A pleasant stop!
After our first stay of our trip we were nervous about what night number two may bring. However as we pulled into the Heritage Inn at Amana Colonies we were greeted by a clean and spruced up building easily located off the highway. We walked into a cozy entry way, reminiscent of your favorite grandma's house (just missing the smell of fresh cookies!) We were greeted like old friends by the owner even though this was our first time here. The owners mother was also a sweet lady who wanted to make sure we knew what amenities were near by. We were given detailed instructions about all the amenities available and told if anything was wrong to not hesitate to contact the front. We headed down to our rooms to find them clean and welcoming with open windows to a simple view of the sky.
We were given a recommendation to a local restaurant that served some home-cooking style meals - a good break from all the fast food along the highway. We then returned and changed into swimming gear and hit the pool. The pool is on the smaller side but clean and warm and does the trick for simply relaxing. In the pool area is also a hot tub with wonderfully strong jets to help ease sore and stiff muscles from sitting in long car rides.
After relaxing we headed back to our rooms to clean up and found the bathrooms simple and clean. The warm water kicked in quickly which was great and helped lead to a great nights sleep. We plan to head back to the local restaurant to get breakfast in the morning before moving along our travels. However you should know there's also some delightful shopping experiences around if you plan to spend time in the area.
Do not stay at this location!
We arrived at the location and the person at the desk was so distracted, we felt like we were intruding by simply trying to check in. The main restrooms had no toilet paper or paper towels to then dry your hands. We also arrived two hours after official check in time and were told one of the rooms wasn't ready. This highly upset my parents who are older in age. We received one of the keys and found we were placed on the second floor, which normally wouldn't be an issue, but with older parents, we needed an elevator. Except the elevator was out of order. When we arrived to the first room door, after walking down a hallway smelling of smoke and pee, we couldn't get the keys to work on the door. No matter what we did, every time the green light came on, the door refused to open. I had to go back and collect the manager and even he had trouble opening the door but then tried to make it seem as though I was the incompetent person. I then went back to collect a room key for my parents who were placed in a room on the opposite side of the building. The rooms smelled and NONE of the beds had a fitted bed sheet on them. I also found stained sheets, and hair on the sheets of my own bed. If we hadn't spent the last ten hours on the road and needed sleep so bad I would have left and demanded a refund. The pillows on the bed looked ruffled and used so I found myself cuddling my own spare sweater for a pillow and sleeping on top of the comforter. The bathroom we had, the ceiling had black mold spots that were simply painted over (as if you wouldn't notice...). I walked back down the long stretch of highway to check in on my parents and found a women in guest laundry room smoking even with all the signs posted throughout that the building was smoke free. Many employees and guests also smoked directly outside the buildings main entrances and exits.
The surrounding area is very unnerving, there was a lot of closed business and several "adult entertainment" locations that were closed down and very unpleasant looking - not at all where you would want to bring a family! The best moment of our stay was checking out by 4am the following morning and finding a breakfast place a few miles out.