The Lakeside Inn, Mt Dora

My girlfriend & i arrived at Lakeside Inn on a Friday night with weekend tickets good thru Sunday. We imagined a quaint, romantic setting similar to a bed and breakfast. My girlfriend imagined many nice things: breakfast in bed, long bubble baths, walks by the lake, time alone with no housework and no distractions. Let me tell you something: we were in for a huge, unpleasant surprise. Our initial hope of a romantic getaway was destroyed the instant we opened the door. Before we even turned on the light, a large gust of cigarette smoke puffed forth to greet us. The cigarettes were being smoked by our neighbors across the hall, who could be plainly heard through the walls (they were talking, smoking, and watching tv thank goodness). The main overhead light in the room was a small dim bulb that I suppose added to the ‘romantic’ atmosphere. The ceiling was dominated by a long, unsightly sprinkler pipe that wove it’s way around cracks and peeling paint. The Inn was built in the late 1800’s, so it is understandable that the floor was not level. The comforter on the bed was yellow with age. The wallpaper was visibly peeling near the ceiling. The bathroom was totally unacceptable, even for a not-so-clean guy like myself: crusty, caked-in dirt lined the bathtub, the bathtub drain was filthy, and the tile throughout the entire bathroom was dirty. So much for my girlfriends’ bubble bath ideas. At this point, we had decided to cut the trip short and just stay for one night instead of two. We laid on the bed and ordered dinner via room service, and here is where our already disappointing trip goes horribly wrong: the bed...had…FLEAS!!! This is the reason I am writing this review: our Lakeside Inn room had fleas! The fleas of course jumped onto us, bit us throughout dinner, and came home with us. We did not even unpack our belongings. We immediately checked out. The front desk tried to charge us an early check-out fee. We refused and drove home. We now have fleas in our house. All this because of a $350 ‘romantic weekend getaway’. Lakeside Inn of Mount Dora is truly a grimy, fleabag motel and owes my girlfriend an apology.