Trois Estate — Hotel in Fredericksburg

Purpose of the trip..star gazing , Enchanted Rock hike, unique experience, visit Fredricksburg. Ages 58 and 25, mom and son trip. This is going to be a long review. Trip days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday with check-out on Sunday. We stayed in the Botticelli Room. My recommendation would to stay away from the Lodge rooms unless it is a group function and you all want to be right there together. The Lodge rooms are very small. Temps were in the low 100's- high 90's during the day. We got a couple of evening showers that brought the temp down to the 80's in the evening. Most of our activities were very early morning or later in the evening. Nap in the afternoon hours. Bring snacks, water, drinks, and some food, mosquito spray, sunscreen, hat,and an open mind. Dinner suggestion, go in and look at the food spread first. If you don't like what is there, go into Fredricksburg and eat or bring microwave type food to fix in your room. We ate dinner on site on Friday($74.00 for two), but went to Fredericksburg on Saturday evening to eat.

Arrived at 6:45 pm on Thursday. Found the office , got our envelope with our key and instructions from the after-hours rack. Wi-Fi was available for free and we were able to get Wi-Fi in our room. It felt creepy with no people. We went to the room and dropped our belongings off. We then walked around the property to explore. I wanted to see the lodge rooms. I am glad we did not book those rooms. They are small and not as private. Then we walked to the courtyard. Beautiful...but mosquitos ( bring mosquito spray and you will be fine). We explored the restaurant, and then the Grotto pool, chapel and deck area. We thought we heard voices in the Grotto pool and when we turned the corner knowone was there. Now we are creeped out. The deck had a spectacular view of Enchanted Rock. The atrium below is not for public access. We petted the cats ( they were clean) and headed back to our room. Our room has a room next to us. At this time we were not sure if we were going to stay. Then we heard someone try to open our room door. No one was there. Now we are super creeped out. I decided we will unpack and give this place a chance. When it got dark we went to the deck to stargaze. Amazing...we saw shooting stars. Then we started to see other guests, which eased the creepy feeling. I guess we are used to being around people so much that isolation and exploring the property felt like finding and abandoned village. I AM SO GLAD WE STAYED!!!! Day 2- Saturday - We ate breakfast ( eggs, kebash, pancakes, potatoes,toast, juice, water, little muffins, fruit.). Breakfast is included in your stay. You won't walk away hungry. Then we went swimming in the pool. Our room was close to the pool, but far enough away that we didn't hear people in the pool. The water felt cool and refreshing. The worker checked the pool chemical levels daily. Then I began to relax more after food and a swim. We didn't swim in the Grotto because it was to cold for me. People did swim in there. Our room had a small Jacuzzi tub. It looks too small, but it turned out to be perfect. I soaked in the Jacuzzi tub multiple times during our stay. We went to dinner that night. There was an astronomer on Friday night on the deck. We got to see the moon in his big telescope. The stars were shining, a nice little breeze, people coming up to the deck... relaxing and fun. We headed over to the saloon to listen to music and chill. We met about 15 people in total, we had plenty of personal space. Slept great.

Saturday - 6:30 am - 8:30 am- total time to travel to and from and hike Enchanted Rock. I got back in time for breakfast. Enchanted Rock is a 0.9 mile drive. I went early to beat the heat of the day. The view at the top was worth the hike. My son did not hike. Breakfast was delicious and then we repeated the swimming, afternoon nap, and then went to Fredericksburg to eat at the German restaurant that starts with an A. Explored the property more, stargazed, slept well. Sunday -3:30 am stargazing on our own. 6:30 am -...

I really wish I could give this place the perfect 5-star rating, but I honestly can't for two reasons which I will eventually get to. First of all, we were privileged to stay in the Grotto Suite which is probably their most popular room. I booked this trip back in June and actually had contacted their office several times prior to arriving. The office staff were always very professional and accommodating. They took the time to answer any questions I had and even sent me additional photographs of the room that were not on their website.

Upon our arrival the "after hours" self-check in was easy and convenient. Our room was literally right beside the office where we picked up our key. Let me say this.... the room was awesome! It was definitely the most unique room we have ever stayed in, and we travel a lot! It definitely had a spooky vibe to it if you are into that sort of thing. Here are a few tips if you are considering booking the Grotto Suite.

You get absolutely no cell phone service in this room. None. This was explained to me prior to arrival, and they were not kidding. If you cannot live without cell service or WIFI then pass this room up.

Pack lightly if you are going to stay in this room. If you are a heavy pack rat than be prepared to get your steps in as there are a lot of stairs! Lugging several heavy suitcases up and down the stairs can definitely be exhausting if you are not in shape.

The Grotto is NOT exclusive to the Grotto Suite room. Meaning you will hear other tenants inside the grotto while you are in your room. The grotto pool closes after 10PM but just keep that in mind.

There are two bedrooms in the Grotto Suite. However, there is only one bathroom, and it is semi-private. We were thinking of having some friends tag along but the restroom situation would have been extremely awkward since there is really no door closing off the toilet area.

Now for the negative.... there are honestly just two things that prevented this review from receiving a 5-star review.

There was absolutely NO hot water in the bathroom sink and very minimal water pressure in the bathroom shower. I am talking minimal. Almost to the point of a dripping. After I showered my wife attempted to go right after and it appeared that if you put the shower to the cold water setting you got a little more pressure. But since the temperatures were in the 40's during our stay the last thing, we wanted to do was to take a cold shower before bedtime.

For the rate of $400 a night you would expect to at least have hot water with some decent pressure. Now I was told by one of the employees upon check in that they were experiencing some heating issues, but they were not specific if the issues were just our room or were even water related.

If these issues had not existed this would definitely receive a perfect rating without a doubt. In fact, I wanted to give this a perfect review so badly but again, for the price I paid (Almost $1000 with tax for two nights.) you would think basic amenities like hot water would be included. This could have just been a fluke during our stay which would be just out luck. I am certain if the owners read this and rectify this issue, we would be more than willing to return.

Also on a last note, there are a lot of cats wandering on the property and if you are a cat person than this is definitely the place for you. My wife actually was able to pet several of them as they seemed to be well fed and used to people.

If you are looking for a getaway about 25 to 30 minutes away from the busyness of Main St., then this place delivers all the way around. I wish the weather would have been better during our stay so that we could have really taken part in enjoying the scenic views that this place...

ZERO STARS! We visited property for our Anniversary and to hike the enchanted rock next door. I called prior to to ask about proper heat since it was due to be FREEZING. I was reassured we would be comfy. We stayed in the Grotto suite, which are basically 2 wine cellars converted into rooms. We paid for romace package whoch were a few rose petals on the stairs and 2 dead roses sitting on the table at the foot of the bed. BOTH rooms were too cold to sleep in and I imagine too hot when it's hot out. We had to sleep in our coats! No installation at all. The non working fireplace blasted cold air on us all night. On top of that a dog barjed extremely loud ALL NIGHT LONG (likely because he was freezing). The room was underground and it sounded like the dog was inside the room. The bathroom is so small my husband could not fit in the shower. The bathroom is also attached to the owner's suit with no real privacy. She could open the door at any time you are in there. Very strange. Wine was old and they warned can make you sick. Grotto was not swimmable, although it MAN MADE, not natural and with proper equipment could be swimmable year round. We just looked at it, nothing special. They have a ton of religious memorabilia all around and although we are Jesus followers, it was a little creepy. The breakfast was horrible and sparce. Not even OJ was present. We had to go 35 minute into town for edible food. Hot coffee is not enough to call this a bed and breakfast. Parking was horrible unless you are staying in the lounge. We moved to one of the regular rooms on the second day. The second room was so tiny the doors would not open all the way. Not exaggerating at all. It was horrible. You have to use your own logins to watch tv, which is barely allowed anymore. It was a nightmare, but we tried ro make the best of it. There was an air conditioner in the window and one tiny chair sitting under it. On top of that as soon as night came the entire property went black! The two non-english speaking attendant were confused and could not tell the intoxicated people outside what was happening at all. We (me and the guy in the room next to us) spoke in spanish to them and they said they had alerted the property managers and it would be a long wait to see if someone could come turn the lights back on. Its freezing outside so if course the temperature inside the property starts dropping drastically and immediately. After no communication for hours (texting is really the only way to get a hold of them) we left and I texted the managers we were leaving. 2 months later we NEVER heard back from them. I have called, tried to email to no avail. No partial refund, comp stay nothing! While I understand the weather was out of the ordinary, they knew this prior to and should have made provision or shut down the property if it was not able to run properly. I left in tears sad and frustrated that we had to drive hours to get home and our anniversary was effectively ruined. I stayed in bed all day the next day from exhaustion. $400+ a night??! Never again! There is a reason they only have a FEW photos online. It is not well kept and the excuse they use is that the Pastor owner got divorced and her husband took most of the decorations, art, etc while she kept the property. Barely any effort goes into maintaining this place, its like a dystopia! Dead zone, no life in the property at all, barely any signal or service. The grotto is beautiful but, the discomfort of staying at this property is makes it a hard pass, especially for the price and service you get. We chalked this up to bad luck, but do not make the mistake we did and stay at...