We took a family vacation back in June to the Ritz Carlton Lake Oconee in Greensboro, GA for 4 nights. This is a hotel that I have had on my wishlist to visit for a while and had heard wonderful things about. My SIL planned this trip for the family and we were excited to go check it out.
How to Get Here
The Atlanta airport is the closest and easiest airport to fly into to get to the Ritz. You can rent a car or hire a driver for the hour and half long ride from the airport to the hotel. That is one thing about this resort, there is really no simple way to get here.
We drove from Pensacola to Greensboro which was about a 6+ hour drive. We broke it up on the way there and stayed in Auburn, AL which was really fun and then on the way home we got caught in a bad wreck and it took almost 8 hours to get home! You just never know what to expect when you have to drive through Atlanta.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Lake Oconee and rented a fireside room for our family. The room itself was as big as a standard hotel room, but we had a larger outdoor porch area that had a fire pit. The pro of having a fireside room is that you are on the first floor and we could walk out our room and be right to the swings, pools, lake, restaurants, etc. The downside was that it was so hot while we there, we didn’t really get to enjoy the ambiance of the fireside pit. There is a premium charge to having a fireside suite as well and a limited quantity. For me, it was worth it to be able to let the kids out the room and play by the swings when they wanted.
Technically, the room is only meant for four guests. Since our kids are still little, I decided it would be fine to let the girls share a queen bed and then we rented a tent for $100 from the hotel during our stay which they set up really cute for the kids with books, stuffed animal, flashlights and sleeping bag that Brody slept in every night. Thankfully they didn’t kick us out for squeezing the whole family in one room 🙂
What We Did
The hotel has lots of activities to offer for both kids and adults. We spent many of hours surrounding these large inflatables in the lake. The kids thought it was the BEST and the adults were able to relax on the beach and enjoy watching the kids play.
The resort also has two pools for its guests — one adult only Infiniti pool for ages 12 and up and one kids pool. We obviously spent most of our time at the kids pool since we had little ones, but it was great. They had a poolside grill at the kids pool that we could order lunch and drinks from which was awesome. They had great food too. I highly recommend the quinoa bowl!
At the lake, you could take out kayaks and paddle boards, as well as ask for fishing poles and worms to fish the lake. The kids were catching tons of little fish. For additional cost, you can rent boats for the day or half day, jet skis by the hour, or a nice vintage wooden boat for a sunset cruise. We did all of the above and think its worth it to go explore the lake and check out all the beautiful homes along Lake Oconee.
Every day the hotel runs its Choo Choo train that the kids (and adults) can hop aboard and ride throughout the property. They offer s’mores every night at the main fire pit on property and give supplies to anyone who would like it. The kids loved this of course. They have tennis courts (that you need to reserve), bikes to ride, plenty of golf, and a beautiful spa with an indoor pool that families can enjoy.
Lastly, the hotel offers a kids camp each day. You must reserve it ahead of time because they only allow 5 kids per session. You can sign up for a half day or a full day and both come at an extra charge. We sent our kids for one half day and they seemed to have a lot of fun. They have lots to do with the kids and it allowed us to go enjoy a little time at the spa. They do require kids to be 5 years and up.
Where We Ate
We stayed at the Resort for four nights and it felt perfect because we were able to experience all four of the dinner options the resort had to offer. We had dinner at Gaby’s at the Lake which is their more casual outdoor pool restaurant that doesn’t require any reservations our first night. We also had lunch here a couple of times and I highly recommend the lobster grill cheese.
We had an adult dinner at Linger Longer Steak house which was fabulous. This is a short golf cart ride from the hotel and the higher end restaurant option. They have a really nice bar to enjoy and a gorgeous veranda if you want to be outside. The food was all so good and we all felt like we needed to be rolled out of there after our meal. They bring the most fun pink cotton candy to the table for dessert and is considered kid-friendly if you want to bring children as well.
Our last two nights, we ate at Georgia’s one night (go for the roasted chicken) and then had dinner brought to us at their Globe Fireside Fire pits one night. That is something special they offer as a camp side dinner I guess you would call it. We had to order our food ahead of time before we arrived at the hotel and they brought it out to us while we sat on Adirondack chairs around a pretty fire pit. Again, it was really to hot to even have the fire pit going, but the kids were able to play in the lake all night long while we sat with wine and enjoyed dinner.
Overall Review
We loved getting to experience something different on this trip for us–the lake! Lake life is really a ton of fun. We are obviously used to the beach life and probably a little partial, but the fresh-water and serenity of lake life was really nice.
I thought 4 nights was a perfect amount of time for us and you can certainly enjoy a 3 night long weekend there as well. We loved staying on property the whole time and exploring everything the resort had to offer.
I highly recommend spending the money to rent a boat at some point and enjoy the lake. It is truly beautiful.
I will say the main “con” I found was that it is a very expensive trip for being in Greensboro, GA. I hate to say it like that, but just a caution that things add up quick here. Since you do everything on property (or we did), it all gets billed to your room, so there is a little sticker shock that comes with checking out the last day. Ha! Just wanted to add that little warning.
Our Lake Oconee VLOG
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