Sandy Point Lodge & Resort — Hotel in Fort Frances

We arrived at our cabin and the first thing we saw was the beach, cluttered with toys and wooden boards. My first thought was getting a nail stuck in my foot. The dock was twisted and broken. We unpacked our belongings into our cabin and I went to wash my hands. When I turned the hot water on, I immediately smelt a rotten egg smell, which is from the water heater because I work on them. My mom wanted to connect to WiFi and went to the office to ask for the password. The boy working there gave her a password to use. It didn’t work, and after several attempts, he finally gave her the correct password. She said thank you, but before she left he was smart with her and tried to make her feel stupid for not knowing the password. I went to dry out a glass in the sink and filled it with water. I was about to take a sip of water and smelt something bad. I dumped the water out and smelt the towel. The towel smelt dirty and the other towels were wrinkly, making me think they weren’t cleaned. I went to the office to tell them about the smell and to get new towels and rags. Again, the same kid looked at me like I was stupid and just gave a smirk. He said he’d go and replace them for me, and he came back with only rags, and no towels. I told him there were only rags there and we needed towels to dry the dishes. He said they were towels, and I told him they are rags, and he acted like he didn’t care. I asked him again and he said, “ok, I’ll go check again”. He came back with 2 dish towels this time. We were very upset with the way we’d been treated so far and the condition of things. We wanted to change resorts, but worried about nothing being available. The next morning we were making breakfast and my mom wanted to make coffee. She said “look at this” and I came over and she showed me mold in the coffee pot. We took it over to the office, and the same kid from the previous day came in and we showed him the mold. He was smirking again and asked “What do you want me to do? Clean it?”, and we said no and told him we wanted to talk with the owner of the resort. We started listing off all of the things we were dissatisfied with and he said “well, if you stay here you’ll probably start noticing all kinds of other things, too. He said they experienced a flood four years ago and were still rebuilding, trying to make it an excuse for the poor service and unclean cabin. We had drove to another resort that morning and it looked nothing like our resort, didn’t look like they were recovering from a flood. They told us the reason for the messy beach area was because of all the children, but that doesn’t explain wooden boards all over the ground and who knows what else that could poke somebody’s foot. The owner finally arrived and we told her about our experience so far and said that we’d like to leave and get our money back. You would think most places would do this for all of the issues we’d had in just 24 hours. Instead, she tried to come up with more excuses about everything, and said that they’d provided great service so far. They said the best they could do is let us leave and not charge us for the rest of the week, but keep our $400 deposit. We already had a cabin held for us at another resort and just wanted to leave, so we said ok and left. A couple of days later we were thinking about it more and thought that it would only be fair if they refund us the entire amount. We called them and she answered. We told her we’d like the $400 deposit back and she refused, stating once again that they’d provided great service to us and had to wash our dirty dishes after we left. We told her that we would be taking it up with the Better Business Bureau and she said ok, and hung up on us. They have an excuse for everything, they can’t take any criticism, and they act like they’re going out of their way to...

We arrived at our cabin and the first thing we saw was the beach, cluttered with toys and wooden boards. My first thought was getting a nail stuck in my foot. The dock was twisted and broken. We unpacked our belongings into our cabin and I went to wash my hands. When I turned the hot water on, I immediately smelt a rotten egg smell, which is from the water heater because I work on them. My mom wanted to connect to WiFi and went to the office to ask for the password. The boy working there gave her a password to use. It didn’t work, and after several attempts, he finally gave her the correct password. She said thank you, but before she left he was smart with her and tried to make her feel stupid for not knowing the password. I went to dry out a glass in the sink and filled it with water. I was about to take a sip of water and smelt something bad. I dumped the water out and smelt the towel. The towel smelt dirty and the other towels were wrinkly, making me think they weren’t cleaned. I went to the office to tell them about the smell and to get new towels and rags. Again, the same kid looked at me like I was stupid and just gave a smirk. He said he’d go and replace them for me, and he came back with only rags, and no towels. I told him there were only rags there and we needed towels to dry the dishes. He said they were towels, and I told him they are rags, and he acted like he didn’t care. I asked him again and he said, “ok, I’ll go check again”. He came back with 2 dish towels this time. We were very upset with the way we’d been treated so far and the condition of things. We wanted to change resorts, but worried about nothing being available. The next morning we were making breakfast and my mom wanted to make coffee. She said “look at this” and I came over and she showed me mold in the coffee pot. We took it over to the office, and the same kid from the previous day came in and we showed him the mold. He was smirking again and asked “What do you want me to do? Clean it?”, and we said no and told him we wanted to talk with the owner of the resort. We started listing off all of the things we were dissatisfied with and he said “well, if you stay here you’ll probably start noticing all kinds of other things, too. He said they experienced a flood four years ago and were still rebuilding, trying to make it an excuse for the poor service and unclean cabin. We had drove to another resort that morning and it looked nothing like our resort, didn’t look like they were recovering from a flood. They told us the reason for the messy beach area was because of all the children, but that doesn’t explain wooden boards all over the ground and who knows what else that could poke somebody’s foot. The owner finally arrived and we told her about our experience so far and said that we’d like to leave and get our money back. You would think most places would do this for all of the issues we’d had in just 24 hours. Instead, she tried to come up with more excuses about everything, and said that they’d provided great service so far. They said the best they could do is let us leave and not charge us for the rest of the week, but keep our $400 deposit. We already had a cabin held for us at another resort and just wanted to leave, so we said ok and left. A couple of days later we were thinking about it more and thought that it would only be fair if they refund us the entire amount. We called them and she answered. We told her we’d like the $400 deposit back and she refused, stating once again that they’d provided great service to us and had to wash our dirty dishes after we left. We told her that we would be taking it up with the Better Business Bureau and she said ok, and hung up on us. They have an excuse for everything, they can’t take any criticism, and they act like they’re going out of their way to...

The short response is, the location is great, the lodging has a nostalgic feel of the classic outdoor experience and the staff and service of this family owned and operated resort were exceptional. Next time we are in northern Minnesota we are coming back here in a heartbeat.

Keep reading for more details - to give some background, my wife and I are fishermen and also love to visit national parks (Voyageurs was our 55th Nat. Park). For those visiting Voyageurs, this is in the "middle" of the park (that you can drive to), so the location is perfect to use as a base. It's about 45 min from either the Rainey Lake or Ash River visitor centers and the Lake Kabetogama visitors center is just down the road. As for fishing, this is a premiere lake for Walleye. If you've got kids, they can fish right off the dock (the resort has gear they can borrow) and some of the cabins are right on the water as well. So, we asked Al (one of the owners) about doing what I call a "Fish and Park" day package, and what he put together was great! We started off the morning with a few hours of guided fishing on one of their boats, came back briefly to grab our hiking gear, then fished a little more before they dropped us off at the Elsworth Rock Garden, then picked us up again and took us to the Locator Lake trail, and then a couple hours later picked us up, have a little more tour of Lake Kabetogama (with lots of information about the more recent history of the area) before returning to the resort. To cap things off they also cooked the fish we caught for our (very delicious) dinner. This was a great experience and over the course of the day talking with Al, Tanner, Brooke as well as Owen it showed their pride and dedication to providing a great experience for their clients. This was one of our best experiences in any of our travels (to national parks or otherwise).

On a final note, this would also be a great place for astrophotography. One of my hobbies is astrophotography and although I wasn't able to bring my equipment on this trip, it is in a dark sky location (Bortle 1 or 2) and of course if solar weather is favorable there is a chance to see the...