Abe Martin Lodge Brown Co State Park

This place is a big fat nope for me. The park is wonderful, amazing and a must see. The lodge is a big what the heck happened here? I came for a retreat. Immediately upon check-​in I felt like it was overpriced for how badly the rooms needed an update. The main room we used for the retreat was pretty dirty and had beetles flying around everywhere. Not really a pleasant experience for yoga. The restaurant was also terrible. It was overpriced, the food was cold and service was slow. Due to the sloth like pace, I missed 2 retreat events. The front desk staff was pleasant and I loved the upstairs fireplace. The waterpark is also a nice perk. I struggle with this rating because I have stayed in much, much worse but they really could use some help.

Dirty, rundown, out of date, no sign of professional management, left the kids in charge, overpriced, found glitter and someones (no ours) hair in the supposedly clean bed, shower had mold, like no one cared anymore. Needless to say we left and when to the closest Hilton and never looked back. Cost us $ 125 for this lesson but refused to stay even one night.

I have been to Brown County State Park twice now and stayed at the Abe Martin lodge once and then the rustic cabins the next time. The first time, we were double booked in the lodge and at first they told us they didn’t have a room. It was really frustrating because it was their fault and they tried to blame it on us. We eventually got a room after waiting for an hour or so. The second time, I arrived an hour after my check in time for the cabins and the lady told me they were still cleaning the cabins and to come back in 15 minutes. That makes them having my room ready more than an hour after it should have been. This place would get less stars if it wasn’t for the overall experience at the park alongside the mountain biking.

I don’t think rustic is the right word for the rustic cabins. It’s more like 70s Motel 6 in the woods. If you are sensitive to mildew and mold, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you aren’t, and just want a place to sleep and take a shower, might be ok. Beds very bad. The park itself is extremely gorgeous though.

We are in a «rustic cabin» but there is nothing rustic about it. It just has sad 70s wood paneling, worn out carpet, dingy curtains, 80s looking bedding, worn out old mattresses, and the absolute worst part: it reeks like a mildewy basement. Ugly and smelly. It does appear to be clean but the odor makes me wish I had not paid to sleep here. I’m not sure I am going to be able to sleep on this awful bed, actually. I wish I had stayed home.

Don’t eat here. No one greets you, 15 minutes till server arrives, horrible service, dirty dishes left on tables, just horrible everything. Very disappointing and no one cares. Huge place that caters to state park customers, which could be great but isn’t because they don’t care. Come prepared for camping or eat elsewhere. Seriously it’s never been this bad. Never again but the park is great v

We have come here for many years for our bi annual family reunion.
Sad to see the service go to pot. A bunch of clueless college aged kids on summer break working the hotel.
No housekeeping
No wifi
Hostess at only Restaurant was all distraught, so unorganized.
You understand you are not staying at the Ritz, but Indiana hospitality is usually awesome, just not here.
The service was never like this in the past.

We just stayed in the lodge with our grandchildren for the weekend. My problem is not with the facility it’s the way it’s run. It is very obvious that they do not have enough help. Our room was adequate size for the 5 of us. It was clean and the beds were comfortable. We checked in on Friday afternoon and had to wait for the room to be cleaned from the previous day and this was at 4:00. When we went to the dining room we again had to wait for a table and when we did get seated the table was wet and sticky. They offer a buffet for $ 13.99 or menu. Some of us got the buffet and others ordered. The food took forever to come and those that ate the buffet were finished before the others. The food on the buffet was mostly tasteless. The meats were greasy fried chix, bland meatloaf and overcooked ribs. The vegetables were probably canned didn’t have much flavor either. The mashed potatoes were instant. The salad bar was fair and offered a pretty good variety. On top of all this there was a 3 piece band that played so loud that you couldn’t even carry on a conversation at the table. In total were ate there three days and it never got any better. The breakfast buffet at $ 8.99 again had tasteless food. The only things that had any taste were the fruits and breads. The second night they had two soups, beef veg. and chix noodle. The beef was luke warm no meat and tasted like dishwater. The chix was so salty and the noodles were mush so it was inedible. Two of the kids ordered the pizza with 2 sides. The rest of us had almost finished when the server came out say they had messed up the order and the pizza would be out shortly. So she brought out one 5 mins. later and said she was sorry the kitchen messed up on the order and the other would be out soon. Two of us ordered fries that didn’t come out until we finished eating. We needed up letting the kids share the first pizza and got a togo box for the second. Again they played loud music during the whole meal. The other meals we had went about the same way. We had to wait forever for a table and for our food. They even comped our drinks at one meal because it took so long to get the food. The restaurant to me seemed to be run in a chaotic manner. No organization and seems like no one was in charge. There were un-​bused tables that sat there empty for a long time.
On the plus side, the water park was very nice. It was well run and there were 3 life-​guards on duty at all times. More than adequate towels supplied. Open from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm.
If you want to plan to stay there, either stay in a cabin and cook your own meals or plan to stay somewhere else.

The food is terrible. I have ordered a French toast. What they brought to me was something that reminded a horse shoe cooked for 20 hours. Would look like bread that was rinsed in the dirty water. That was supposed to be an egg on top of it. And it reminded me of a dirty rug soaked in the dirty water. People next to me were not happy because they were still waiting on their dishes and they came much earlier than I did. I better stay hungry then eat at that Lodge.

Good times had here with the family. We stayed over a few days in the Fall last year and it was so beautiful. The staff here were all very pleasant and want to make sure you are enjoying yourself. We will be back!

I am reviewing the food! The hotel was fine!
Breakfasts were ok.
The lunch and one dinner I had were terrible. Basically dry, overcooked hamburgers. Lodging was fine but avoid lunch and dinner.

Very nice for a state park Inn. Comfy room. Not modern by any means, just comfy. The park is the reason you are there to begin with. The water park is a nice feature too.

Could I put the room on my credit card, I asked upon checking in. Ignoring me, the clerk said she could charge my credit card for incidentals. Huh? There is no TV is the rustic cabin so no Lodge Net charges, etc. She then realized her mistake but instead of crediting my friend’s card, she charged him twice! Huh? Could we upgrade to a larger cabin. No, we are sold out, she replied (They were not.) Could we have the AAA rate?, I asked. We don’t offer it, she replied. (They do.) Other than that, great surroundings, fun area. Recommended. But check your bill. They charge the full amount upon making the reservation which is not made clear.

The Inn is a nice place to stay. It’s not the Hilton w/​granite sinks and plush beds but after all it’s an Indiana park facility. I agree w/​one Unilocaler about the food here. It’s very generic & bland. Go in town to eat. It’s nice that they offer an assortment of overnight places – the inn, family cabins, & rustic cabins.
If I was rating the ‘family cabins’ I would give 5stars. They are so cool & spacious. I love hearing the roar of the rain on the tin roof, the feeling of the heat from the wood stove on a chilly day, or sitting on the big deck and reading a good book among the trees that go on forever! Too bad that you have to make reservations 2yrs in advance to get in now.

The area surrounding the lodge is beautiful, but the rooms are a bit dated and in need of some refurbishment. Still we had a very peaceful night there on a weekend. The water park has a nice hot tub which we enjoyed.
The one star is mainly because of the food in the Little Gem Restaurant, which is unfortunately the only dining choice there. We had dinner and the menu consisted of high-​fat fried entrees with heavy gravy. We opted for the buffet, which at least had a salad bar of sorts. It could have used more vegetables and less mayo salads, but at least there were some fresh veggies. The rest of the dinner line included canned veggies, instant mashed potatoes, a comfort casserole, greasy fried chicken and some stuff with lots of white sauce on it. They really need some healthy options here.
The service was also horrible. Our plates were never cleared, and it took forever for our drinks and the check. It’s not like a buffet waitress has to do much, but she didn’t even do the minimum.
They do have microwaves in the public areas of the hotel, and my room had a fridge. If I had it to do over again, I’d just bring a healthier frozen meal. The food was also overpriced for what it was. It reminded me of a school cafeteria.
Again, the park is beautiful, but plan ahead for your food!

i rented a «rustic» family cabin for father’s day weekend. it was a room with a twin bed and a queen size bed in the room. never having been to brown county before, i had no idea what to expect. the room description alerted us that there would be no television, and that was fine. there was, however, a microwave, small fridge, and coffeemaker in the room. this made life super easy, as we got into our cabin later than we expected and it was about 95 degrees outside. the cookout we planned seemed like a lot of hot work… hot, hot, uncomfortable work. we just heated up our planned cookout food in the microwave instead and ate in our room.
there is no maid service in the cabins, but it’s not a big deal. you can get clean towels at the front desk of the lodge, and you wouldn’t change your sheets every night at home… so that’s not a big deal either.
the room itself was clean and cool. there is a wall unit air conditioner which at first i was afraid would not adequately cool the room, but it did so well, we had to put an extra blanket on our bed.
the main lodge has a great swim center with a slide, a kids shallow play area, a lazy river type area, and a side of the pool for water volleyball. if you stay in any of the cabins or in the lodge you get passes into the pool. we had fun playing in there with our three year old, and found there was virtually no one in there at the regular dinner hours between 5−7pm. it started getting full after that, though. the nice thing about the indoor pool is that they provide life jackets for kids.
the hiking trails are gorgeous and coming from flatter than flat illinois the scenery of the park is really pretty. if you are a trail runner, this park would certainly give you a challenge. i wished i’d packed my running shoes to see how long i could hang. the hills are something else.
all in all, a great stay.

Interesting, historic lodge. Food was okay. Beautiful area.

The inn seems more commercial than some of the other inns we have visited. Our double queen room had a refrigerator and a door to the outdoor patio. There were quite a few lamps — one incredibly ugly. It looked like a giant owl. The rest were kind of birch-​barkdy and a bit worn. Despite the quantity of lamps, the quality was marginal and the room was dark. The beds were okay and the bathroom could use updating.
We did visit the pool and went down the slid a bit buzzed. I sucked in a bunch of water and the lifeguards were concerned. The whirlpool was scalding but once you got used to it, was pleasant.
We didn’t eat at the lodge (no alcohol) but did find all the staff friendly.
AVOID THIS PARK IN THE FALL! It is obvious that Nashville/​Brown County is a zoo in the fall. January, while much was closed, was a great time to visit. And you can’t beat the 2-​for-​1 room rate in January.

First of all it’s a State Park Inn, in short it’s run by a government system so It’s defiantly not the Hilton, but If you want to stay in a Hilton why come here? The word Lodge should clue the average bear onto that. It’s a gorgeous relic of the depression work years, and has been kept up very well, again considering it’s a government program.
With that said my family and I had a wonderful time here the night after my wedding. I have grown kids and AARP parents and all were happy with the amenities to be found. The «kids» grooved on the water park, while the grown ups loved the many lounge areas complete with fireplaces to hang out and catch up in, also the outside lodge fire pit was wonderful with the star filled October sky above (and yes you can see stars here). Other than maybe Valentines weekend this is defiantly not top of the list for romantic getaways, but if it’s a family you have to entertain you won’t be disappointed.
As far as the food goes, all Indiana State Park lodges have very below average fair, and with Nashville at your back door, there are many stellar alternatives to be found in town.

My recommendation? Do not get married here. Even though this seems to be an extremely popular spot for weddings (there were like four or five going on when I was here), the one I played did not go very well. The wedding itself was in a courtyard on the upper level of the building, and there was a restaurant behind us. The restaurant was discourteous enough to have hired a solo singer and guitar player while the wedding was going on, so our quartet music was drowned out by him, and the guests could hardly hear the bride and groom saying the vows. Not cool.
While rustic décor can have its charm, when it’s bad, it’s really bad. And this was bad. There was something about it that seemed musty to me, like it was trapped in some kind of 60s Americana movie. No thank you.
Maybe the hotel part is nicer. The pool sure does look awesome! It’s a got a big slide and water channels and everything. But the main building of the lodge, I just wasn’t feeling it at all.