In planning a four day walk along the AT in Killington VT, I found a hikers friend in Bill and Anne Mercier, the folks that run the Mountain Meadows Lodge. They helped me pick routes and shelters to stay at and helped me get the shuttle service that brought our party to the starting point for the hike. He also served us up a top notch lunch to get us ready for the walk. The lodge is comfortable, the grounds, overlooking Kend Pond, are beautiful and I think that I have enough reasons to come back the next time I'm in the area.

Susquehanna Slim

There are some nice things about this stay, but as it has been reviewed for a good duration, let me say - the current owners took over this renovated farm around 2006. Reading the history, it seems like it was in the prior owners' hands a LONG time - this is a pretty big place - so I feel that even reading the early reviews till now, they are making improvements slowly and surely. What I wanted to review were some details I didn't see other places for this home, that might help people decide if this is the right place for them.

Regarding "funny tasting well water" comments: I grew up with well water, and truly think it is delicious. What I smelled (particularly from the bathroom faucets) was the metal smell from the old fixtures, and probably pipes as well. If you run the water for a little bit I did notice a slight improvement in this smell.

Rooms: Found it interesting to not find any photos of rooms online. I was on the bottom floor, which is right above the ground floor (there is one floor overhead) in the main building. There are also rooms in the farmhouse next door. Note, there is a barn, which houses animals and is a traditional barn - they have some (eager to eat as any good farm animal) sheep, goats, horses (though I didn't see horses) and their pride, a big dark piggie. Anyhow I can't comment about the farm house, as I didn't enter it.

We arrived with our 15 mo old daughter and I was worried about noise from other reviewers, as well as bothering others. We brought our beloved white noise machine and hardly heard anyone at all, though creaky footsteps and sounds of the kitchen (microwave beeping) was audible. Our door however was quite loud and awoke the baby :( and the bath door and our room door were very squeaky.

They graciously put us originally in the farm house but when my hus. realized that we'd have to walk through the snow/across the wintery driveway to get to a microwave and fridge at ? hour, we thought it much better to stay in the main building which has access at all times to these amenities.

Anyhow, they set us up with a pack 'n play and sweet baby sheets in our room. The room was one of about 7? on our floor - all seemed to be basically family style with bunk beds or a twin bed in them along with a larger, most likely queen sized bed.
The rooms were all quite small, but sufficient. They all have private baths. Rooms do NOT have closets, which was a pain for us with lots of things we didn't want our baby's hands in, and only one dresser/bureau in the room. Our particular room had a 2' bar under the TV in a corner for hanging things (so about hip height), but the other rooms all seemed to have a hanging bar with a shelf above it, attached to the wall. One might question the rooms being so small, esp without closets - if you are coming there for an activity like skiing that requires some equipment. You are welcome to leave your 'stuff' in the 'equipment area' which is where the plethora of snowshoes, Nordic sled, and a couple trekking poles are kept, which is right by an unlocked door (outside the dining area) and the public fridge. However, there aren't shelves or anything, your stuff would be laying in a pile on the floor blocking access to other things.

So, room contents were: 1 tall-ish bureau about two shirts wide, two small side tables (open, no drawers), two wall lamps by the bed, one lamp on the bureau, overhead light, TV with no dvd player/VHS, and a wicker chair. All the rooms basically have these contents, with the possible addition of beds or maybe some more end table kind of things (didn't check the latter). The (very small) bathroom looked right out of the 1980s, but it had clearly been scrubbed as clean as possible. It had a window in there as well. There was one baseboard heater which went around 2 walls (and into the bathroom on one side) which was controlled by a floor dial which went from off to about "5." There is no thermostat (or temperature gauge) in the room so the temp is really your guess. Also there were two small garbage bins, one in bathroom and one in living room. There is an alarm clock kept in the dresser. No ironing board or anything like that though I'm sure you could borrow one. They had a couple of complimentary toiletries in the bathroom.

The downstairs is where the "living" is to be had. They have a gorgeous main sitting room with several couches, a small piano, a fireplace ready for any guests to light, a huge picture window to the parking lot which really is gorgeous when it snows, and a bench as long as the huge picture window (it is a long rectangular room). There is also an antique crib in the corner which is lovely, and holds some wedding albums and photos of people who have been married there, as this is a popular spot. The thermostat was set to a conservative 60 the whole time and we did not light a fire.

In addition to this area, there is a room next to it for the TV, which has a DVD and VHS player. This room has a huge sectional couch, and I THINK there is a small baseboard heater jammed behind the couch. This room was CCCCOLD. But, great things in there - big collection of various VHS, lots of books, and my favorite unexpected treat: a low row of kids books and a corner of kids toys. Even some puzzles and choking hazard-kind of toys were put out of reach - it was delightful to find a room that was welcoming to our toddler. They also have a delightful, big old wooden rocking horse in the room, but it's - big! (help child with, no straps, etc). It was too cold for us to do much during our stay in early March 2011 so we killed some time in here with a happy baby, playing with "new toys" while we watched Fantastia 2000 and WILLIE THE OPERATIC WHALE (awesome vid, and sad). There are a bunch of throw pillows around, but they *really* needed to be laundered. There was a blanket.

Between these two rooms there is a turtle tank up high with very friendly turtles who want to swim to you and say "hi!" from inside.

Then there is a big kitchen area with lots of wooden tables, a long short window almost the length of the room, a little fireplace inset on one wall, and wooden chairs with the star of david or a random maple leaf carved out of the back (got me). It was a clean area and had one usable high chair, which is plastic and has a vinyl cover. They have one highchair that is wooden, but there are absolutely no straps. Purely decoration. Opposite the "window wall" is where the microwave, toaster oven, a caraffe of water, and an insulated pitcher of hot water (tasted of old coffee) and one of coffee stands all the time, tea selection and dry creamer. There is also a fruit bowl left out at all times, real silverware and plates as well.

Bad but trite: the microwave was filthy and you can't read the display at all. Still works though, punch in your cook time, hit start, and have faith. Anyway, would really be nice to have something like wax paper to offer guests to cover their food! We used a napkin but it was messy. Also the toaster oven was really in need of cleaning.

I was mistaken that I thought early March would be in-season for a weekday and thus would have lunch/dinner options, but alas, no. My hus said there was a lunch option he overheard, but no one spoke to us about this (ie, offered it), and it just seemed like it wasn't available, as dinner was not available. There's a good ride to food if you can't afford to pay a good deal of money (ie, every sit-down, non "pub" place is mid $20's for an entree and up up up). Expensive places just 5-10 min drive. There are some pizza joints and a Phat Italian deli too. Just know, you're probably bringing most meals into this site and reheating them, or eating out. Cheaper places have the word "pub" in their name, or drive out to another town as we did - the 99 was surprisingly delicious and worth the 25 min drive!

There is a hallway that connects from the main dining room with two rest rooms.

There is a game room, which houses a Foosball table, a pool table (this is coin operated), I think a couple of arcade games too.

There is another room with a great view and square chairs with cushions, a beautiful baby grand piano, and a cozy sitting area.

There is a sauna, and outside there is a year-round hot tub that seems pretty large. It was semi-shoveled around the tub. We didn't use it. There were a plethora of towels to use nearby. The pool, I think, was by the front of the property on a little hill, and is a very outdoor pool surrounded by a white fence.

Wondering about breakfast? 8-9:30 am. It's definitely a PLUSH continental breakfast, imho, compared to what I was expecting. There was a great fresh granola, yogurt, a BIG bowl of assorted fruit like huge berries/grapes/melon/etc , warm hard-boiled eggs, a couple of cereals, aforementioned coffee and tea and a sprinkle shaker of cocoa, half and half in the a.m., some frozen waffles, delicious whole grainy toast, cream cheese, peanut butter, maple syrup, butter, aforementioned fruit of oranges and apples...and on our last day there were some muffins that looked homemade but I didn't try. Also, orange juice. Was great to have some protein options besides just carbs.

There is a bar area that you find someone to open if necessary. Can't speak @ it as we're not drinkers.

The owners were VERY nice and I feel care a great deal about this large home and their business. They were completely hands-on, as they live in the farm house nextdoor, and were always running around doing things. There is one housekeeper-cleaner (or was just one at least during this 2.5 day stay) and one person who works in the kitchen.

They said in their welcome folder they recycle but I saw absolutely no evidence of this, in terms of ability for *guests* to recycle. :( We brought our plastics and glass home. The info also said they're slowly working on replacing the windows with energy efficient ones - 17 rooms in total with probably 2 windows average each, this is a project indeed. There was condensation on the windows, whatever. Most lighting fixtures were regular incandescent bulbs, though to be honest I appreciated the little bit of extra heat they emitted.

All I know about the upper floor is that they could hear our baby crying at night (heard footsteps at same time), and the bride to be in another upstairs room mentioned at breakfast she had FOUR thermostats in the room.

There is one computer in the main dining area that works just fine. Also there is free wifi throughout.

It would be really nice to have the following, and I think these are very cheap things needed:
*Each room to have a CUSHION on their corresponding wicker chair. Really, ow. Some of us are sitting with children, or are children sitting, or had children and need a soft place to sit if you know what I mean. (Maybe even offer to put a rocking chair in a room with a baby...that might love being rocked to sleep)
*something to tell you the temperature of your room! Hmm, will I sleep at a "3" or a "4" today? Big difference...
*curtains that BLOCK LIGHT in the room. We had a very airy white wickery pull down plastic shade. Sometimes you just don't want to awaken at dawn. Esp with a baby who awakens at first dawn's light :)
*more shelving (any shelving) and higher hanging space - at least in one room where in off-season, they could really help a family with their child-proofing efforts with this. I also felt bad putting mugs on a dresser top, no coasters anywhere - but we had all kinds of things covering the little bureau so it was just a tight fit in general.
*Night lights! PLEASE! Bathroom especially - but the room needed one too.

We were happy overall for this visit. The guests seemed very happy and I bet this place ROCKS in the summertime when there's lots to do outside. It was very clean and very surprisingly, much more baby-friendly than I thought it would be.

Oh, someone mentioned towels. I will say, they were pretty small towels as body towels go, but they were spotless, and quite fluffy. I want to say we had two in our room. I think you have to realize in a place like this that they get replaced periodically. We were at the "nice, new, fluffy" stage, though from the bad towel review we actually brought our own, as this was a vacation we drove to.

Also, we found the bed totally adequate, had a soft-top of some sort. It did sink a bit in the middle when we cuddled, but we're happy owners of a Tempurpedic so nothing is as good to us. Still, didn't awaken with back pain (great as I'm pregnant), and it wasn't too too creaky.

A good get away!

We just came home from a 5 night stay at Mountain Meadows Lodge. The lodge is a great location from Killington on a beautiful piece of property. This is not a high end property but it was homey, comfortable and the staff was sincerely nice. The rooms are old fashion but neat and clean.
My children had a blast. They have a great little game room, an outdoor hot tub, sauna, tons of board games for the kids to play and free snow shoes. The children can sleigh ride and visit the barn animals. There was a pretty fireplace in the lodge area. Included in the rate was breakfast. Almost everything was homemade and they had a nice assortment.
The negative parts are that the towels were very small and rough. A few times they ran out of hot water for the showers. We had to wait an hour for hot water. The rooms are not fancy and they are dated. They were very typical of a Vermont inn. They have very thin walls so it is easy to hear your neighbors next store.
We definitely plan to stay here next year when we ski at Killington.

At the outset I'd say this place is overpriced. They charged some 15% "resort fee". If this qualifies as a "resort" I guess I don't have a good understanding of what a resort is...

I'm giving the rating as "average" but keep in mind you are paying way too much here for an average stay!

We stayed in the outbuilding, away from the main lodge, mostly because we were concerned about noise in the main building. The furniture in our room was so funny! It was like garage sale/college chic from 1980. If you are expecting nice furnishings, stay elsewhere. The room was clean and spacious but not well appointed. The shower had a crummy showerhead and the water tastes terrible. Bring your own bottled water or you will have to buy water.

The main lodge common areas are nice and the breakfast was very good. The lodge has xc ski trails very close to the door which meant a lot to us.

If you want a BASIC place to stay for a high price, this is it. If you are expecting romance or nice amenities, look elsewhere.