Curtis Lezama

Review of The Essex, Vermont's Culinary ...

I will not recommend staying at The Essex. We deci...

I will not recommend staying at The Essex. We decided to stay here as the website stated that the tennis program. When we arrived, the representative at the front desk, had no idea there was a tennis program and was not interested in offering any additional help. We were told that there was no longer a tennis program available.

The buildings are beautiful, but inside the buildings felt like I was staying in a retirement home. I do not think that inside the buildings have been updated since the seventies. Our room was nice and had all the amenities needed for our stay.

On our walk through the grounds, we found the tennis courts. There were six clay tennis courts. These courts were not very well maintained as there were patches of weeds/grass growing on most of the courts. We finally found the pro and was told that we needed to interact with him directly and pay him directly for any clinic or private lessons we wanted to do. I decided not to take any lessons or a clinic as a few of the guests told me that the tennis balls were mostly dead and the level of play was ok.

The food at the resort was good (not great) as the menu was just basic (salads, hamburger, salmon, etc.). I was expecting some creative foods as this is listed as a culinary resort. The service was good as the staff was helpful but was not exceptional. During our meal one evening, the staff started cleaning (sweeping) the floors next to our table. We were just horrified.

I think that this was once a wonderful and a top notch place to stay many years ago, but now, it is not worth staying here as we were very disappointed (especially with the tennis).