Twin Pines, Diamond Point

My family loved our first visit to Twin Pines. The beach is beautiful with rowboats , canoes and a sailboat. My kids loved the sandy beach-played all day. Our cottage was older, but very clean and well put together. My brother and family had a new unit that was in its 3rd season-very, very nice. We made a reservation for 2008 and are bringing two more families with us. The people who run the place are very nice. Their grandchildren live next to the resort and play with the guests' children throughout the day-a terrific family feeling.

I’ll try to keep this short and relatively concise: 1. The Room: While it was hardly roomy, we did manage to fit a family of four, including a play pen. It wasn’t the space that bothered us, however, it was the cleanliness: there were discarded potato chips right outside our door, the room had a musty smell, there were no fitted sheets on the bed, and my wife’s pillow smelled as if it had never been washed. To compensate, I put one of my old t-shirts over it so that she could rest her head. Kind of makes you long for your own bed, huh? At least from the outside, the other buildings didn’t seem to be in any better shape, except for the building that housed the front office, which was decent. Too bad they don’t rent that out to paying customers. 2. The Recreation Room: The “Wreck” room would be a better name for this building, with its broken window panes, dried bird feces in the corners, and splintered ping-pong tables that lacked ping pong balls. It housed an eight track player (!), a broken juke box and a beat-up VCR that we actually managed to hook up to play some dusty old videos that we found lying around. Loads of family fun! 3. The Lake: Really nice, I must say: clean, with a nice little beach. There were rowboats and canoes available. No complaints. 4. Activities: When we inquired about the advertised movie nights we were told that they no longer had them because of lack of interest. Campfire? Well, the one outside our room had foot-high weeds growing from it. When we asked about wood, we were offered a tow-truck-full for about forty dollars, which seems excessive when you consider how much you pay for a room and “free” activities. No wonder ours and the rest of the camp fire rings seemed unused. That was about the extent of the activities at this “family resort.” 5. Summary: My wife and I don’t consider ourselves overly picky and didn’t book this place expecting The Four Seasons. But we did expect a certain level of basic cleanliness and comfort. This expectation was not met, to say the least, and, rather than spend another night in such squalor, we cut our trip short and left after just one night. (We had booked four nights.) My suggestion is that you save yourself the headache and the money and stay somewhere else. (Preferably somewhere with a Triple A rating.)

We loved Twin Pines. It is an old place with loads of charm and friendliness. The lake(Trout Lake) is pure and clean-the waterfront beach is beautiful. Some cottages are old-some new. We looked at several for next year. This year we stayed in the Manor House, which is an old building with large efficiency units. Next year we reserved an older cottage with a screened in porch. We are bringing more family to other cottages. It is a great getaway-with great people. The owner's son, who works there is friendly and welcoming. The owners, Tom and Mary Lou, are very nice people. We love the place!!