After reading the reviews were hesitant to go but found the lodge clean and comfortable. The skiing and snowbaording was fantastic! Our teenage son and his buddy were impressed with the slopes, terrain park and speed of the lifts. My ski instructor John was the best instructor I have ever had. It snowed several times while we were there so the fresh powder made the experience that much better.

The food was fantastic. We had the breakfast buffet every morning and the eggs were always fresh. The cheeseburgers and sweet potato chips and ribs were all great in the bar. Dinner in the Sunset Grill was also great. Our steaks were perfect. The servers are friendly and attentive.

The lodge was built in 1971 and has had some updating including new carpet and wall paper in the rooms. The Sunset Grill is very nice and the bar has a fireplace and lots of TVs. The pool and hot tub were nice. We opened the door and the pool area filled with fog which was fun.

We have stayed in luxury 5 star resorts across the USA. If that is what you are looking for, don't go to Chestnut. If you want to go skiing/snowboarding in the Midwest, stay in a lodge on the slopes and have some good food, Chestnut Mountian Resort is your place!

My son and his friend are already planning to go back next year!!

This hotel wasn't too great. It felt like an apartment. The rooms are pretty small and don't have a lot of amenities. It's pretty much a bread and butter hotel. The food at the hotel is pretty good but it is out-of-this-world expensive. The pool and hot tub is also pretty nice. You can tell you are in the middle of nowhere at this hotel because you can smell the sulfate in the water. But, at the end of the day after you have been out skiing all day and you are cold and sore, it is really nice to just be able to walk right to your room and go to the hot tub or go to bed or whatever. That aspect is what makes this hotel nice. Chestnut Mountain is a very nice place to ski. But, for a person who is not from Illinois, people aren't exactly the most friendly, and there are a lot of foreign people there. Otherwise, it was a great weekend at Chestnut Mountain.

We checked in on Saturday morning January 8th to ski all day and spend the night that night. There was a large group of 15 of us. Due to how expensive the rooms were, we split a room with 2 others from the group. They stayed on Friday night, skied on Saturday and left that evening, while we skied as well on Saturday and stayed in the room on Saturday night. Our room/lift ticket package was $230 a night, which did not include equipment rental. We spent $294 in the first few minutes on the property. The lodge was exactly how I remember it from 20 years ago. Looks the same even. Someone else mentioned the stains on the walls in the hallways, which I noticed as well. I also noticed many puke stains and weird smells I couldn't identify. Our rooms were clean where it mattered (bed, bathroom) but there were crumbs and debris on the floor by the nightstand and very thick dust under the TV. Its a ski lodge, so you can't expect much as far as "nice" furnishings and beautiful linens. Its simply not feasible with people throwing their ski boots, skis, etc around a room all the time. The heat in our room was either blazing hot or freezing cold. The service in the restaurant was terrible (waited forever for our food, our ticket, etc) and the wi-fi never connected for us to be able to do anything on our phones. We have AT&T and only got a signal at very random times for usually less than 5 minutes. So expect to be out of touch. The cafeteria was claimed by parents of various ski teams and you never could find a place to sit if you wanted a snack or to take a break. I slept well but only because I brought ear plugs and was so exhausted after skiing for 8 hours I could have slept anywhere. On the flip side, the ski equipment was nice, the slopes great, our group had a fantastic time and even with all the bad things, we will go again next year. We didn't spend enough time in our room to let the lodging part bother us that much and as someone who grew up going here as a child, its more tradition than anything.

Me and my friends went skiing at this place yesterday day 1-3-10. Its definitely a batter resort than Alpine Valley as i've been going on Alpine valley since last 3 times. Little expensive than Alpine but its still good. We stayed night in different close by Hotel which is much cheaper than what Chestnut offers. Only complain I/we have is they don't have Microwave oven for Customers in the Cafe. You can't warm up the food there & you have no option to warm up your food except to buy from them.