31 Best Stops Between Dahlonega and Athens (2024)

My husband and I stayed at Chateau Elan this past weekend for our anniversary weekend. We had not planned to spend a small fortune, but did - simply on food and 1 spa service. The massage was mediocre at best. We paid for a couple's 50 minute full body massage and the staff didn't massage my whole body. I mentioned it to the front desk staff and they didn't seem to care. They were already paid and charged the gratuity automatically.It was nice to have the shuttles from one building to another. It was also nice to have so many restaurants on-site, albeit costly. We had hoped to visit the winery on Saturday, but the shuttled-in "wine tour" groups overtook the space leaving no area to simply chill out in. So, we went to the Marc's bar and just ordered co*cktails. I just felt like they were catering to the external wine tasting groups, and not to their guests.We also had zero vanity lighting in our bathroom the extent of our stay, which was not too fun. Overall, the accommodations were nice, beautiful common spaces, friendly staff.

BEWARE OF HIDDEN FEES AND GRATUITY INCLUDED!!! Very disappointed at Chateau Elan. On our way there, they called my husband to tell us that the AC for the room we booked was not working so they had to change our room for no additional charge. The room my husband booked was approximately $350/night. When we checked out, the room cost was $595, not including all other additional fees that they tag on. The entire day on Friday it felt like we were just waiting around for the shuttles to pick us up. We had lunch at the restaurant by the golf course, the shuttle took 45 minutes to pick us up. Each time we requested a shuttle, it would take at least 20 minutes. The next day, I booked a facial. The facial was great, however, no one informed us that gratuity was already included, so I tipped her an additional $70 in cash unaware that they had already charged me an additional $50. Mind you, they don't show you the bill or anything before or after your appointment. You only see everything after checkout. I looked at the price online for the facial so that's how I knew what to expect the cost to be. According to them, breakfast was included with our room fee. Our final bill showed the cost of breakfast. We also had to tell them 3x that we had given them 1K gift card and no one knew how to enter it in the system. When we tried to dispute the room cost, they just told us that we were mistaken and probably mixed the price with another room. Our confirmation email showed no details of what we booked, so unfortunately we had no proof. No one bothered to tell us that gratuity was already included in everything. In addition, they charge a hotel fee, a resort fee and whatever else. We left this place feeling scammed. No one knew what they were doing. It's overpriced for what it is. Any decent gym has all the amenities the spa has. We won't be back again.

Hey, I've gotten engaged here and I still can't think of a better place! The food, the wine is still amongst the best I've ever tasted. Calling it a 10 /10 would be an understatement. I can still hear the applause. I genuinely miss this place. It will always be a special place for me. I can't wait to return to the wonder atmosphere. Marc Bar & Restaurant thank you for the wonderful experience.

Winery review! 🍷This place is absolutely stunning 😍 the wine tasting consists of 7 wine samples with a medium pour. Wine varies from reds. Sweet/fruity, to a more dry taste. You'll enjoy the ambiance and pictures in the vine areas and enjoy soothing music on Saturday evenings. Wine tasting will cost 60$ per person. It's worth the money 💰 Enjoy!

Gorgeous place and lovely staff! The food was not bad, but oddly enough, this place was not very clean. I have never in my life asked for a new room due to cleanliness, but I did here. The new room still wasn’t very clean in my opinion, but we chose to settle just to be able to enjoy our vacation. It’s quite an expensive place to end up settling. The bathroom off the lobby smelled horrendous during our entire stay, I just find this very odd for such a beautiful place.The spa, on the other hand was great! Beautiful, clean, great service!

Beautiful place, but not kept well in certain areas. My biggest concern is pricing! We booked the Spa room and paid over $1000 when the room was listed online for $637 after tax. Slap in the face to pay the price of two nights, and only stay for one! Other than that, the spa area was nice and calming. Quiet, and peaceful. The spa restaurant service was mediocre .. the waiter seemed to not want to serve us. All in all I would return for the peace, not for the price gouging!

My husband and I visited Chateau Elan last weekend for my birthday. We traveled from out of town and spent what was supposed to be 4 days relaxing and enjoying ourselves. We arrived on a Friday, enjoyed the winery, and resort. Saturday, we explored the spa area where we were staying, got dressed up, went out to dinner, returned to our rooms for the night so that we could get up on Sunday morning to enjoy our couple's massages. We went to our appointments on Sunday morning and as we were leaving in pajamas and robes, we were approached by a security officer asking my husband his name and he was asked to be escorted off of the property. The guard expressed that he could explain why outside. My husband was told that he made a comment about CHOCOLATE candy to make the front desk assistants feel uncomfortable and he forced the assistant to put a friends and family discount on our reservation. The front desk assistant offered the discount because it was my birthday. We didn't ask and didn't need it. My husband spent almost $2000 on a reservation!! He didn't have a weapon, he wasn't aggressive so how did he force the assistant to do anything? If we checked in on Friday, why did they wait until Sunday morning at 10am to ask him to leave if it was such a problem with her feeling uncomfortable? Better yet, why even check him in if there was some uncomfortable feelings? He should have been asked to leave then! Not only did they ask us to leave, they stood at our hotel room door on the outside like we were criminals and made us GO OUT THE BACK DOOR at the spa! I feel as if we were treated unfairly and racial profiled in a sense! The front desk clerk swiped my husband's card 5 times for $2000! He asked her why and she stated she didn't think it went through. There was no apologies from anyone at this resort. I've always had a good time any time I visit Chateau Elan. I have always been treated nicely and fairly until this incident on 3/24/24. I've been calling and calling but not receiving an answer. I was only told that the situation is being investigated and my husband is not to return to the establishment. I need answers!

We decided to do something different for Christmas Day and had dinner at Chateau Elan. The buffet had too many options to name. There were stations set up with too many options to name. Some of the stations had servers and some were self serve. The servers all wore masks. There was an entree station, meat carving, salad, desserts, and seafood. Everything was delicious. Our waitress was very attentive and encouraged us to take our time, which we did. The price included food and non alcoholic beverages. After dinner we walked around and went to the winery, purchased a bottle of wine and sat outside to enjoy it. Overall a great experience!*We did not stay overnight, just spent the day there

My stay here was amazing. We enjoyed the girls winery weekend package. The spa service was outstanding. The wine tasting was a bit confusing and lacked adequate seating, but once we sorted that part out we had a blast. The breakfast buffet at Versailles was yummy. The staff at the hotel was pleasant and accommodating. Overall it was a great experience. I highly recommend it!

Came to this resort for Valentines weekend. We were able to get checked in early to the hotel. The room was very nice. There was a restaurant and a bar connected to the hotel. And just a short walk across the parking lot was another restaurant and the winery where you could do tours and sample the different wines. The tour was great and then did the wine sampling where you could taste Six or seven different wines. It wasn’t just a taste! It was literally almost a full glass of wine. And you don’t have to finish them all at one time. I tried two different wines the first day, then went back later on for another glass. Then went back the next day for two more! I ended up buying three bottles of wine before I left. Great place right outside of Atlanta.

Breakfast buffet is too expensive. It's like paying for a fancy dinner... 80.00 with drink and tip. It's a great atmosphere though and the service was good. The smoked salmon probably caused the high buffet price for breakfast? I'd say the cost prevents a full house....should be 60.00 for 2 not 80.00 with drink tax and tip.

Nice weekend getaway from Atlanta. The pool area was pretty filthy but we didn't let that damper our mood. Unfortunately, the positive memories we held onto ended shortly after we got back home and realized we were charged an extra $160 for allegedly consuming snacks from the snack bar.When called to have it rectified the representative admitted that there is some device that magnetizes the containers and you get charged automatically even if you simply touch it! That's insane! Now we are waiting on a call back after they confirm that we didn't actually eat their overpriced snacks. I'm not sure how that will be confirmed if they have already placed someone back in the room and housekeeping didn't actually check and replenish anything. Billing errors ruin experiences and even further when it takes forever to get them resolved. BEWARE! Don't breath near the snack bar!!We did the key drop at checkout because the line to manually checkout and get a receipt was all the way back to the stairs with only 1 person checking people out.

Beautiful grounds- pool area is amazing and the rooms are nice, but definitely not luxury hotel nice. Our AC wasn't working properly and we had trouble sleeping because we were warm. We also got dinner at one of their restaurants, which took almost 3 hours because they were understaffed. Our server was super nice and tried to make up for the wait which we appreciated. I wouldn't have minded any of these things, except the fees and the billing is absolutely ridiculous here. We were misinformed by the lady who checked us in that we had a $200 dining credit. Took me a week to get that sorted out, which I thought they had handled. However, there is now an additional charge that has been posted to my account since and the original charge hasn't been adjusted yet either. My friends and I stayed there almost 3 weeks ago now. I have never seen so many extra added fees to a bill anywhere else. It's ridiculous. I would rather know upfront that my $48 bottle of wine (that we had to order through room service because everything was closed after our dinner took 3 hours) was going to end up costing close to $100 when ordered through room service. They didn't even cork or pour the bottle for us and with all of those added charges you'd think they would.*update* have been dealing with their billing department for a month now and the charges have still not been fixed. I've talked with 4 different people now and it's very frustrating to keep having to follow up with them at this point. such a waste of my time- will definitely never book a room here again.

Me and my friends did the wine tasting for my birthday. It was really nice we had such a good time, our tour guide was Michael he was so funny and very interactive with us. If you have never experienced wine tasting you definitely should try it.

Really loved my stay here. This was a retreat my leadership team took and the location was amazing. Enjoyed the food, wine, grounds, views and service. If you're looking for a place to host a work event or just a romantic couples trip, this is a great option.I would recommend.

If I could give this 0 stars I would mainly because of the service my husband and I received. My husband took me here the weekend before Christmas for my birthday. However, in my very humble opinion, I feel service was lacking due to the complexion of our skin. We saw others receive top notch attention and service while we received the bare minimum and it was like that nearly everywhere we went. We did wine tasting, spa, and went to 3 restaurants/bars. After leaving, my husband told me he had requested a very special birthday setup at one of the restaurants (specified he didn’t mind paying extra) and they didn’t do one thing he asked. They also set us at the smallest table it seems. I’m upset because the pictures on the website of the restaurant point out where they have made desserts with “happy anniversary” or “happy birthday” on it. We didn’t even get that. Also, the waiter kept calling us “folks” which I thought was very rude. There were some good moments sprinkled throughout but for the money we spent we could have been treated better. Will never spend any money here ever again. That’s just my experience.

This is a beautiful property with an amazing staff. I would give it a solid 5 stars if it weren't for two significant issues. 1) I was on the top floor, but my view out of my window was obscured by green algae. The exterior of my windows were absolutely covered in the stuff. It ruined my view. I notified the front desk, but nothing was done the 3 nights I was there. 2) Food and beverage is WAY overpriced. Guests are basically captives to the resort. There are no options other than what Chateau Elan offers, so they gouge you on price, and the quality is not good at all. They serve basic, average dishes at exorbitant prices. Also, they are tremendously understaffed. A wait at a half full bar easily eclipsed 10 minutes. The one nice dinner we had in an almost empty dining hall was a disaster. We repeatedly had to get up and look for our server. This started the moment we were seated by the hostess, and continued until we had to get up and find our server to request our check. It was surreal. Housekeeping was a strong point. They were very friendly and did an excellent job, but I could not believe how much algae there was on my windows and how terrible the F&B situation is there.

Staff at the hotel are very good and attentive. Staff at the winery, not so much. Rooms at the hotel are very well kept and up to date. We stayed for the Chef and Winemaker dinner, and it was spectacular. Breakfast at Versailles was good too. Had drinks at Marc bar, not so good. Louis, House of Bourbon was better.

Beautiful location. Great hospitality from the staff. Had the salmon...the flavor was not something to wake my palate, plus for the portions, a starch would help to keep one from feeling the meal was not worth the price. Now the cheesecake, oh my, that was divine.If you are going to the tasting room, make sure you wear something you can stand in for at least an hour on concrete, it may take a minute to find a seat.

We had a wonderful stay this past weekend celebrating our friends honeymoon and birthday.Breakfast and food review:We went to Versailles for breakfast and dinner and it was delicious for both. The breakfast is $30 per person and all you can eat, it’s unbelievably good. We went to Marc’s for dinner and had the best waiter you could ever have. We got the NY strip and the sweet potato chili soup and it was delicious. The wine is delicious and the tea party is a must do at $65-$85 per person.Spa:The spa is a must-do. The massage was one of the best any of us have had. They are currently renovating the spa and I’m sure great things are to follow.Overall I’d recommend staying here and the customer service was 5 ⭐️Alexandria during check-in was very accommodating and kind.

From the outside this place is definitely a four star hotel, beautiful grounds, lovely lighting. You can tell owners put in the effort, same is true for the common spaces on the inside. But the rooms lack charm, there are no extras in the room very skimpy, With towels, shampoo, etc. and the staff is kind but not polished. Definitely not the experience I would expect at a four-star resort. This place has great potential but for what I paid, I don’t feel I got my moneys worth. I hope they’ll put in the extra effort to get it up to par.

The Chateau Elan Winery and Resort was such an unforgettable experience. The staff was wonderful & super-friendly, the views of the vineyards were astonishing, the spa was super relaxing, the food was amazing and plated so picture-perfect and there wine was wine of a kind . Everything was just like it was described on the website and definitely a luxurious experience. Me and my friend will be returning in the near future and hopefully for the wine festival as well! One thing that could be better improved is the room service as some days it was very delayed and our room wasn't serviced at all until calling the front desk throughout the day to get something as simple as fresh towels. Also, I would like to shoutout one of my shuttle drivers Ron James. He was such a respectful, high-spirited, humorous person who loves his job and does it well. The Chateau Elan Winery and Resort is blessed to have a such a hidden gem as him among the many others who made our experience even more wonderful. Thank you to all the shuttle drivers, valet attendants and staff for all that you do on a daily. You are greatly appreciated and without you the Chateau Elan experience wouldn’t be possible!

We went for a moms weekend away and traveled from all over to come here. I'd never been to a spa like this before and expected to feel incredible but for all the pros, there were also many cons that were unexpected.Accommodations – VillasPros – Large living space, rooms and bathrooms, full kitchen, full laundry.Cons – Low water pressure in the showers, carpet needed to be replaced and updated. The villas were off location and the only way to get to the villas was by shuttle. It felt like a lot of our time was wasted on the shuttle, plus add tip to pay the driver which was not an expense we were expecting.**MANY hidden fees and they always tack on a 22% gratuity, which isn’t right. Gratuity is meant to be at the customer’s discretion for the services received.PoolPros – Waiters were very on top of being attentive on a slower day (Friday) but were less on a busier day (Saturday)Cons – Not enough chairs, DJ was incredibly too loud, they allowed friends of the employees to “call” chairs theirs when they didn’t use them for over an hour’s time after kicking me off the chair that did not have any item on it to “hold” it as theirs. The water was much too warm.Spa –Pros - Beautiful, relaxing atmosphere. The included champagne flute was lovely. Everyone was kind and courteous and I truly felt pampered.-Brunch – The food was incredible and they offered to hold my boxed leftovers in the fridge so they didn’t go to waste.Cons - Felt pressured to purchase products used during facial which resulted in a product purchased that was too large to go home on a carry on, even though it was discussed I was from out of town. When I went to the front desk before check out, asking to return it, they suggested I head to the spa, which wasn’t open yet or they could ship it. Since it seemed they weren’t going to try to return it, I shipped it so as to not lose the money for it, but the form to ship it to myself also asked for my payment for the shipment.They also charged us incorrectly. One person booked the appointments so they charged a deposit to their card but when we checked out, they told me my total was going to be my full total, the deposit refunded to the other card which did not happen. Another member of our party was charged the full amount and the deposit on the original card was not refunded, so they had to call to straighten it out to not be charged twice.-Brunch – The hostess mistakenly seated our party and then didn’t remember it when we went to be seated. She was trying to tell us we didn’t have reservations. Very slow service. We waited forever for our food and check when we were ready to leave.WineryPros – The wine was wonderful and delicious and the pours were generous.Cons – For the tasting, you have to wait in line to get to the bar where they pour the wine and only pour one glass at a time so then for your next tasting, you had to get back in line.

Old and decrepit. Imagine going to a luxury hotel, spending thousands of dollars only to walk into a room with filthy carpets, stained chairs and urine stained mattresses. Completely old, outdated with 1900s light switches and fixtures, AC units that don’t work, spiders and spider web’s everywhere!! THEN you book a spa service spending thousands of dollars and when you walk in, the ceiling is leaking with MEN in the ladies locker room holding buckets catching water from their ancient ceiling. Then witnessing these men proceed further into the ladies locker room where women are half or not dressed with the buckets, dumping the filthy water into the shower WE shower in!! The spa is OLD and NASTY. Those steam rooms and saunas are not cleaned. Hair everywhere. Bugs everywhere near the hot tubs. They say they recently did a renovation. If they did they spent everything in the lobby and maybe the grounds because those look nice but I felt disgusted like my skin crawled the entire time. Yuck

Beautiful place. Just breathtaking, spacious, picturesque and such a wonderful conference space with great service.The resort staff were all friendly and I want to shout out Joe at the front desk who went over and beyond. Seeing us by the fire, offered us some Brut wine to cap off the night. What a surprise and delightful gesture.

We have been going here for Thanksgiving since 2015. This year we decided to stay on the property…EXTREMELY disappointing all the way around. We spent over 6000.00 on 4 rooms that were not luxurious at all. We would have been better off to stay at the Hampton Inn on the property. Absolutely NOTHING special about the rooms or the view. Guest services never answered the phone unless you let the phone ring forever, the complementary coffee was the worst ever, one of the toilets clogged(no one ever came to fix it) they ran out of turkey on Thanksgiving Day…(how do you let that happen), we had to sit at a table in the back near the ballroom and watch the cleaning staff work because they didn’t close the ballroom doors, the $95.00 buffet plate was good but there were not a lot of choices as in the past, (again they ran out of turkey -no one in our party got turkey), there were no smores to roast one night, the manager at Versailles restaurant was extremely rude and condescending when we tried to get a table. The food at Versailles was amazing but the bill for 7 people was 745.00…One bright spot-The golf course is worth playing. However all in all a very disappointing experience. I cannot emphasize this enough. For the 10k spent, we could have gone other places that go above and beyond for their patrons. Overall, I do not recommend Chateau Elon. Spend your hard earned money some place else that cares about their guest. Not worth the expense. So sad.

I have been to Chateau Elan a few times in the past and I have had excellent customer service. I have stayed at their hotel and have a had a few of their services. I have never been pleased with their spa services it's overpriced and the treatment that they give is below sub par. I mainly went to Chateau Elan for the ambience and I love their rooms and restaurants. I'm leaving this review today because last year a friend had sent me a e-gift card for Chateau Elan for my birthday. I decided that I was going to use it this year for my birthday. When I try to redeem the gift card it wouldn't work which is odd because the expiration date is 5 years. Well, I was told about 2 weeks ago by the Supervisor Shannon that they recently changed there system and that he will call me back with a new gift card number once he gets with accounting. In the meantime I went ahead and booked and paid $364 for a Spa service that I was told I would get refunded for the amount of the gift card. I had invited 7 friends to join me at the spa. Rewind- I forgot to mention that it is impossible to book over the phone it took days for me to reach someone and was promised a call back to book an appointment. By the time I spoke with someone after calling back several times, they only had 1 appointment left for the morning that I wsnted so I took it. My other guest wouldn't be able to get a spa treatment, but they were willing to purchase a day pass just to spend the day with me. Back to the present- I never received a call from Shannon or his manager Tammy in regards to the gift card and I had already left 3 messages. Today made day 9, after 6 hours of calling and being connected to hotel reservations and being told there's nothing they can do but send accounting and the spa an email to call me back which I have been told that for almost 2 weeks now and no one has returned my call. I finally got in touch with someone in the spa after calling back again, I canceled my reservation and advised my guests to cancel their day passes. The person in the Spa connected me to Shannon who still hadn't found anything out or just forgot about my issue. I explained to him that I had already canceled my service and that all I want is for them to refund my friend her money for the gift card. Shannon said he will have to speak with his manager and call my friend tomorrow to let her know if they will be able to do it. On the gift card it states non refundable. If you have provided TERRIBLE service to someone why would they visit your facility??? I told my friend if she doesn't hear from Shannon tomorrow and his response isn't anything but we are going to refund you your money, to file a complaint with the BBB. Chateau Elan gets a big fat 0 from me.

My sister and I had the most delightful Mother's Day retreat at Chateau Elan. The property is absolutely beautiful, providing a serene escape. The spa felt like a zen retreat, offering relaxation and rejuvenation. The winery, equally impressive, is a lovely place to unwind. The wines surpassed our expectations, offering a truly delicious experience. We highly recommend Chateau Elan for anyone seeking a getaway that combines luxury, tranquility, and exquisite wines. It made our Mother's Day truly special.#TeSheraEats

I did not stay at the hotel, but have visited the winery several times. The grounds are beautiful and I like that there is usually plenty of places to sit and enjoy the views. Staff is always courteous and pleasant in my experience. As some other reviews have mentioned, the food and wine are overpriced, but you're paying more for the experience/grounds than anything. Don't expect to be wowed by the wine quality, but it still tastes good enough to sit back and enjoy an afternoon of sipping!

Best weekend getaway only 1.5 hours from home. The entire resort is beautiful, which made for an elegant, romantic getaway. The staff were very courteous. Drinks and restaurants were pricey but not unexpected from usual resort prices. My husband and I both agree it was worth every penny. We enjoyed the wine tasting, and serval restaurants on site.

My husband and I stayed over the weekend for our one-year anniversary, and I would not recommend this place to anyone. The rooms were extremely unkept. There were crumbs in the leather ottoman, stains all over the floor and upholstery. I was pretty grossed out that there was no mattress protector on the bed. There was hair, dirt, etc. in the corners of the room. The common areas throughout the property were no better, and the food was mediocre at best.

Beautiful hotel! Perfect for a couples weekend or company retreat.The food is good, the staff is very friendly and there are so many spaces to roam and chill at.You can grab a bike and go for a bike ride around the property or go for a walk around the vineyard.The boutiques have cute items if you want to get some souvenirs.

We attended the New Year's Party last year and this year. Happy to say last year was AMAZING to welcome 2023! We love Chateau Elan and the divine experience it delivers with each visit.Unfortunately, this year's party to bring in 2024 appeared to be "thrown together on a low budget!"When you are spending nearly $2000 per couple, you don't expect to wait in line for a self-serve buffet. The food in most stations were too spicy and did not taste good. There were lots of wasted food thrown away on plates.The band was not the greatest this year. Another concern was after dinner, the easy access to the ballroom for people who appeared not to have paid for the event. We were so excited to attend the Gala and truly look forward to it all year. This was a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT to ring in the New Year 2024!!

I have been hearing about it for a very long time but never been. We had such a great time today, ate at the restaurant next to the wine tasting then did a small tasting after. There were a few wines that we really enjoyed. The atmosphere was also very nice. We will definitely be going back