Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort — Hotel in Buena Vista

My husband and I just stayed here. We often take trips in the mountains and usually go to resorts as we are big fans of spa services and fine dinners.

The Room: We got a Creekside room and absolutely loved it. We couldn't have been sleeping more than 30 feet from the rushing water and it was a huge highlight of the trip. Our room also had a small kitchenette equipped with everything but a stove. We spent a good amount of time on the balcony just enjoying the sound of the water. A good note: they soundproofed the rooms very well so when you close the door you can't hear the rushing waters. We left our door cracked at night though so we could use the river as our noise machine! Very relaxing room.

The Food: The market they have here is pretty pricey and offers gas station options. Literally. The pizza we ordered our first night was the same one advertised at the gas station before we got to the resort. They just add toppings to the frozen cheesed and sauced dough. The Mary Murphy Steakhouse, not what I would call "Fine Dining" but okay enough. Don't be surprised if you see people in shorts and tank tops here. Definitely a bit noisy and none of the bells and whistles you usually expect when dropping $200 on a dinner for two. The food was alright. Not super imaginative but what can you expect when it's the only restaurant around? Lack of competition has made this place more of a fancy Chili's than an Ocean Prime or Shannahan's. Don't get the cheese plate. 3 kinds of cheddar and nothing else but crackers? Sheesh. They weren't even cut nicely, just oversized chunks. I will say the bartender was pretty fantastic. The cocktails and wine choices were good and it seemed he was the only person in the whole restaurant not phoning it in. The Princeton Slipper was delicious and he made a killer Washington Apple. Next time we will just stay at the bar.

The Hot Springs: Both the slide and the Creekside hot springs were currently closed on our trip. They did not advertise this very well beforehand, but I understand why. You don't want to lose customers bc some of your main attractions aren't open year round so you kind of bury those details until check in. We did enjoy the other pools and were pleased with the warmth and smell of them. They had almost no sulfur smell that is usually associated with hot springs. We ended up spending most our time at the relaxation pool at the spa bc it was 16 years old and up. This, however, did not stop a couple from bringing their baby in which was annoying. They did not even swim so why not just go right over to the family area and sun tan there? I very much enjoyed the cold plunge and found it to actually be not nearly as cold as some others I have been in.

The Spa: I have been to many resorts and I have been to many spas and Mt. Princeton had spa services at resort prices with NONE OF THE USUAL PERKS. Where was the fruit water? The teas and coffees? The fresh fruit? The relaxation room? The overall spa vibe? No, there was a rec center-esque locker room and a co-ed waiting room with a singular water station with plain water and nothing else! No relaxing music, no eucalyptus smell, no snacks, no magazines, nothing. If I am paying upwards of $200 for EACH massage I expect them to end with a small bowl of antioxidant rich berries. Honestly, I paid $80 for a massage once and still got the berries! Not to mention the massage bed was cold. Never have I gotten into a cold massage bed. With all that said, my massage was good. I got a deep tissue and the man who performed it did a good job and some solid work. My husband's masseuse not so much. He even thought she might be sick and that's why she had some trouble. The resort really needs to step up their game with the spa bc industry standards for those prices demand a lot more.

The Juice Bar: This was actually the thing I was most looking forward to as I LOVE JUICE BARS and I was psyched to spend a weekend poolside with some wheatgrass shots. Yeah, they don't really serve juices anymore. (continued on...

I submitted this comment through the online portal but did not receive a response. So here is a fair warning for others. Take it as you will.

I have been coming to this resort for 10 years for my spouses birthday. It has always been a good experience but this year was different.

Prior to arriving, we received a phone call around 3:48 PM that we needed to move our dinner reservation at the restaurant from our original time of 5:30PM to either 5:15pm or 8:15PM because "it was going to be really crowded". We live 2.5 hours away so this was a bit inconvenient as we planned things accordingly and not arrived for check in yet. I also want to note I made this reservation weeks in advanced so the lack of planning on the restaurants side felt odd.

When we first arrived around 4PM, check in took about 30-40 minutes (this is okay) as we figured other guests were checking in as well. After waiting we get check in at about 4:50-5:00pm we were given I believe room 49. We were told that we had to wait about 10 minutes because the door wouldn't connect to our keycard for that duration. That was also a bit off but for the inconvenience we were given two drink tickets to have at the bar which was a nice way to offset the time. Although around this time it was 5:05 and we still had our luggage and belongings, and also with our dinner reservation being forced to 5:15PM it felt strenuous. We stood around, got checked into our room, dropped off our belongings and went straight to dinner.

Dinner was delicious. The only complaint we had here was that the same hostess who called us to change our reservation- we kindly requested a table near the windows as the restaurant had many open tables. She stated that those tables were only meant for four people (which makes sense) but there were three other pairs of couples at those tables "meant for four". So that did not make sense. She reluctantly sat us down. At the end of dinner, our waitress lost our credit card when we paid our tab. She asked us to wait a minute and started looking on the floor just in case she dropped it, so at the end of the dinner we were all looking on the floor for it. She found it at her pay station and we grabbed our card and left.

My SO and I go back to the hotel to freshen up before soaking for the evening and there are beard hairs in the sink and also big brown/black stains in the curtains. We understand the hotel may need some maintenance but the beard hair was very off putting.

We enjoyed our soak at the hot spring. Toward the end of the evening a faculty member shined a flashlight in the pool requesting to see wristbands. This has never happened to us before but we figured maybe in the past people were trespassing, so understandable. We showered in the spa bathrooms since our hotel bathroom was not cleaned, but the floors of the women's bathroom was very dirty with debris and trash.

We go back to our hotel room to rest and we are next to a fenced in area where the trash is. It was a very windy night, and so throughout the evening, we were awaken by constant clashing of the fence and trash can lids opening and closing. It stopped some time in the morning, but was not a restful evening. I know the weather cannot be helped but maybe securing the fence to the trash cans/lids prior to closing would be thoughtful to the guests who are staying there.

Check out went smoothly and we had breakfast which was a 10/10.

A long but winded review of our experience. Feeling very apprehensive about the conditions of the facility for a potential next stay...

I am very saddened by my experience at Mount Princeton, as I was super excited for my stay there. I've been in years past just for the hot springs, but it seems as though a lot has changed since.

I arrived with my party around 7:30pm after working an event in Buena Vista all day. I ended up having to bring my kiddo, and when I disclosed that to the front desk at check in, I was told they could not accommodate 5 people (4 adults, one 8 year old child) in the room we booked. I was told I'd need to upgrade to a larger room. That was understandable, so for the price of around $400 more (they extended a 10% discount), I was moved to a Creekside Suite.

Upon arrival, we walked into the suite to start getting settled... sadly, we noticed mouse droppings on the kitchen counter. We we to set bags down, and there were more... on the beds... on the couch... on the vents... every single surface and crevice had mouse feces. I called the front desk, and they offered to have housekeeping come or to put us back in "the tiny room" they'd previously told me we couldn't stay in with 5 people for fire safety.

The Houseman arrived and saw the state of the room, called someone, and we were once again moved to a larger cabin up the hill. This cabin was very nice, but dishes were left in the dishwasher, and the fridge hadn't been cleaned out.

By this point, it was 8:45pm, and unbeknownst to us, this hot springs closed at 9 pm... even for guests (I know, we were shocked, too). So, no hot springs for us. We asked the front desk to be sure, and we're rudely told that they've been doing this for years.

We mumbled to each other about having an event all weekend and being upset that we couldn't even utilize the hot springs (the whole reason we got this expensive AF place to stay)... and sat down to decompress. The cabin was too warm so we opened some windows, only to be met with the STRONGEST odor... yep... it was a skunk. We quickly shut all the windows and went to bed.

The next day, leaving for our event, the skunk smell could still be detected near the porch. Without much time (or desire) to investigate, we headed out to our event. We arrived back to Mount Princeton on a break about 1pm and ran to go enjoy at least an hour of hot springs before heading back to work the event. We came back to the cabin after, and the smell of skunk was as strong as ever, so again, we had to keep the windows shut.

I mentioned all of this to the front desk at check out and was basically shrugged off.

I can't say I'll ever go back to Mount Princeton to stay or use their hot springs. What a truly awful experience, with some seriously horrendous service. ... the Houseman was very friendly....