This “bucket list” vacation had one primary goal: attempt to closely duplicate the location, activities and feelings I had as a child visiting my grandparents’ nearby cottage, and to share these experiences with my children and grandchildren. Chalet du Bois provided EVERYTHING I’d hoped for and MORE: beautiful wide beach with a very short walking distance from the house (so even the little kids and seniors could make several trips back and forth every day); house nestled in the woods with a screened porch; plenty of space for 10 people from ages 4-70.
We arrived to find the house very clean and true to its description. The floor-to-ceiling windows made us feel we were right in the middle of the woods as we watched cardinals and blue jays fly by! There were plenty of bathroom towels (1 complete set for each person). The kitchen was well-appointed; nice large washer and dryer; huge back deck allowed our entire group to gather and we took great advantage of the warm-water outdoor shower to wash off the sand. There was also a clever foot-washing station by the front door. Morning coffee was especially enjoyable on the screened porch. As noticed in the pictures, this is an open floor plan so the house was filled with lots of happy noise most of the time….only an issue for people wanting to go to bed early or sleep late. The lower level bedrooms did stay quieter for little kids and the teens carved out their own space in the game room. A few board games were provided. Note: we did bring our own nightlights.
Cherry Beach was gorgeous! After a short walk to the parking lot there were 62 steps down to the beach with several benches for resting along the way. In the garage we found 3 beach chairs and 1 beach umbrella (we also rented a larger umbrella) and we were pleasantly surprised to find several large floating rings and rafts for water play (we did provide our own electric pump to fill them). There was even a kayak although no paddle.
Besides beach activities, part of the fun included catching fireflies, picking blueberries, making frequent trips to the delicious Harbert Swedish Bakery and eating one fabulous dinner at Tosi’s.
We did have one important reason to contact the Vacasa guest support number for a problem. There are 2 coded lock boxes containing house keys, one for the front door and one for the back. The front one opened easily but the back door box wouldn’t open. The Vacasa representative (Justin) was very helpful. Apparently we had not been given the correct code for the back door. Once he provided it, the box opened easily but the key was missing. Justin notified the local manager with expectation that she would contact us and provide us with a new key. Unfortunately, we did not hear from her or receive that second key. Having only 1 key ended up being fine but it could have posed a problem if the front door key had accidentally been misplaced.
Since all the “big things” in the house worked perfectly, I hate to mention a few minor inconveniences we noticed on arrival. They were all easily remedied without calling Vacasa support but I will mention them to the manager. I don’t expect they will be an issue for future guests.
1) as soon as we opened the front door, we heard the lower level bedroom smoke detector chirping. Clearly we couldn’t live with that so bought a battery and installed it.
2) I had been told that each bathroom would contain 1 shampoo, 1 conditioner, 2 rolls of TP and 2 soaps. Of the four bathrooms, the master and 2nd floor were missing both hand & bath soaps; the main floor bath and lower level were missing bath soap. We simply ran to the store and bought our own hand and/or bath soaps.
3) Beach towels: I was aware they were provided but had not asked how many. I guess I expected to find one for each guest. As it turned out there were only 4 available for 10 guests. To r...