In Wisconsin we have some beautiful areas to vacation, Door County, lake front areas on both Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. We have skiing destinations, forests, rock climbing, and we have the Wisconsin Dells.
If you have never heard of Wisconsin Dells, it’s a summer destination place and is the Waterpark Capital of the world. You will find several water parks, my recommendation is Noah’s Ark, resorts with indoor waterparks, and more hotels than one would expect in a town with less than 3000 people.
When I was younger we went to the waterpark every year, and I loved it. I haven’t been to the waterpark for a few years now, but I would love to do that again with my kids. This past weekend, my daughter had dance competition in the Wisconsin Dells and we spent the whole weekend at one of the resorts that had an indoor waterpark.
Let’s start with the resort, Chula Vista. The resort is huge, it offers a variety of rooms; golf condos, condos, standard rooms. They have space for meetings, conventions, and weddings. The resort offers at least 5 restaurants, pizza, chophouse, Mexican, and your average burgers and other family cuisine. The only restaurant we ate at in the resort was the Kilbourn City Grill. 5/5 Stars
They offered appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, steak, ribs, pasta, and pizza. The food was good. The service was horrible. The servers are either too busy to take care of their guests or they simply do not care to do their jobs. Our server that we had the second night, came to the table only about 5 times all night. And the table next to us had a bigger horror story – they found a bug in their son’s food. Yeah, so we won’t be going there again. 0/5 Stars
The room we had was a condo, it had one king bedroom, and another room with two queen beds. A full kitchen and a pull out couch. So here’s our concern; no maid service even to ask if we needed anything. The pillows were super flat and even with two you still had to fold them over. The room was clean, but the halls needed some updating, cleaning, and maintenance. The room was also not very soundproof. We could hear people outside the hotel carrying on until after 11pm, and running through the halls at all times. 2/5 Stars
The wi-fi didn’t work in the hotel very well nor could you really get any reception. If you tried to navigate through the hotel, take snacks and water as it is a maze with NO signs as to show you where you are nor how to get from one point to another. Luckily we figured it out, but it would have been nice to know if we were on the right path. 1/5 Stars
The indoor waterpark was awesome, it offered numerous slides, for kids as young as a year old, complementary life vests for the younger swimmers. They had a deeper pool for basketball and other water games, and a lazy river that you could walk but was still nice. My girls would still be there if I let them. 5/5 Stars
Overall Chula Vista, for the price you pay, it’s not worth it to me. We would have had a better experience if we had stayed at a smaller hotel and drove to the resort for my daughter’s dance events each day. 2/5 Stars overall.
Now the good, we were in the area for 3 days, so on Saturday we wanted to get breakfast and found a place less than 2 miles away that had good reviews. Stuff’s Restaurant, is a tiny place with maybe 10 tables. https://www.stuffsrestaurant.com/ But what they lack in size they make up for in their staff and their food. The portions are hearty, delicious, and reasonably priced. The waitress was the nicest woman ever and she even gave us coupons for 10% off the next time we visited. 5/5 Stars – Highly recommend.
On Sunday we also went out for breakfast, and another highly rated place, was Myrt and Lucy’s Chat and Chew. http://www.myrtandlucys.com/ This was closer to the downtown area of Wisconsin Dells and was maybe 4 miles from the hotel. They were also busy and it was easy to see why, the food was fabulous. And be sure to go when you are starved. I ordered the pancakes and they were at least 12 inches in diameter. Everything was tasty, and the portion sizes were enormous. 5/5 Stars – Highly recommend.
The next time you decide to vacation in the Waterpark Capital of the World, be sure to check out two local restaurants, that are small businesses who certainly take care of their guests and ensure nobody leaves hungry.
Not all who wander are lost.
Amateur Connoisseur 