The Alluvian is a boutique hotel that you would find in New York City, transplanted to small-town Mississippi. It is very lovely - nice linens, comfortable beds, beautiful bathrooms, and fantastic southern breakfast. It's right across the street from the fantastic Viking Cooking School - truly a first-class facility and experience. They also have the Alluvian spa - which was lovely, although definitely way above market price for services (and they include gratuity at the spa- hate that - your masseuse gets a great tip whether they do a great job or not!). Aside from a few other tasty lunch spots and two or three stores in downtown Greenwood, that is about it. We searched and searched for more stores in the cute downtown, but most of the downtown buildings are desolate and run-down. In fact, I would not walk a block or two by myself as it actually feels quite dangerous. We were baffled how such two extremes can survive in such a small area of this downtown. I have stayed in boutique hotels in New York City that remind me of the Alluvian (The Algonquin comes to mind) that were much more affordable than the Alluvian. Their prices are a little extreme. And have drinks at Giardina's - but don't waste your time eating at what they are attempting to call fine dining. It is a far cry with over salted, over cooked food, captain wafer crackers on your table rather than bread, but prices are high. I love a good fine dining restaurant, but I can't stand it when one claims to be and then has tacky presentation and less than mediocre food. Too bad our fabulous chef from the Viking Cooking School wasn't in charge!
One last thing that really bothered us about the hotel - we were fast asleep in our rooms when around 2 a.m. we were alarmed awake by extremely loud, boisterous women down the hall. Clearly beyond intoxicated, these women were yelling in their room as loud as they could. We called down to the front desk for 20 minutes and never got an answer. To not have the front desk manned at all times is unacceptable. I finally called the women's room myself, and pretended to be the front desk asking them to quiet down. It worked - so that's a travel tip for you!
- The Alluvian Hotel
