Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay

My husband and I just stayed at the Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay for our 30th wedding anniversary. We were completely satisfied with our stay. I was surprised that the resort includes accommodations across Fairfield Bay as well as access to four swimming pools, a fitness center, and many other recreational activities. We were given an amenities card which offered us a 10% discount across the resort which we found quite helpful. Our room had a balcony with a lovely view and was so comfortable. The staff was quite friendly and even surprised us with balloons and a gift box of treats for our anniversary which we discovered upon our return to the room our second day. We highly recommend the Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay when you are visiting in the area.

We stayed here in a relatively dead time for Fairfield bay but had a really good time hiking the trails in the town and in the surrounding areas.

This was second stay at a Wyndham property and I was pleasantly surprised. This condo’s interior and exterior were very similar to the other one we stayed at in Flagstaff, AZ back in December. Condo has been updated inside so all the pictures I saw online didn’t accurately reflect what the unit looks like right now. I.E. More modern furniture, updated appliances and renovated bathrooms and kitchen. Our unit was in the Fairways complex, and we were in a two bed/two bath with a slightly small but full kitchen. We used the kitchen/laundry all week for all our meals and didn’t have a single problem with anything.

Only weirdness in the whole place was the master shower was probably once either a small shower with a detached tub, or something else similar(in our Flagstaff condo it was a double, jetted tub with a stand-up shower inside), but now it’s one big shower with no door or curtain. You’re talking about an almost ten foot by 5 foot shower with one ten foot side totally exposed. I didn’t ask about a curtain because I think the opening was too big for one. Didn’t stop me from using it but you ended up with water on the floor outside the shower no matter what you did.

Front desk staff were really put together well, we asked for a crib/pack-and-play for our one year old and they had it all ready when we got there. Overall we had a great time and though we may not be back to Fairfield bay for a while, when we do I’d definitely stay here again.

We rented a 2-story condo in the Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay, which is in the Arkansas Ozarks.

We made poor time getting there, as the freeways are few and far between. When we arrived at the main office, we signed in and received a map that looked easy to understand, with locations of the fitness building, restaurants, pool, and our area to stay in. Wrong! It looked like an easy find, but we went past our unit at least 4 times, not seeing it because of the thick foliage and huge trees, which weren’t on the map.

We went back to the main office, frustrated. The young lady at the desk was patient with us, and called the maintenance man to guide us there. We followed his pick up truck right to it, but it wasn’t seen from the road. He showed us how to use the plastic ‘key’, the hot tub, etc. We unpacked and explored the area around our unit. We had a waterfront unit, but the trees were so thick, we could only get a glimpse of the water from our balcony. It was beautiful anyway, and the unit was roomy for 2 people. I only have one complaint about the condo.

There were 4 large air conditioners right outside our west wall where the head of our bed was, and another 4 units on the east side of the condo building across a small space, so all night long, we heard them going on, off, etc. We did manage to get some sleep finally.

The scenery was beautiful, and we took several rides around the area, to Greers Ferry Lake, many antique shops, scenic views, historic sites, etc. The restaurants were reasonable with good food. We spent a day in Little Rock, but enjoyed the small towns like Heber Springs, Mountain View and Shirley. Another favourite thing to do, was going to the marina and feeding the fish and turtles. You can buy the food there.

If you enjoy wine or a beer, you’d better bring your own, as most of the counties around there are dry. Strange though, the restaurant in the golf course (The Little Red Restaurant) had a bar!

The people are friendly, and if it were closer, we would go back every year!

We just returned home from a seven night/ eight-day vacation, staying in the Hamilton Cove part of the Wyndham Resort. The condo itself was absolutely gorgeous and was impressively spotless with beautiful views.

This vacation taught us something – Furniture and furniture alone can absolutely make or break a vacation. Sadly, we learned this the hard way. But, based on discussions with several other families who were staying at the resort at the same time, we learned that we were not alone. It seems like the living room furniture is much the same across the resort and was not limited to our condo alone. The upstairs living room area has perhaps the most uncomfortable couch and chair that we have ever used. The chair also does not recline, which made the discomfort even worse. Don’t hope for the beds to be comfortable either – the mattresses, although they appeared to be new and brand name (BeautyRest) were so firm that I can’t imagine sleeping on a blanket over a concrete pad to be much worse.

We literally went through an entire bottle of Aleve during the week that we were there – and the discomfort and pain also ultimately led to us not really wanting to get out and about to do much of anything. Simply put, we hurt too much to really go out to do much.

Also, the “amenities” are not all that they are hyped up to be and are actually just local businesses that you can access if you DRIVE into town to get to them – you will have no choice but to drive for anything around Fairfield Bay. All of the resort amenities pretty much seem to require driving. For example, the “on-site indoor pool” is not even owned by Wyndham. It’s a fitness center in the town (you will need to drive to it) that Wyndham guests are allowed to use. One of the primary reasons that we chose to stay at this location was because of that indoor pool – Sadly, we were also greatly disappointed by that. Although it is the largest indoor pool that we have ever seen, it lacks a good deal in cleaning. Over the seven days that we were there, I drove my daughter there three days so that she could swim. The first day, the pool was decently clean. The second day, we found multiple band-aids just floating freely in the water. And the third day, there were two large LIVING spiders in the pool.

Also, if you plan to use the pool, sauna and hot tub, know that they have very strict rules there. You must shower before using the pool (a good idea, but the showers smell terribly of urine), you must wear only swimwear, and here’s the kicker – children cannot use the hot tub at all. They were very strict about that and are not at all lenient about it. My daughter has been (responsibly) using the hot tub for years – it’s one of her favourite parts about vacation – but they wouldn’t allow her to even be near it.

I wish I could break down the rating of this property into categories because there are good aspects of the resort – the condo was the cleanest one we have ever been to. It was spacious and beautiful, with beautiful views. Indian Cave was free to visit, decently easy to tour (if you can’t walk it, you can arrange to ride down in a golf cart for a free tour) and the staff was extremely friendly. But you could also tell that there was definitely some visible cost-cutting measures going on – low quality plastic interior dishwashers that would often need to be run two or three times on the “pots and pans” mode to wash the dishes properly and that terribly uncomfortable furniture. Had the furniture been more comfortable, the overall vacation would have been better. On the sixth night, we discussed how we wished we had just gone out and invested in a couple of inflatable mattresses from Walmart – we would have felt much better sleeping on them.

Several other owners felt the same way about the living room furniture – it was a frequent discussion at the pool. Some said that they had nice pillowtop mattresses on the beds though, so it seems that different condos have different mattresses but all seemed to have that same issue with the living room furniture.

It was a nice one-time visit but we will not return to this location.

We have stayed at this resort several times and since Wyndham acquired it there has been a concerted effort to renovate and improve. One of the latest upgrades is to get WiFi into all the units. The improvements to many of the units is very nice. There are still some areas slated for facelifts and we stayed in one of these because of the great views of Greers Ferry Lake. We had some minor maintenance issues which were quickly resolved. Everyone on the staff works hard to make our stays enjoyable and relaxing. I recommend Fairfield Bay to anyone who enjoys the outdoors and an area where life is slower and quieter.

This resort was probably one of my best experiences with a Wyndham timeshare. Before our arrival, the resort staff sent an email with information about the resort and area (which included this is a dry county, btw!) which allowed us to make plans for our trip. In addition, when we arrived, we were greeted by friendly folks at the front desk who gave more tips for area activities. THERE WAS NO SALES PITCH! I was expecting the usual “special deal to upgrade your timeshare points” that we’d have to sit through for hours just to say ‘no’, but that didn’t happen. We were given keys, a Wi-Fi code, some brochures for local attractions, and were sent to our unit.

*Note: The map to the units is not to scale and is a little confusing because it doesn’t include streets along the way or sometimes no clue where to actually turn to get much of anywhere… Lots of fun on that front.

The unit itself was clean, comfortable, had all the expected amenities, and was lake-facing. The only drawback was that we could sort of see the lake, but only through a thick “forest” of trees. We sat on the balcony and either watched trees (squirrels & birds) or waited for stars to come out. I don’t want any trees cut down, but it seemed like it’d be the perfect spot to catch a sunrise or watch some beach wildlife.

Activities we enjoyed nearby were hiking, hiking, and more hiking (a pontoon boat to hike at Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Fitness Trail, Indian Cave Trail, and a few other one-off trails throughout the forest). Also, there were several pretty good restaurants nearby (Little Red Restaurant – upscale w/o a dress code, Dock of the Bay – full bar and food, and El Poblano – pretty good Mexican food). We only left Fairfield Bay once to go to the Dirty Farmer’s Market & Greater Good Cafe in Clinton. We didn’t eat there, but we bought a few local eggs and veggies for breakfast. Cute little downtown area in Clinton, too…

All in all, we enjoyed our vacation to Wyndham Fairfield Bay and plan to return in cooler months.

Spent the week here after exchanging a week of ours.

Definitely the best timeshare that we have stayed in in over 10 years. Unit was fairly large with a bedroom, kitchen, dining area and living room. There are larger units but we got a one bedroom.

There was a deck with four chairs and a table overlooking the lake. Would have been a better view if you could actually see the lake. The unit had a connecting door to the unit next door. This was a source of a lot of noise and disturbances. We could hear conversations going on and heard whatever was being watched on tv. Thankfully the people left quickly.

The unit came with a dishwasher and washer and dryer.

The necessary detergents were included along with dish soap and salt and pepper. Most timeshares do not include these items. We did have a problem with the bathtub not draining and burned out light bulbs. Took several visits to get them fixed.

The timeshare is located within the town of Fairfield Bay and private houses are located next to the units. Each set of timeshares has their own pool located a short distance away.

The indoor pool is part of the towns health club.

The local Lions club offers breakfast one morning for a fee. This is probably because there is only one restaurant in town that offers breakfast. The area restaurants close early so plan ahead. Guest services offers free DVD’s, videos and board games nice offering.

There is miniature golf on the premises but there is a charge. We do not golf so I can’t comment on the two golf courses. There is a marina located nearby that offers boat rentals and boat trips.

There are several hiking routes but we didn’t utilize them. Overall this was a nice quiet vacation as there isn’t much to so in the area unless you golf, boat or hike.