ARE thin, and you'll be able to hear your neighbors very clearly, In fact, from 9:00PM to 9:00AM, a rule card states to please not make any noise, which includes speaking loudly, watching TV with the sound on, or- well, you know.
During the winter, I'm sure the rooms can get cold- ours did- especially the tiny bathroom's tile floor and the toilet seat. You won't get frozen to either one, but it can be quite a shocker during midnight trips to the toilet with mile-high winter temperatures. Our room did come with two portable heaters that were already on when we checked in, but during the night, we turned them off for fear of burning the place down.
A few personal (and weird) experiences concerning this place:
I discovered I do not like waffle weave blankets. Our blanket, although light, kept us perfectly warm, but the texture of the waffling was a weird sensation to me during the first night. The second night we also used the duvet cover and the reassuring weight helped a little bit.
The bed itself seemed fine, but for some strange reason it gave both of us a really fitful sleep. I don't know if the bed was too soft or what, but it was just strange. Another very strange thing about our bed is that although we were told it was a queen bed, it seemed a lot smaller than our bed at home.
We both found our room strangely claustrophobic, even though we could see that there was clearly room to move around. Our room, cabin #2, actually sleeps three so there was also a twin bed between the front window and our bed, which was probably what caused this cramped feeling. Our room's flat screen TV was also mounted in a way that I actually banged my head on it once, and made a big sound. I think it was during quiet hour, too.
I can't speak for the other cabins' bathrooms, but one major pet peeve I had with our bathroom? The shower- the temp was fine, and the shower was cramped, but the shower head didn't shower you so much as it aggressively misted you. This is fine on a hot summer day, but on our winter weekend, I immediately regretted not washing my hair at home before coming up here. I think this probably to conserve water, so a heads up if you're thinking of enjoying a nice, long hot shower.
Other than these weird complaints I had regarding our stay, the people who run the place are very nice and thoughtful, and do their best to keep the motel running. They made sure the heaters were on so our room was nice and toasty, and our breakfast basket arrived right on time at 9:00AM- the homemade scones with the jam were a nice start to the morning.
Our room had a small kitchenette that opens up to the outside patio, with a small 'fridge, microwave, dinnerware and cups, and silverware, along with a small coffee maker. Just remember that another rule of staying here is that you must wash whatever dishes or utensils you use. Incidentally, the hot water in our unit's kitchenette was busted so we tried not to use the supplied dishes and cups too much.
In short, it's good to know in advance what sort of things to expect when staying here. For the money we spent on our stay, the only real complaint I have is the anemic shower head in our unit, along with the resulting shower experience. Other than that, everything else was fine. We were in Idyllwild to relax, and our room was the perfect place to do so.
The Strawberry Creek bunkhouse is a typical cozy, family-run motel. As long as you know what you're getting into, this little roadside motel is a nice, little base camp for your weekend adventures. read more