Eagle Ridge Resort

My boyfriend booked a villa/​condo for us the weekend after Valentine’s day. He made all the arrangements all i had to do was pack. The ride from Chicago to galena was about 4hrs but that was because of of construction and traffic. The closer we got the views were amazing. When we checked in it was just a short drive to our condo. Once inside it was amazing. U can tell it was updated. The kitchen was fully stocked with all the dishes and pots and pans needed for the weekend.
The room even had boards games. It had an enclose and a outdoor patio but we didnt use it due to the weather. We did order room serve from Woodlands restaurant which wasnt a long wait and the burgers and chicken sandwich was actually good.
My only issue with room was the shower. I love showers but the hot water in our room only laster long enough for one person. My boyfriend had to either wait for it to heat up or take a bath. Otherwise we love the place and plan on returning next year

This resort benefits from being the nicest place around, but for what we are paying for the townhouse we rented, it’s really just ‘ok.’
The amount of box elder bugs in the townhouse is laughable — to the point that I decided to write this review due to one of them walking on my arm while I’m in bed.
We’re here with two kids (8 and 3) for their Winter Festival for President’s Weekend. Was really disappointed that their pool was SO cold — my 3 yr old was really excited to get in and more excited to get out. Had to give him a hot shower in the small changing room to stop him from shivering. I don’t understand skimping on a warm pool… and the locker room could benefit from a swim suit drying machine and some plastic bags for your wet suit given how far away the rooms are from the inn.
They had a bounce house set up in their ballroom with a few other activities for kids which was nice, but again, just ‘ok.‘
All in all, this place is middle of the road and could benefit from a bit more attention to detail.

I don’t know if it was just a busy weekend but the service level here was really poor. It’s not cheap (given its in rural Illinois) and there were a number of examples we had where we had issues and/​or the staff just appeared like they really didn’t care.
First, we requested a certain type of room, were told by reservations that it would be no issue and then arrived to find that it wasn’t possible and the manager said there was nothing they could do. The restaurants then get pretty busy obviously right at dinner time and the staff doesn’t seem to be overly concerned that they’re making people wait an extended period. There’s a realization that they get slammed at dinner hour (which happens to many restaurants… it’s a fact of life in tbs industry) but an indication that they’re at least trying to work harder to deal with the additional inflow would help rather than operating at the same pace and appearing to not really care. You almost infer here the message of «You’re on our resort here here in the middle of nowhere so we can treat you however.»
That’s fine but I can tell you we won’t likely be back.

When you need a little get away, try the Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena, we stayed in the hotel. Very nice lobby, forgot some essentials and they had them at the desk. The room was beautiful and so was the whole area. Driving thru the wooded landscapes of Galena on our way to the hotel was spectacular. Friendly and well informed staff, very clean room. We went to golf the course and we did «The General» kicked our butts and it was a challenge. We opted to go into downtown Galena, gift shops, restaurants and a nice walk taking in the local area. There is every thing at this resort that you could possible need or want. Well worth the price of the stay but get ready to pay big bucks for the golf courses. They have large chalets for larger groups if needed. A beautiful area to say the least.

My family use to take a yearly summer visit to Galena for the Bears Training Camp some 17 years ago. Its been over a decade since my last visit. This time my husband surprised me with a weekend stay at Eagle Ridge and stayed in a cottage by the woods. We spent a relaxing weekend away from the city, driving around Galena, Christmas and antique shopping, playing card games, watching a movie and eating s’mores by the fire place. I will always associate Galena and Eagle Ridge with pleasant childhood memories and hope to share this experience with my future children some day.

Had probably the best weekends staying here. I was so impressed with exterior and interior of the hotel. Simply beautiful! The staff was also so nice and welcoming! I would highly recommend coming to this hotel. I also went to the spa there, and WOW. The food at the restaurant was worth 5 starts. I will be back here again.

A challenging but not insurmountable course. It is very well maintained with soft tee boxes and manicured greens.
Lots of forced carries for anything other than the ladies tees, even those have a few as well. Many holes are quite narrow with mature trees on either side.
If you come out of Monday it is slow and they may not have any beverage cart service so plan accordingly. if you are a guest staying at the resort you will get a 37 percent discount on the golf at The General.
If it rains at all be extremely careful on the steep cart path as it can get very slippery.
The Woodstone restaurant at the clubhouse has a nice view a hole number 1 and quite good food.

We spent our first anniversary here for the Great Balloon Race (which was cancelled the day we arrived because of weather :() but we still had an amazing time. The room we got was straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog (my dream!) and was a treat to stay in. Loved the resort, it was beautiful (when it stopped raining!). Thanks for an awesome first anniversary!

This place is great. We rented one of their townhouses and it was very nice. We saw the Great Balloon Race, rented a boat, my wife hit the spa, great breakfast at Woodlands, great dinner and view at Woodstone.
We will definitely be back.
Wifi could be a bit better. It was so slow I quit using it but I was in the townhomes which it not in the main lodge building. However, it was a vacation and I wanted to disconnect anyway.

We stayed at Eagle Ridge this past weekend, 2 couples in a 2 bedroom villa. The grounds are very extensive and maintained well, very beautiful. The actual room was a bit dated, but everything was clean so I didnt really mind. I feel like this resort is understaffed and not as crowded as it probably was years ago — a friend of mind said that golf playing is in decilne? I dont know. The villa area by us appeared to have only 3 units booked out of 10 or so, which I didnt mind but speaks to the lack of guests which probably means less staff, which leads to things being left in disrepair/​poorly attended, for example the screen door to our villa fell off when I went to open it, could not open the blinds in the bedroom as they were broken, steam room in pool area out of order, air pump by the Genral store was out of order, went to spa and had to wait for the one attendent to get off the phone in order the check in so at first appeared like no one was there, in the pool area we went to get a slushy but the cabinet was locked and the woman couldnt get ahold of the person with the key. The general store was well stocked with alcohol/​food/​deli which was nice and unexpected. The spa was nice after I checked in — good massage, nice setting, good amenities in the relaxation room/​locker room. I was disappointed there was no outdoor pool or hot tub, if you are tagging yourself as a luxury resort with acres of property I feel like this would be a no brainer, my husband asked if there was a hot tub and one employee said they are hard to maintain and unsanitary — yet the Holiday Inn Express I stayed at while on a road trip had one, they should too. Went to the woodfire pizza restaurant, was ok, the margharita pizza was a bit bland with no basil — which makes a margharita pizza. We had a groupon for $ 100 off the room, if we managed to get some sort of cheap deal I would stay here again, but not for full price-​the 3 bedroom villas actually looked pretty nice from the outside. Staff was very friendly and nice.

We went to the Eagle Ridge resort for wine lovers weekend and some shopping in downtown Galena. We arrived early in afternoon and our room was ready. The check-​in process was very good, the hotel staff was very friendly and helpful. When we got to the room I was unimpressed, the room smelled musty and was outdated. We left for the rest of the day and did our shopping and dinner in Galena. Upon our return, the room was still musty with a touch of sewage smell as our friend stated. The room did have a great view but other then the view it was not worth the money.
We did have a Group for our stay, so we did not pay full retail price. With my experience with the room, I would not pay full retail price for a stay at this location. We did not partake in much of the resort other then the room. Our group was going to go to the pool but they were showing a movie and people were floating in the pool watching Boxtrolls. The pool area had no hot tub, so couldn’t even enjoy that are at all.
We did visit the coffee shop in the morning, it features Starbucks coffee and its pricing. The selection is very good and our order was completed promptly and tasted great!
Upon check out my wife informed the hotel staff of the smell and let them know the little smelly thing plugged into the outlet wasn’t enough to overcome the musty smell of the room. They were not apologetic at all! I guess friendly and helpfulness of the staff is gone at checkout, it’s a we don’t want to be bothered now that your out of here!
We will not return to this location, I will not give a positive or negative review to anyone that asks me, I will tell them how it is and let them decide if they’d like to stay oat this location. If hotel staff were to ask me about their resort I would tell them their resort needs some updating!

My new husband and I visited here for a few days after our wedding. We were looking for a place that we could relax and mostly just be alone. I love our families but the hustle and bustle and stress surrounding the wedding just left me with a want of solitude.
Eagle Ridge was very nice. Everyone we encountered was extremely courteous and friendly. On Monday, we scheduled a couples massage that was amazing. The entire spa facility is very very nice. We enjoyed dining at the Woodstone restaurant and the Woodlands restaurant at the resort.
On Tuesday we spent time exploring the trails around the resort. The surrounding area has great views and there are plenty of trails to explore.
So why only 4 stars? We had a courtyard hotel room and I was pretty unimpressed with the room. It was fairly dated and the bathroom was tiny tiny. We visited during the first week in December and so it is their off-​season but I felt like the rates we paid were way too high for the room we got. Plus the place was mostly empty!

Let me tell you a little story about 2014.
I’d thrust myself into volunteering at about a thousand different places (adopt, don’t shop!) and was still adjusting to the expanded responsibilities of a big promotion at work. Husband had recently changed jobs and was drowning in web development at his big dot com gig. We never slept, we barely saw one another. By October, I was BURNED. OUT. I just wanted to get the HELL away from life. I was cranky all the time, and husband suggested we get away to Vermont. I didn’t want to spend the money and searched desperately for a dog friendly compromise here.
Some dog savvy friends turned me toward Eagle Ridge Resort, and I found a one-​bedroom, freestanding house by which I was very intrigued. I called to inquire about it and a lovely young lady advised me it is dog friendly, quaint, and VERY secluded. House rental per night was comparable to a night in a hotel downtown Chicago. I WAS SOLD. I booked us a stay for Tuesday through Friday (I know, weird, but I wanted to be able to get back home and prepare for the week), paid the dog fees and deposit, and began to get. EXCITED.
I’d never been to Galena but the 2.5ish hour drive was not unpleasant, and Eagle Ridge Resort is SO enormous, it’s not hard to see that you’ve arrived. You drive in and weave around a long road until you get to the Inn — a big, beautiful, sprawling hotel that was going to provide us our keys to our home (and a map to get there). The staff were incredible throughout our entire stay, and husband was smart enough to order us some food from the lounge there to eat when we got to our place. Once we had everything, we headed toward the rental.
When we arrived, I suddenly realized what secluded means. It was DARK and we could barely see another house in the area. We parked in one place and walked a small paved path to our tiny, strange, quaint little hexagonal cabin type home. The dogs were cautious but intrigued. When we got inside, we dropped our bags and ate (the food was decent too!) and THEN explored.
The house we rented was wild. It really was hexagonally shaped, had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a full kitchen. There was a spiral staircase leading to a basement that had laundry, as well as a big bin of corn we could choose to put out if we wanted to see deer and turkeys (DUH we wanted to see them!). The house had a gorgeous and warm fireplace. It was super dated but otherwise perfectly wonderful, and I would totally stay in house 509 again.
We spent our days hiking the gorgeous and well kept trails with the dogs, cozying up to the fireplace, lounging on the deck, etc. We actually never saw another home renter, and we only saw housekeeping once (and they did an AMAZING job, even tidying the kitchen I’d elected to cook in!). The Eagle Ridge staff really do EVERYTHING they can to ensure you enjoy your stay and were consistently polite, professional, welcoming to our pooches, and just generally courteous. We are food from the lounge and from their higher-​end restaurant, Woodstone, and also visited the gift shop before departing, and ALL of these amenities were wonderful. When we left, we were refreshed, calm, happy. It felt like we’d gotten worlds away.
I want SO badly to give 5 stars, but the house was SO dated — the living room furniture was clearly from the 70s, and the master bed was SO squeaky and uncomfortable, it was almost difficult to sleep. That house, with updated furniture and a comfortable bed, would be one of my top five places on the PLANET. It just needs a bit of updating.
Other than that, Eagle Ridge is absolutely amazing, and I cannot WAIT to come back!

I have been coming here for the past ten years. Besides summer, my favorite time to visit is during Christmas! They have always made a HUGE, life size, gingerbread house to greet guests in the front of the lobby during the holiday season.
I rate HIGHLY because of past experiences, my most recent visit a month ago, lost them a star…
Word is, new owners are the reason the front lobby now resembles, a couch sale, that exploded in a living room. I am not a fan of that new addition to the Eagle scene. Must I mention, they put an office as the first thing you see and moved the coffee shop/​Starbucks to the back.
Fine, draw peoples attention to the back of the main floor to ‘check out the place’ but did they have to crowd the front way with TWO offices?
Not a good visual introduction to entering the hotel lobby, as it once was so charming and warming, the ambiance has changed in the front.
The warm greeting, vanished in office papers.

My extended family rented a place here, and it certainly was big enough for all 5 families. There were 5 ½ bedrooms. Also included was a full kitchen, hot tub, and pool table in the basement. For one family, this would have been quite pricey, but when divided by 5, it was about the same price as a comparable hotel with a lot more space. The house was about 15 minutes from downtown, and surrounded by golf courses. There’s also swimming, a workout room and playground close by as well. You can also fish on lake Galena by the marina and rent a boat for quite a reasonable price.
Only issues I had was with the TV’s and internet. Internet was slow as molasses, and I could barely log into my VPN for work there. And the TV’s were not in HD, and the kicker was, that the service crapped out in the 1^st quarter of the Bears game. However, these were minor issues

Why 3 stars? Because while I was hovering above them the rating read. «A-​Ok» which translated in my head as «Eh-​Ok», which is what exactly my experience has been here so far. I stayed at one of the cabins. Granted I came in the middle of the night and it was the fall season when the farmers spray natural fertilizers (if you know what I mean) all over the fields and wasn’t a pretty sight to catch. I was thrilled to be staying at the cabin but all excitement quickly washed away as soon as i walked in. Granted they want to imitate the historic character of the city of Galena but the cabin interior was just so horrible. It was in the middle of nowhere, the curtains and couches were all so outdated, the bathroom was super tiny and to make matters worse, as if it didn’t look already haunted, when you go up and down the stairs there are several vintage pictures of people all over the walls looking at you directly and boy! those industrial workers didn’t look happy. I was pretty sure one of them was going to haunt me into my rooms. I mean seriously, who was commissioned to interior design this place? The kitchen was very efficient though. It had everything one could need to cook and prepare a decent meal. I do love the fact, they put in effort to accommodate all needs from a dining table to a library to make it look like you were actually in a house (except they forgot that floral bedsheets are a big no-​no and certainly random paintings everywhere would want me to throw up everywhere). Speaking of library, I was intrigued what might they have had it there. I peeked in the glass door of the library, as if the entire place wasn’t freaky enough, all they had in there was entire collection of Agatha Christie. If I was playing word with friends, the word that comes to my mind is «spooky!!». I had it! I called the front office and requested to move to the hotel rooms. Clearly, they knew I am not much of a Halloween person and wanted to add a little creepy fun in my life. Thank you!
I would absolutely give 5 stars for the service though. The staff is very friendly and accommodated our requests as best they could. The lobby has a wi-​fi you can work and you get discounts at coffee shops, etc. Unless you have activities planned, this place could pretty boring. Its ridiculously huge, spans for miles and there’s nothing to do here. God be with you, if your car stops working in the middle of the night, while coming back from the city. Well, make sure you’ve something to snack on when you come here. The food is sort of expensive and the café closes at 11am. Doesn’t open until 4pm. It definitely is a peaceful relaxing place. But this place reminded me of whole foods. You want the goods? Check your wallet.