Standing Bear Farm/Hostel — Hotel in Newport

Very back country...the bedding smelled like body odor, and I’m not sure the sheets had been changed since they had visible dirt on them. I slept in my sleeping bag, otherwise I would not have felt comfortable sleeping in this bed.

I had been looking for a staff member upon my arrival to get an introduction / tour of the hostel and its amenities. The owner, which is not obvious, Maria, was extremely rude. I approached her and she asked me sounding inconvenienced if she could help me. I simply stated I was looking for someone who worked here and asked her if she did. She scoffed and said, “yeah, I’m Maria.” How am I supposed to know? She also does not have a sign that says her house is her house, after all, this is a hostel. She does not like people stepping onto her porch.

The laundry should not be advertised as laundry service. It is a washboard, no soap provided...there is a dryer. I had to hand wash my clothes but had a hard time getting them clean...probably how they clean the bedsheets...

The shower water temperatures were either EXTREMELY hot or frigid-cold. Staying in late October, it was so painful to shower under freezing cold water and simply dangerous to be that cold.

The resupply is definitely expired. I found nothing before its expiration date except for the pop. Things are reasonably priced, but everything seriously is expired...I found an orange sale sticker on one item, so she clearly purchases cheap discounted foods that are expired to sell to us hikers.

Some of the staff are friendly, but everyone seemed out of it...everyone was smoking cigarettes and possibly indulging in other drugs. It was very difficult to find staff to check in and out with, and when they were around not during check out times, they seemed very exclusive.

The cabins and treehouse are cool, but this hostel definitely fails health codes. None of the buildings seem to have basic insulation or sealing, so everything is dingy and smells foul.

The Hiker box is full of trash and smelly clothes. Perhaps the owner doesn’t clean it out so hikers are obliged to purchase items from her resupply.

Overall not a healthy place to stay. I feel more comfortable sleeping in a tent...definitely disappointed at this stay after looking forward to coming here.

If you can, resupply at Big Country Store and camp somewhere. Not worth the money to stay at Standing Bear.

I can’t get the smell of the hostel out of my clothes.

On the upside, they have a nice cat. Still not...

I was looking for a place to go hammock camping and hadn't planned to go to the Smokies but I stumbled across this place online and thought it looked like a really cool place to stay, from the photos. Rustic but comfortable, with cool people to meet, working there or hikers from the Appalachian Trail. Just felt like a special place to me. I stayed in the Creek House and it was great. First two nights I used my sleeping bag (it got into the 30s) and left the door open. The last night I closed the sliding door and the heater kept it nice and toasty.

Bathrooms are port-a-johns for now at least, so keep that in mind. But this is a great place to get away from it all and get back to basics. There is a kitchen so you can cook your food, a place to hand wash your laundry and dry it in a dryer, a store where you can get just about anything, and the whole place is cool and eclectic looking, rustic and yet some definite artistic touches.

It was just a special place to me, a little hidden nook of a community not far off the interstate (but quiet as can be), where all are welcomed and all who come are welcoming. Two nights I was there, there were two young ladies there, one from Germany, who had made dough to wrap around sticks and cook over the fire. We all partook and it was great...another night, I met a hiker from London nearing the end of the Appalachian Trail.

I was glad to get home and yet I didn't ever...

Stopped here to resupply, didn't stay the night. The reason I have to give such a low rating is the fact that the food in stock in the store was almost entirely expired! I'm talking 6, 7, 8 months past the expiration. Now, they didn't charge full retail value for this out-of-date food, which I appreciate greatly, I'd say I paid about a third of what I'd pay in the store! However, selling almost exclusively expired food for hikers who are expending a lot of energy and weakening their immune systems with intense exercise is downright dangerous. Especially when they aren't at all open about it. The only reason I checked these expiration dates was that I read another review on here that advised me too. I obviously chose to shop here knowing full well, but if I hadn't known, I would have had no other option but to buy this food because I was days away from another store. I'm all for not wasting food, but I can't see why they can't also stock fresh food at full price and put the expired stuff on a clearance rack. I hate to give this place 2 stars, I really do. It's a beautiful place with some super friendly staff and great prices for bunks/laundry/showers, but I got some pretty painful indigestion from eating this food and I can imagine someone else might get something worse one of these days. Hope they'll fix this...