Ponderosa Nature Resort — Hotel in Hamilton

We stayed several days in a private balcony lodge room at Ponderosa, and had a really enjoyable time.||||The parts that we loved:||||Amenities. The facilities are top notch, and literally everything is here. A large pool, a conversation pool, outdoor hot tub, indoor hot tub, indoor pool, sauna, lots of showers, a café, clubhouse, several bars, athletic courts, everything. We particularly liked the waterslide, which was a nude first for us. If it’s a nudist resort amenity you want, it’s here.||||The balcony rooms. The balcony rooms on the pool side are outstanding. It’s your own private balcony, offering nice views of the pools and amenity areas. You can have your own drinks and food on your balcony, and just relax. The experience between a room with a balcony and not would be night and day. Highly recommend the balcony rooms, to the point of coming a different day if one isn’t available.||||The staff. The ladies that work the desk and kitchen were all very nice and accommodating, service was great. The owner even made a point to ask how our stay was going. Everyone that works there is great, and did everything possible to ensure a great stay.||||The parts you might not be quite sure about, but we didn’t mind at all:||||Shared guestroom bathrooms. There are two bathrooms on the guest room level, each a standard residential bathroom with shower, toilet and vanity. Not having a private bathroom in each room wasn’t a big deal at all. It’s not like you have to get dressed to walk a few feet from your room to the bathrooms, we never had to wait. Even if they were full, there are shared bathrooms and communal showers in the clubhouse area downstairs. It just wasn’t a problem.||||No pool heater. The main pool isn’t heated, and was quite cold, even during a hot spell in the middle of July. We were okay with that. The conversation pool IS heated, as well as the hot tubs, if you just want to hang out. The main pool is great for a quick dip to cool off, and is HUGE. I wouldn’t want to pay to heat it either.||||Can’t bring your own alcohol to the pool / clubhouse. Ponderosa has a liquor license and several bars, I had no expectation of being able to BYOB. I know this bothers some people, but I understand it.||||The parts that we would improve:||||RFID wristbands. Ponderosa still uses physical keys, one for your room and a different one to get to the guest level. Each food, beverage or souvenir purchase needs to be made separately, by credit card, Ponderosa gift card, or cash. You have to wear a paper wristband that identifies you as a guest. Please get rid of all of that, and just give me an RFID wristband that opens my room, the door to the guest level, and is linked to my credit card for purchases and identifies me as a guest. These are not expensive anymore, and would be so much easier and more convenient.||||Website. The website is a bit of a train wreck, and doesn’t address a few key questions. Do the rooms have private bathrooms? Which pictures go with which room (hard to tell)? What are the bar/restaurant hours? When is check in? When is check out? The pictures on the website are very limited, really just showing the outdoor pool and conversation pool. There is so much more…..the pictures are also very dated, the pool has been repainted and looks different, the furniture in the rooms is different (although not in a bad way), most of the amenities aren’t even shown at all. We ended up asking many of these questions when we called, but ideally, all of this should be available on the website. It needs a complete overall.||||Non-alcoholic drinks at the pool. As mentioned above, I understand not being allowed to bring your own alcohol to the pool. However, Ponderosa’s policy is not bringing your own drinks of any sort. We understood that to mean not even our own water bottle. While our interpretation may have been too strict, we wanted to be respectful guests and didn’t push it. Make it clear that I can bring my own water at least.||||10 am checkout time. That’s just really early, especially given that the kitchen doesn’t open until 9 am for breakfast. That’s not just the checkout time for the room either, that’s the checkout time for leaving the grounds, unless you want to pay another (slightly discounted) day fee. Give guests ‘til noon please.||||Rate structure. Overall, I thought the room rates were generally fair, with a big caveat – they’re constant. Weekend or midweek, high season or off season, they’re all the same. What is completely fair (if not an outright bargain) for a summer holiday weekend makes no sense at all for midweek offseason. The offerings are far different, the demand is far different. A tiered rate structure with higher rates for extremely high demand times, and lower rates for midweek or offseason should improve revenue, improve off peak occupancy, still maintain peak occupancy, and better match the reality of what a particular stay is worth.||||Overall though, great stay. Great staff and great amenities, and those are the two most...

This is the place to go, in the Toronto-Hamilton are to get topless and bottomless. The 2 times I have been here, the staff (clothed), have been welcoming and very friendly. My wife and I arrived by noon on a hot Monday. We rented a room for the night. On a hot summer day the facilities feel like a Florida or Caribbean tropical escape. The huge pool, conversation pool, and hot tub had lots of social interactions. We met fellow nudists local and from afar with stories of exploration and re-emergence after tragedy. It was a Monday so the place was not too busy however the swim-up bar was open. The three meals we ate there were reasonably priced, hot, and flavour-filled. Breakfast -western sandwich, lunch-caesar wrap, dinner-steak, The kitchen-staff know what they are doing! Drinks are reasonably priced as well with $5 beers and rum 'n' Cokes. You may run a tab when staying in the rooms. The $70 room was good for two with a shared bathroom/shower. With few people around, the bathroom was easily accessible. I understand weekends are much busier. The lounge chairs were easily accessible being a Monday. The eclipse was one afternoon event however for us it was the hot day which brought us there. Our summer weather has been somewhat rainy in southern Ontario this year, so the Monday heat was welcomed. Everyone we spoke to were very friendly and respectful. ||Cell service is sketchy at best in the rural location. ||In the morning when you go for breakfast you may want throw some clothes on. I was the only nude with the staff having coffee. The morning was cool and few guests were around.||All in all, a great welcoming place to explore the free and easy lifestyle. Hats off and clothes off to the owners and staff...

The staff and all of those permanent and seasonal residents were very nice. They had shuffleboard, horseshoe pits and bocce ball etc... but some of it needed some upkeep, but it was still enjoyable.

We didn't eat at the restaurant as we are gluten-free, and most of it was fried or bread based. Pickled eggs were good.

Bar at the pool was closed due to it being a weekday when we stayed. They said it tends to be open on the weekends when there's more people. There was a bar inside the clubhouse, and we had a couple of good drinks there.

When we went, unfortunately the area had had pretty good rain and they also had a lot of mosquitoes. So we didn't get to go out and do a lot of things after dusk.

The grounds were very well maintained, and all of the seasonal and permanent resident units were also well kept. Very cool and little camp areas that showed a lot of personality. We had a lot of fun looking at that. They did have a mosquito person do the grounds, but unfortunately it rained right after they were there.

They have an inside pool and a hot tub. They also have an outside pool hot tub and what they call a conversation pool. That one is heated. Due to it being only the beginning of July, we had to mostly stay in the conversation pool. Very cute, little beachy themed signs all around the pool area.

All in all it was a good experience. We were just sad that we weren't able to be out more to enjoy all the...