You can easily spend the better part of two days exploring the historic Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio, and booking an overnight stay at the neighboring Sauder Heritage Inn allows out-of-town visitors to easily make a weekend of visiting the village.
The 98-room country inn sits steps from the village entrance and includes many amenities to help make the most of your overnight visit.
The inn, built in 1994, recently underwent an expansion with a three-story addition to house a wing featuring an indoor pool, hot tub, pool deck, game room and exercise room.
Common areas like the lobby are comfortable places to sit or meet with a larger group.
I loved discovering numerous gathering spaces tucked around the grounds, including an outdoor seating area with a water feature, which a few ducks deemed a great place to relax as well!
I also loved the homespun touches with the inn's decor that included lots of beautiful quilts hanging on the walls and this unique QR-code quilt displayed in the lobby (yes, it works with a standard QR reader!).
If you prefer camping, the Sauder complex has a campground with 48spaces that include back-in sites and sites accessible for those with special needs that is near the village. Campers can use the inn's amenities like the indoor pool and hot tub, free Wi-Fi, game room access, laundry facilities, showers and, for a small extra fee, the inn's continental breakfast.
We enjoyed having a continental breakfast in the activity room under the "Great Oak", included with our room at the inn. The 25-foot-tall tree is a man-made marvel with a 35-foot canopy and a four-foot diameter trunk that offers a pleasant way to enjoy the feeling of dining al fresco.
We walked across the parking lot from the inn to enjoy dinner at The Barn Restaurant. The 350-seat restaurant was a dilapidated barn that sat on the Mose Stutzman farm just two miles northeast of Sauder Village when village founder Erie Sauder acquired it to restore as a restaurant.
Many folks couldn't envision what Sauder saw in the then-rickety structure, but today the restaurant has several spacious dining areas and serves more than 200,000 meals each year.
Can't decide what to eat? Give the restaurant's buffet a try.
The Sauder Village in Heritage Inn campus includes a Sauder Furniture store and outlet, the Founder's Hall performance and exhibition center, and the Doughbox Bakery.
We made sure we stopped at the bakery before leaving the area to take a taste of the village home with us. The peanut butter blossom and monster cookies were among our favorites.
The frozen cookie dough of frozen unbaked pies might have tempted us if we'd had a cooler or a shorter drive home!
Sauder Village and the campground are open from late April through late October, while the Sauder Heritage Inn, Doughbox Bakery, Sauder Furniture store and performance center are open year round.
Sauder Village is easy to find, just a few minutes off the Ohio Turnpike at exit 25 and about an hour's drive from Toledo, Ohio or Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Thanks to Sauder Village for providing village admission, lodging and meals during my recent visit for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.
© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved
I've not made it to Sauder Village yet either. Clearly I need to begin to explore my home state a bit more. :)
The inn looks very comfortable and cozy. I love the outdoor spaces because I love to get outside when I travel. Of course, my teens would love the pool.
That QR code quilt display really cracked me up. I can't believe it works! Now that is original!
Posted by: Tonya {The Traveling Praters} | July 01, 2013 at 06:16 AM
I didn't have a QR reader on my phone at that point and had to go download one just so I could see if the quilt QR worked!
Lots of stuff to do at the inn, so I think your kids would love it :)
Posted by: Dominique King | July 01, 2013 at 09:35 AM