Vacationland Estates — Hotel in Island Falls

Our family had exchanged our timeshare week through Interval International to Vacationland Estates. We were originally scheduled to go to a different location in North Carolina, but we found in March that the resort had suffered hurricane damage and would not be open in time for when we were visiting in June 2019. This resort had availability and we made the decision to come here. We have never been to Island Falls, ME before and decided to give this place a shot for a week. We had read the reviews of the resort prior to coming and had some concerns of things to do here.||||So you know, the resort is situated in the mountains with a beautiful view. The resort is located in a remote area and we did not have a cellular phone signal from our carrier Tmobile here and could not make calls or receive or send textt messages.||||There are multiple buildings for guests to stay in and each unit has 2 floors with steps to a loft area. We had a 2 bedroom unit with an additional loft area with a bed and there was a bathroom upstairs off of the master bedroom and there is another bathroom downstairs. ||||The unit reminded me of a cabin in the mountains where it was all wood inside and it looked like the type of wood was pine. It was nice. The unit had a full kitchen as well with a full sized refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher and double sink and an electric stove and oven. The kitchen is fully stocked with utensils, pots and pans and also has a toaster as well. Units are provided several trash bags and dishwasher packets underneath the sink. There is dishwashing liquid underneath the sink also. There is a small kitchen table with 5 chairs.||||The living room area has a sofa, recliner and rocking chair and a table.||||The unit has free high-speed internet access as well. We had no issues connecting to the wi-fi and was adequate for our purposes. The resort offers free coffee and doughnuts on Monday mornings. There is also a heated indoor pool, hot tub and sauna. There is no outdoor swimming pool. There is also an exercise room as well for guests and an arcade. The arcade has a air hockey table, pool table and ping pong table. It cost 50 cents to play air hockey and $ 1.00 for a game of pool. Guests can rent pinh pong paddles from the front desk and return them when done. There is also a library as well and DVD's that guests can rent to watch in their units. There is a DVD player in the living room area.||||There is a control for the heating and air conditioning unit in the living room area. This is mainly only for the living room area. There is a floor fan in the closet in the downstairs bedroom and the upstairs bedroom as well that we used. It was a little warm upstairs and we need some air circulation. There is a ceiling fan above the bed at the top of the stairs in the loft area.||||Our unit was clean and comfortable. Units offer satelite tv service through Spectre.||||The resort has a tennis court, basketball hoop and horseshore pits for fun with family and friends.||||The resort has quiet time from 10pm to 8am on a daily basis. Guests need to be quiet and respectful of others. The entire area is very quiet and peaceful to begin with.||||Please note that since the resort is located in such a remote area, you will need to drive to get to restaurants, grocery stores, shopping etc. The nearest food store is Jerry's Foodstore in Island Falls, which is about 3 miles from the resort. The next nearest food store is a Walmart about 40 minutes away in Houlton, ME. There is a grocery store located by Walmart in Houlton. The walmart is not a superstore and does not have everything you may need. Most other attractions like Mt. Chase, Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, Seiders Hill-Top Lanes are all anywhere from 25 to 40 miles away via back roads and I-95.||||The resort has onsite laundry facilities and there are several coin operated washers and dryers that cost $ 1.00 in quarters to operate. There is a separate laundry room in building one and there are not washers and dryers in the unit.||||There is a golf course on the premises as well.||||Nearby restaurants include:||||The Slice at VaJoWa in Island Falls, ME||Birchpoint campground restaurant||Craig's Clam shop||Flatlanders||Brenda's restaurant||The Hangar pizza & subs||||The Slice and Birchpoint are the closest restaurants to the resort. Other than that, expect to drive at least 20-45 minutes to get to most of the others.||||There is a gas station Circle K open 24 hours that is located off of exit 286 of I-95 that is the nearest gas station to the resort.on Oakfield Smryna Rd in Oakfield, ME.||||We saw some deer but no moose while staying here but saw lots of birds.||||The shower pressure was good and the bathrooms were clean and adequate. the resort offers towel exchange for bath towels, wash clothes, etc.||||The resort also has planned activities each week so please be sure to check out the schedule to see if you are interested to going to one of the activities.||||Overall, we had a good and relaxing time while...

Fantastic no-fuss "camp" experience for a former local coming back for a visit.

Full disclaimer- My grandfather built a camp on the lake at the bottom of the hill more than 50 years ago. Back then they had to bring the wood and other building materials across the ice during the winter since their parcel of land didn't come with a road. At some point, a rudimentary dirt road was built, the camp stayed in the family, and I spent several summers and winter vacations there. I have driven past Vacationland Estates many times but not really "seen" the property.

Anyway, this place is amazing. The beds are not king size, and the property is an older one, but log cabin construction never goes out of style and fits in well with the rural landscape. The exterior walls are about 5" thick solid timber and all the walls and ceilings of every building are 100% real wood. The furniture is all solid wood too.

Our unit was exceptionally clean, and the beds, while firm, definitely did the job. I can't remember the last time that the entire family slept past 8:30am. We never ran out of hot water for the wonderful shower either.

We traveled by car (as opposed to people who may arrive by snowmobile) and there is a grocery store about 10 minutes away with most everything you could want, and several non-chain local restaurants within a 25 minute drive. Canada is close enough to visit in a morning or afternoon.

The really great thing about this place is how it brought our family together after a long season of too much working / not enough family time. The cooking/dining/living area are open and large enough for 6 people to move around in while still being cozy. There are lots of extra chairs in case more guests come by. The first floor has a bedroom and the cooking/dining/living area. The 2nd floor is loft style, ours had the master bedroom and an extra bed in the hallway. There is all the privacy you need (more than a hotel room anyway), while still being cozy enough that our family of 4 who normally lives in a 2BR apartment felt physically closer. And that's a good thing.

You'll need a 20 minute car ride to go nearly anywhere but the drive through the beautiful forested countryside to get groceries/dinner/shopping helped to break the day up, reset any arguments, physically put the whole family together, and provide time for planning the next part of our day.

In short, you may or may not have a good time here. But I can't think of a place more conductive to making good memories with the people you are staying or...

|To be fair if II could give it 3.5 stars that would be the rating.|The unit was very clean, adequate linens, towels etc. were provided and the kitchen was extremely well stocked with appliances and utensils|That said the place definitely have seen better days and IMHO some upgrades would be welcomed.|Some of the electrical appliances had to be "prodded" into turning themselves on, the prep-knives were dull.|There were no screen on the patio door - not sure if that was normal or just this unit|While the staff was quite friendly we had a problem with the A/C upon checking in (couldn't turn it on and the place was HOT) The front clerk said he'll send someone right over but that never happened (thankfully we eventually figured it out ourselves).|The Internet was down when we checked-in (the storm knocked the power down) and we didn't get anything (incl. TV) for 2.5 days. Even after it was back, my WIFI was spotty at best, continued to disconnect itself randomly and often.|The communal building (pool, exercise room & game room) feel and smell very musty, so were only able to use each once.|The place itself is in quite remote area, definitely a plus for those who is looking for peace and quiet - just be aware that it takes quite some driving to get anywhere (i.e. Baxter Park, Katahdin Woods, et al).|There are 2 restaurants (we tried The Slice and it was very good) and 1 grocery store (Jerry's - very well stocked and they do pizzas & sandwiches as well) but that's about it. NO FINE DINING if you'd be looking for that|Just for the kicks - you are roughly 30 mins from Haulton, ME and Canadian Border so if so inclined - grab your passport and cross over.|Again, folks are very nice so its a bit of a shame that some things are not totally...