Essex Holidays

Stayed here for the nostalgia. My dad worked for Nordic Hills when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time there in the 70’s and 80’s. It has been significantly changed but not for the better. The cool octagonal indoor pool is gone, the outdoor pool is gone. There is a new indoor pool, which is decent. The lady who runs the little bowling alley is very nice. They really need to fix the bowling alley if they’re going to charge guests to use it. $30 per hour is a little expensive for electronics that doesn’t count the pins correctly. There aren’t enough sizes to use bowling shoes and the balls and lanes are very worn. Overall we had a fun time though. They should just include it in the price if they’re room honestly. The downstairs restaurant used to be awesome. Now it’s meh. Very limited menu of seemingly microwaved food. Bring back The Viking Room and the two-sided fireplace! We were charged $10 per car to park in the parking lot. Not sure why…Glad we went but they should have kept the stuff that made the place cool and unique back in the day. People seem to like the golf course.

Food at the restaurant was excellent