Imagine that you had planned a reunion for 26 friends at the Noyo River Lodge in Fort Bragg. Imagine that you had booked 15 out of 17 rooms nearly a year in advance and that you had already paid in full for the accommodations. Some friends are flying in from out-of-state to attend, and others who work weekends (nurses, social workers, etc.) have negotiated time off work -- you get the picture. Then imagine that 10 days prior to your check-in date, you receive a call from the Noyo River Lodge that only 7 of your 15 rooms will be available and no kitchen facilities, which was part of the deal. The excuse: their remodel is not yet complete. You might wonder how they did not manage to give you more than 10 days' notice??? Then imagine trying to find accommodations for 26 people in a resort town in late July in that short a time. Well, I don't have to imagine it, because it happened to me yesterday. What kind of recommendation might YOU give such an establishment? I can only imagine, but I sincerely hope it never happens to you.

We stayed three nights at the end of July. Our room had a soaking tub,a balcony and a view of the working harbor and ocean. The room is large, and comfy but everything is a bit worn, more like a comfortable house than hotel. The soaking tub was a treat. Breakfast is included and was a bit of a disappointment. A very basic continental breakfast with one hot entree. If the weather is good, the setting of the continental breakfast is great, outside on a deck overlooking the harbor.

Their webpage gives the impression that the view you will see outside your window will be the pictures they have posted of boats docked in the harbor. I stayed in the Portside Room which is separate from the main house. The only rooms that get the view of the boats are the rooms in the back of the house. The group of rooms that included my room face the 'working harbor' which is clearly stated in the description of those rooms, but I took the pictures at face value and assumed that was the 'working harbor'. Instead of seeing the picturesque view of boats docked in the harbor, we got a view of the riverside restaurants and some other old warehouses. After the disappointment wore off, we just decided to make the best of the view and looked past the warehouses to the tiny part of the ocean in the distance that we could see from our room. The room itself was very nice, especially the huge tub. The bed was too hard for my liking, but it didn't bother my husband. The breakfast was a normal continental breakfast with an added entree which the first day was an omelet and a small piece of ham. The second day (which was Mother's Day) the entree was only one piece of french toast. It was okay, but I've stayed at much better.

My girlfriend and I took a long weekend to go up to the North Coast. We stayed at the Noyo and just loved it. The room and the views were great and the staff was very freindly and accomidating. We stayed in the Sunrise Suite and loved the sitting room and the view of the harbor. My only complaint would be that breakfast was nothing special but I'm not much of a breakfast eater anyway.