Don Q Inn Dodgeville — Hotel in Town of Dodgeville

Okay. So. I’ve long fantasized about the Don Q’s themed rooms. I’ve also been told how much we HAVE to go to House on the Rock since we moved to the Midwest four years ago (from California…we now live in Skokie). Anyway, we recently had the opportunity to book a quick family trip and I sought the chance to cross these items off ye old bucket list.

However, we as a family aren’t skilled or experienced at making vacation plans, and our runway was short. I checked the website for any themed room availability to no avail, and upon investigating it’s likely we wouldn’t/couldn’t have enjoyed that option this time as we wanted to share a space with our teen daughter. (Next time? Separate rooms! And we’d plan ahead enough to book two themed ones.)

I’d like to give props to the gracious proprietor who was kind enough to call me when our card used for the reservation declined (it was an admin issue, minor glitch…we’re not broke. But still! You hear small horror stories of cancellations without notification…and this was hours before we arrived on site). Overall we had lovely interactions with the staff, some of whom seemed to be part of the owner-proprietor’s family.

We ended up choosing a room with two king beds. What we got was interesting and not entirely unpleasant. Our ground floor suite wasn’t themed but it hadn’t been neutered and updated to within an inch of its life, and it had a really cool mirrored wall hanging that gave the illusion of an infinite tunnel of lights…but it would’ve been so much better if some of the wee bulbs weren’t out! Argh

On that note: our biggest complaint about the Don Q Inn is going to sound petty and will only matter to a snobby aesthete like me: their particular choice in LED lighting throughout the hotel were devastating. I. Mean. Terrible. I use LED bulbs in all of our fixtures, but I’m super attentive to things like color temperature. Our room at the Don Q needed a rapid-fire fix to be tolerable at all, so we scooted to the local WalMart (not many options nearby) and bought colored gift tissue paper and lightly attached a soft layer of pink-, orange- or yellow tissue to every grim and awful light source.

(I wonder if the theme rooms are the same? If you’re looking for romance, I emphatically suggest packing your own cozy little LED lamps and/or electric candles and/or colored scarves to filter the very cold blue lighting.)

We went in March so the landscape wasn’t as lovely as it likely would’ve been even a month later, but oh it’s pretty countryside. We ended up being more interested in Mineral Point as a village than Spring Green, but it was nice to be so convenient to HotR.

The lobby of the Don Q is charming and filled with antiques and eye candy, but suffers from the same lighting issue. (I swear I’d be elated to run in with boxes of warm LED bulbs and make this crucial fix myself!) We did sleep well at the Don Q Inn and, before we left, we enjoyed exploring the decommissioned aircraft parked out front.

Last comments: My daughter did make herself one of those iconic hotel breakfast waffles and it was…ODDLY tangy lol. Listen: don’t expect fancy Hilton or Marriott luxuries. The bathroom was a little jank and there are plenty of quirks here. But it was clean and pleasant and a whole lot of fun! Just hoping for themed rooms next time, and we will spend one night, not two. And we’ll bring our own (safe, portable) mood...

My husband and I had a great time at the Don Q! We visited for our anniversary, and thought it would be something unique, with a lot of fun memories--we were not disappointed :) We knew going in that the appeal of Don Q is the quirkiness and 'kitsch' of the place, and did not expect flat screens and upgraded bathrooms. That being said, the inn has 70's retro down to a t (my parent's confirmed that it was the exact same way when they visited in the 80s!). We stayed in the Northern Lights suite, complete with igloo, polar bear skin (real? not sure:), and LARGE hot tub. Walking in, my husband's face was priceless. There are mirrors around the hot tub, as well as over the bed (inside the igloo) and on the bed's headboard. There were three old tube tv's in our room--one by the tub, one in the sitting area, one in the igloo by the bed. All worked fine with cable, so we were happy. There was also a fridge and CD player in the sitting area. I do wish there had been a love seat or couch, rather than two straight-backed wing chairs...but it did fit with the vibe. The bathroom was clean and functional with a large vanity and stand up shower with a new showerhead (coffee maker and hair dryer too). The bed was circular and had a built in radio tape deck...YES. A tape deck. I really wish I had brought along an old mixed tape :) The bed itself was comfy; I believe it was a memory foam type mattress. The room was equipped with a regular heater, plus a space heater in the igloo, which was nice. We used the tub and it was great--water got super hot and the jets were nice. We were also given larger than normal towels for the tub, which I appreciated. Our room was super quiet; I never heard another guest. Breakfast in the morning was retro as well--no hot dishes or eggs-- basic continental: bagels, pastry, boxed cereal...and cold chicken? I think that they might have had a pot luck the night before, so they put out the leftover chicken for people to heat up in the microwave....this made me smile, as it just underlines the type of people who work here--good, friendly, welcoming people:) Both ladies whom I interacted with at the front desk were super attentive and friendly, making recommendations, giving directions and ensuring we had a good time. I loved the charm and fun factor of Don Q- it is an experience we...

I just dont think this place was for us. It looks very nice from the outside and the pictures online. When we first got in the doors the temperature in the lobby are was cold. The guy at the desk was pleasant but was busy with other papers. We went to our room (214 paradise cove) and it smelled musty. Like an old trunk at an antique store. The room was very dated. The bed was comfortable and the coffee pot worked. The hot tub in the room was huge and worked well. The shower sprayed out the door when u turned it on so you got sprayed with cold water right away. We checked out the pool which was a very cold walk through the halls and lobby. The pool room was very run down. All the paint on the walls were flaking, the "deeper" end of the pool floor looked disgusting and the hot tub had several missing tiles. We opted to try the hot tub. It filled with copious amounts of bubbles within minutes. And they were not soap bubbles. It needed a good cleaning for sure! They have some games in the lobby area which we played and in the upper area of the lobby was Foosball, bumper pool and a pool table. We did use the pool table. It's very dated but was usable. The upper lobby had many sitting areas that were very nice looking. In the down stairs lobby was a lage fireplace. When lit it was very nice but did not radiate any heat. The breakfast in the morning was cold and we got to it at about 6:10 (it opens at 6). The room we stayed in (214 paradise cove) was right below the room marked "employees". Had we realized this we would not have picked this one. Each morning we had the ceiling creaking and popping from them walking around. I'm talking loud enough to wake you from a dead sleep at 3:30am! And it lasted for hours! The other part of the room is there is no sound barrier at all! There were people outside our room and I would have sworn they were in the room with us when they were speaking. The plane outside was neat to see. You could go into the cockpit and all. Overall this was an experience but I can't say we'd go back or recommend it. I hope this...