2027 Retreat Destinations

These are the eight house prospects for our 2027 retreat that fit the budgetary and distance requirements, plus other requirements that I imposed myself. Folks wanted the cost per person to come in at roughly $250 for the entire retreat time period, which limited our prospects quite a bit. We can revisit that limitation if these venues aren’t adequate. Folks also began to get shy about places over 4-5 hours from home. One of these venues goes beyond that restriction, but not by much.

I set further considerations on my own.

I want the venue to be one place, not a bunch of hotel rooms or park cabins, because I think it’s important that we be together and that we have common areas to be together.
I want those common areas to be inspiring to the writing process, to have texture and character, and, ideally, to have more than one or two common areas, each with its own particular character. That would help when you get stuck in your writing and a change of venue — a real change that looks and feels different — can get you back into the groove.
I chose venues with the least number of suspicious listing aberations. I want to minimize unpleasant surprises. I wasn’t entirely successful there, but the more obvious questionable listings have been avoided (like a place in Connersville, IN that had lots of wonderful pictures of the interior but none of the exterior. After extensive sleuthing on Google Earth, it became fairly clear that the place exists within a renovated warehouse in a district of warehouses. Not an attractive neighborhood.
I want the venue to have bedrooms, not rooms full of beds. Also, I tended to avoid venues with bunk beds since a lot of those are kid sized, or I discounted those bunks as sleeping arrangements.
All of these venues are suited to five or six occupants no matter what the description says. If more than six people wish to attend the retreat, we’ll have to look at more expensive options.
If a bedroom has more than one bed, I count it as a room for one person, but indicate that it can be for two if people want to room together to save money.
If a bedroom is inside another bedroom so that you have to access someone else’s bedroom to get to yours, I counted both bedrooms as one and applied the same rule as for a room with more than one bed.

So, look through these offerings and let me know which ones are your first and second choices, then we can go from there. Click the picture to go to that venue’s page as shown over time on our blog. Make sure you read the special considerations comments at the end of each venue page.

Cincinnati 5 BR, 5 beds, 3 bath, $256, $51 each

Dryden, VA 5BR, 6 beds, 2 baths, $700 total, $140 each for 5, $117 for 6

Windsor, ON 5 BR, 6 beds, 3 baths, $818, $164 each for 5, $136 for 6

Coldwater, MI, 5 BR, 5 beds, 2 1/5 baths, $966 total, $193 for 5

Richmond, IN, 5 BR, 7beds, 3 1/2 baths, $1013 total, $202 each for 5, $169 for 6

Tecumseh, ON, 5 BR, 5 beds, 2.5 baths, $1160 total, $232 for 5

Port Clinton, OH, 5 BR, 6 beds, 2 baths, $1200 total, $240 each for 5, $200 for 6

Angola, IN, 5 BR, 6 beds, 2.5 baths, $1484 total, $297 each for 5, $247 for 6

Some additional notes to consider:

The first and cheapest option, the Tudor House in Cincinnati, sounds too good to be true as long as you only have five participants. There’s a good reason for that, as I found out today. That house, nice as it looks, is in a fairly high crime area. It registers as fairly high in crime incidences of murder, violent crime, property crime, and overall crime. So that may be a problem.
Both the Windsor place and the Tecumseh place are multiple rental properties. The one in Windsor has a 1-bedroom unit aside from the one we would be using, and it may be occupied, the renters sharing the same at least outdoor common space. This also calls into suspicion the existence and the promotion of not one, but two full kitchens. Are they both ours (which would be odd) or does one belong to the other unit? In the Tecumseh place, the basement is the second rental, which makes me wonder, looking at the windows in the photos, which rooms are ours and which are for the other place?
The Coldwater place has a rather homogeneous appearance throughout. There’s nothing wrong with that appearance, but it does mean a lack of texture and unique spaces.
The Dryden, VA place has the unenviable distinction of being the farthest from home, about 6 hours from Indianapolis and 5 hours from Columbus. It’s also fairly isolated, which could be a pro or a con.
My personal preferences (not that my preferences hold much weight) are the Port Clinton place, the Richmond place, the Dryden place, and the Angola place, in that order. The Port Clinton place may be the second most expensive, but it scores on almost all other metrics. And I’ve always been a sucker for grand covered front porches. The Dryden place doesn’t have one of those, but makes up for it with a good-sized screened-in porch. The Angola place is the most expensive, but has two big porches, one of them covered.

So, there you are. Take a look at these properties and come prepared to talk about them over the next few weeks. Also, when to go (I suggest April-May or September-October, Also, your level of commitment to going.