Cloudland at McLemore Resort Lookout Mountain, Curio by Hilton — Hotel in LaFayette

My wife and I had the opportunity to stay at Cloudland a few months ago for a weekend getaway. Our experience overall was nothing short of superb.

Dining: Our first meal upon arrival was dinner at Croft. Their description was spot on: Simple yet refined plates that we both enjoyed. We had a coffee the next morning at The Pocket Cafe; they had plenty of options and were a nice quick stop to start off our day with an amazing view of the valley. Around midday we tried some bar food and drinks at Skyside and those were also excellent. We greatly enjoyed a dinner at Auld Alliance. Their dry aged beef was proudly displayed at the front of the restaurant, the decor and environment was superb, and the plates were excellent. Finally we visited The Creag on our way out of the resort on our last day, and despite not being golfers we found it to be a lovely lunch spot with a great view.

Activities: Cloudland offered a few in-house activities that catered to us perfectly. The pool area is spacious and offers an amazing view. The library was a huge surprise to us! A large selection of books and board games, cozy seating with a fireplace and views of the valley, and overall a perfect atmosphere to relax and unwind. More resorts should offer something like this, and we were obviously very impressed. We also enjoyed the walking trails that surround the resort. These were relatively short but offered incredible views and some isolation from the rest of the visitors.

Service: Absolutely incredible service throughout our stay. The valets were respectful of our vehicle, and the online system for retrieving my car was easy to use and effective. The wait staff was also fantastic. To call out a few by name: Devyn was very friendly at The Pocket Cafe. Chris provided great service to us at Croft. Cassie and our host(who’s name I didn’t catch unfortunately) had great recommendations at Auld Alliance and were receptive to any requests we had. Bryan at concierge had an incredible knowledge of the resort’s historical inspiration and had a great recommendation for us to visit the Cloudland Canyon State Park. It was just a short drive away and offered a great hike with views of the waterfalls. These were the most notable staff that we interacted with, but everyone we encountered on our stay was friendly and helpful.

Overall: Our stay at Cloudland was the exact weekend getaway we were hoping for. The resort’s historical inspiration made it a unique location with a story, much more so than your run-of-the-mill resort setting. The location was fantastic, with beautiful views, peace and quiet, and things to explore outside of the property within a short drive’s distance. Although there were several visitors at the property, it did not feel overcrowded which we greatly appreciate. The staff was welcoming and helpful at every turn. We would highly recommend the location to any of our friends.

Things to improve: This being a relatively new property, I imagine these small gripes might be addressed already, but we figured we should mention them in case the staff sees this review. We personally would have liked the option to self-park our vehicle. We understand that valet is common practice but we’d appreciate the option. We were interested in booking a spa session but they did not have any same-day appointments available. I think it might be nice to hold some appointment slots for short notice visits like ours's, but we understand the high demand for the spa. At the least we’d appreciate a notification upon booking our stay that a spa visit might require booking well in advance. Finally, the only issue we noted with our room was that the soap dispensers in the shower felt pretty cheap. The rest of the room by comparison was very nice, that’s why it jumped out to...

My husband and I decided we were going to visit this new hotel/resort for our anniversary and I suppose we had high expectations based on the prices. When we drove into the property, the views were stunning! Initially, we were very excited to be there based on the views alone. When we got into the lobby to check in, the lady behind the desk was average. Not friendly but not unfriendly. I've had friendlier service at Walmart, to be honest. We got into the room and it was very nice. Bathroom was very nice. View , again, was spectacular (we had a balcony that faced the pool/mountains). Went downstairs to the Skybar. View was stunning! Service was subpar & staff was not overly friendly. For dinner, we went to Croft. Debbie, the bartender, was the friendliest person at the whole resort, in my opinion. That evening, we wanted to relax in our room & catch up on some shows (we both work full-time and have kids so this was on our weekend agenda, as trite as it sounds). The TV reminded us of something from the 90's. Couldn't even access the "guide" on the remote to know what's on TV. If you want to stream anything (Netflix, Hulu, etc), you can't. TV isn't set up that way. The bed & pillows were wonderful. We could have easily stayed in bed all day with the sliding glass door open, enjoying the view, & the breeze. Ha ha...but the TV options were very 1994. We heard people outside at the pool, which was heated but it was still kind of chilly for this time of year, and saw kids playing in the pool and in the hot tub. I guess we also had assumed, which is our fault, that because of the location, the golf course, the spa, and the price of this place that Cloudland was going to be more of an "adult" place to relax. It wasn't. Kids were everywhere. In the bar, in the restaurant, in the pool, in the hot tub. I love kids and have two of my own but when you just want to get out of town and relax, I suppose you are hoping that there aren't many kids around. The following day we decided to go up to the golf club for lunch. Again, no one was super friendly. I truly feel that this was the theme of the resort. No one seemed happy to be there and what "nice" smiles we actually saw was completely forced. That night, we went back to the Croft, mainly because of Debbie and to watch football. The manager did not know how to work the TV or the remote to change the football game and had to call maintenance down to help him out (which all of us at the bar thought was comical). This place has the absolute potential to be extraordinary but we left knowing that, unless we hear testimonies from others, we won't be returning. It's a shame, too, because my husband and I are from the Nashville area and know a ton of couples that would easily make the two-hour drive for a short, weekend getaway. We have waited for decades for something like this resort because in Nashville, everything significant is at least a four-hour drive away. If you're going to take anything away from this review, it's this: PROS: Debbie, the bartender, at Croft, the views, the room/bed/pillows/bathroom. CONS: the customer service from essentially every person that works there (and the TV, if that's something you want to enjoy while relaxing),...

Not sure where to begin. We frequent a lot of Curio Collection hotels. We were really hoping to enjoy our stay. We got lost using the address listed online. First address we took on google search led us to the Cloudland State Park, the second attempt took us to an old abandoned area (that even had a street sign that said “golf course rd?”—-very confusing—both of which were 30 mins away from the actual resort causing us to drive an extra hour to find the place. The address used is even listed on the website so we highly recommend just googling the McLemore golf course and the security person at the gate will direct you to the hotel. Security and staff said they were aware of the directions online, they hope to fix it soon. When calling the hotel as we were lost, they provided the same address we used which did not help at all. A bit of a dangerous drive when the fog is heavy too. When we finally pulled into the hotel resort, valet could use a little more upbeat or pleasantry. The front desk did not really accommodate our request of staying in the room we originally booked online showing a view. We were left on the other side with no view. When asked to change, we were told no guarantee of the view and basically gave us the same room# - again no view just one floor above—stating they had no other rooms available. It was odd when it did not seem at all fully booked with that many rooms and not many guest. Given the fact we were already tired from the drive, we just did not say anything further. So even though you book the room showing a view, it was not guaranteed. Also we never even got to see any view throughout our entire stay, it was fogged all over the resort.

Not what we normally experience at a Curio. I understand it just recently opened a few days ago. So there is still a lot of construction that is not complete and the staff just may be adjusting to the grand opening. Absolutely stunning location I’m sure, just disappointing we did not get to fully see everything especially THE VIEW that a lot of the guest recommended. As far as dining, the food was salty. Was hoping to find steak or seafood for such a fine establishment, but the menu is just a few of the same options for both dinner and breakfast. We paid the extra breakfast buffet when purchased online. There is no breakfast buffet (completely fine) but I’m not sure what that fee we paid for has gone towards. We were told from other guest that the clubhouse had a nice restaurant, but we did not have a chance to try it. When trying the coffee shop, the drink I ordered was not available and the barista said unpleasantly they did not have this item but it was on the menu, what she meant was they did not have several of their items just yet, same with the wine list downstairs as well. The other workers at the coffee shop had a nice warm greeting. We are not difficult guest, it was just so hard to not notice these things back to back when we were looking forward to this mini trip. Overall, I do hope that in due time, the resort will offer a better experience. Sad we didn’t get to see the stunning property with all the fog surrounding. For a $500 room for a one night stay, I’m not so sure it was just worth...