We arrived at Elkhorn on a Saturday evening after traveling for about 15 hours. We were tired and ready to unpack and get comfy in our home away from home for the week. Upon initial arrival, the space is great. It’s secluded, very wooded, and the perfect space for what we needed. I am going to break down our stay for all future renters to be fully prepared.
1. The spiral staircases are a pain in the butt to take luggage down. A lot of the houses in the area have nice pathways to guide you to your home, not Elkhorn. The pathway is gravel and takes you down to the bottom of a staircase that you then have to haul all of your belongings up to the second floor. Our mistake was not noticing the difficultly of the spiral staircases sooner. If you need to take luggage down to the bottom floor, I would recommend entering the space, going downstairs, opening the back door, and then bringing the suitcases to the lower two bedrooms. If you are staying in the upstairs loft - be prepared there isn’t a loophole.
2. I don’t think the photos on VRBO provide an adequate description of the layout. None of the rooms are directly connected to a bathroom, the two lower rooms share a bathroom and the lofted room has to walk down the stairs to the main floor bathroom. This isn’t an issue, just not something that we were prepared for.
3. The hosts were VERY responsive. This came in handy because our pool code and beach code were incorrect. This is by no means their fault, Ptarmigan Village changed the codes without letting them know. We had very timely responses when this occurred. But I think it’s worth mentioning that if you want to go to the beach or pool, do it within office hours of Ptarmigan Village so you aren’t locked out.
4. Parking is not clearly marked outside of Elkhorn. We had the misfortune of another member of the community placing a note on our car that stated “moved or be towed”. We contacted Ptarmigan in fear of having our vehicle towed and they stated they do not place notes like that on cars, nor do they tow since there is not assigned parking. I will say I was not thrilled with the response from our Hosts. We did nothing wrong with regards to parking and I did not feel supported by their response, there was no clarification as to what to do. Luckily Ptarmigan Village’s answering service was able to provide proper information.
The location itself is great, it’s very peaceful and extremely beautiful. We enjoyed sitting on the patio and watching
