Honor's Haven Retreat & Conference — Hotel in Town of Wawarsing

This is a very long overdue review. I stayed at Honors Haven for a wellness retreat in January of 2022 after my breast cancer treatment ended. The retreat itself was great and the staff I thought at the time were very attentive and helpful. The rooms however, were outdated and I sincerely hope by now they are renovated. On my last day I had a 90 minute healing service with Master Shiwon which was great but at the end when I was feeling vulnerable and I got suckered into putting a $300 deposit on a True Self retreat. He kept pressuring me to do it and I was not sure since I had so many expsenses due to my cancer treatment. I was told I could decide later if it was a good fit for me and if not I could use the money towards staying at the property. Needless to say I finally caved in and gave my credit card for a return stay. I left feeling so uneasy and all the healing I did went down the drain because I felt like it was all just to get me to return.

My credit card got charged for the remainder of the balance for the retreat which I was not able to attend nor did I want to after feeling like I was conned. I called the property to advise I would not be attending and they said no problem I could attend the next one. When I explained that I was told I could use it as credit towards a future stay.

On October 31, 2023 I got an email from Brittany the wellness coordinator reminding me that it was my last day to confirm my reservation for the Finding your true self retreat" and that if by the end of that day, my reservation would be considered a no show and "regrettably" no credit would be available. That is wrong on so many levels. First of all, I never signed up for the retreat. Secondly I had just got laid off that day and was in no shape or form looking at any emails. And Lastly at that point I was so turned off by the property that I wished I never even went there. I responded back to her and never got a response. I called and never got a response and was out $800! This was so wrong because I was told that I could utilize the money towards a stay at the property by Master Shiwon. The whole experience was just horrific and still can't believe I lost $800!

Stay away...

I was so disappointed in Honor’s Haven and we were only there for about 18 hours for an overnight stay. PICTURES with my review referencing specific problems we had. Upon arrival, the front desk staffed gave us key cards that didn’t work. She then sent up security with us back to our rooms, and his master key cards worked fine. Going downstairs a third time, she sent up maintenance who ALSO had working key cards and said “well technology usually handles this they can come by at 9 tomorrow” but I told him we were leaving then. It took 45 minutes to get into our rooms. Gave us hard keys to use.

Room was very dirty. My husband unfolded a towel to find a HAIR BALL in a clean towel. Air conditioners had water stains on them. Spider crawled out of a shower when we opened a curtain. Air conditioners had water stains and the start of mold on them. Hallway walls were thin and we heard people until 1am making noise. Clearly there were hangings on the door frames that were ripped off and no one bothered to repaint them. Sheet on our bed was ripped and there was NO top sheet, only a fitted sheet and a comforter.

The food was not acceptable for the price of the resort. We picked up McDonald’s instead. The buffet would’ve been $38 but looked awful. Meats were sitting soaking in sauces, chafing dishes were not hot (I held my hand near them to see), and the room was overrun with a conference. Photos below.

Check out was early for us, and the gentleman at the front desk was busy putting packets of sugar in his coffee with his back half turned to us. Didn’t ask how the stay was, printed a receipt and said to have a nice day.

I wished I complained in person but could not get out of there fast enough because of time constraints on the trip. Will send a letter to management with pictures, as we paid over $700 for this experience for two rooms. Find somewhere...

The hotel, spa, and grounds are spectacular if a bit dated. But dated in an elegant way. The rooms are clean and spacious. The facilities they have are absolutely stunning. The pool was very nice. However, we were there on July 4th weekend and the parking situation leaves much to be desired. You can only park around the long, horseshoe shaped driveway or in parking lots that could have you hiking quite a distance over hill and dale to get to your room if you are in the east wing. Luckily, many people left the place on Sunday and we were able to move our vehicle closer to our room. But, still a hike. Also, they claim to have a bar but it was never open during our stay. We walked right by it without really seeing it because it was locked up tight. So we asked one of the young employees who answered "oh yes we have a bar downstairs called the Zephyr Room". So we went back down to find that it was closed. No restaurant either so you will have to go into town to get anything to eat. The Nevele site next door is an amazing thing to see. What an amazing collapse of a one time great destination. LBJ had stayed there in the sixties. Now it looks like a scene out of a post apocalypse movie. The waterfall was a nice feature to see. We did a bit of a hike as they have pathways. But, be warned: they are steep and will require some effort. The midgies were brutal too. But, this was July so what can you do? We stayed there because we had tickets to CSN over at Bethel Woods. We had thought that this place was a bit closer than it turned out to be. It is about a 40 minute drive to Bethel Woods from Ellenville. But, it was better than the Motel8 in Monticello. Much better. But not cheap. And the taxes...