Wyndham Fairfield Bay

Jan M. · Mar 9, 2017

I booked two weeks at Wyndham Fairfield Bay for my husband for a business trip at the end of this month and I will be joining him for most of the stay. I would appreciate anything OP can tell me about the resort and the area as we have never been there before.

I will be without a car during most of the weekdays before 3 or 4pm as my husband will be working. I'm hoping to request a unit close to the activities center as I understand the resort is huge and a car is recommended just to get around the resort!. Are there enough interesting activities for a 65 year old woman to do at the activities center or am I just better off requesting a lake view unit?

Any restaurant recommendations? Places in the area we should plan on visiting on the two weekends we will be there?

Thanks in advance for any help and information you can give me!

ace2000 · Mar 9, 2017

Is it too late to pick somewhere else?

Fairfield Bay is kind of a small retirement type village on Greers Ferry Lake; and I'd say the lake is probably the main attraction. Since you're going in March, there will not be a lot to do. The golf courses will be available and you're about 90 minutes from Little Rock. If you don't plan on using the lake, then make sure you request a unit near the Fitness Center. I cannot remember what the areas are called, but make sure you don't get one of the units down by the lake - there is nothing down there besides the lake and the marina. The resort is very spread out. They will work with you if you call early. If you like floating on a river via canoe or kayak, then Buffalo River is one of the best. The town of Mountain View is a nice short drive and they have some hiking and live music opportunites (don't know about March though).

The Fitness Center is top-notch for a timeshare, and the swimming pools, golf courses, and tennis courts are great too. It's a short drive from where we live and we enjoy it, but I'm not sure how much you'll enjoy it if any of the above items don't appeal to you. As we used to say in the military... it's a great place to live (or visit) if you like to hunt and fish...

ecwinch · Mar 9, 2017

Dovetailing into what Ace said... there are a few things around, but not having a car limits your options.

We took day trips into Little Rock to visit the Clinton Presidential library and into Hot Springs National Historic park.

foundyoubyaccident · Mar 9, 2017

This is my absolute favorite place to stay... Our picture is from there! They have painting, fused glass, stained glass... $35.00 a class. Swimming, sauna, hot tub, exercise, pickle balls, (massage (for fee)). Beautiful walks, boat tour to sugar loaf island (not sure how cold it will be). A convenience store that has gas station and restrurant.. good distance away depending on which way you drive 30-45 minutes is a walmart. even further for alcohol.

foundyoubyaccident · Mar 9, 2017

Request an upgraded room for granite counter tops, otherwise you'll have formica, if you need it.

foundyoubyaccident · Mar 9, 2017

Also, it really depends on which location they give you, there are 4, request one closest to activities... We were at the very last one and had to drive everywhere, the ones at the golf course are pretty far away too. The mary kay lady is pretty friendly out there too. Last bit while I think about it.. Request something close to the building with the pool/fitness center or close to check in, since that is where the majority of activities are located.

foundyoubyaccident · Mar 10, 2017

There is pizza, mexican, bowling..a really fun hill...even though it states.. 35 speed limit.

Jan M. · Apr 13, 2017

We are back from our two week stay at Fairfield Bay. Due to my husband's work schedule, he was there to work in the area, we weren't able to do the sightseeing we had hoped to do. We had planned on going to Garvan Woodland Gardens in the Hot Springs area. People my husband worked with highly recommended the Gardens and the azaleas, dogwoods, etc. were in full bloom while we were there so I was sorry to have missed it. As a side note about visiting gardens, if you are a fan of visiting them like I am you can buy a membership and visit many other gardens that are reciprocal members. For me the membership would give me admission to the Fairchild Gardens in Coral Gables, the Bok Bell Tower and Gardens in Lake Wales, the Leu Gardens in Orlando and others here in Florida and several in the Cleveland, Ohio area where our son lives. There were many other areas and States with gardens in the reciprocal program, these are just the ones I knew that I would visit. The admission was $15 apiece according to their website but a membership for 2 adults and their children or grandchildren under 18 was $85 for the year.

We ate at the Little Red Restaurant in Fairfield Bay and enjoyed our meal. But we really liked Jansson's Restaurant in Greer's Landing a few miles away and ate there several times. Their Sunday brunch was very good, 9am-2pm, $12.95. Their desserts are amazing and so is their fried chicken. Fried chicken isn't something I would normally order but I had read about how good it was in the reviews on Trip Advisor so decided to try it. It is $11.95 and is half of a chicken, no lie, 4 pieces, 2 big breast and rib pieces and the smaller leg and wing pieces. The meals come with their salad bar and fries, mashed or baked potatoes. On Friday and Saturday nights they also have baked sweet potatoes. I was only able to eat the leg and wing so the next night guess what we had for dinner? We made a quick stop at the grocery store in Fairfield Bay called Cravens to buy a few things to make a meal with my leftover fried chicken as the main course. It heated up very nicely and was just as good the second night! Cravens is part of a small chain of grocery stores, the prices weren't bad overall, the selection was very good and they had some really good prices in their weekly ad and specials.

We also ate at Mac's Barbeque. Another barbeque place was also recommended, the Q, but they appeared to be carry out only from what we saw driving by. My husband ordered the platter which had ribs, brisket and pulled pork and I had the pulled pork sandwich. Both came with 2 sides and we picked the baked beans which were just a little spicy and the coleslaw which was nothing special. We took home all but a bite or two of his pulled pork and some of mine too. It was over a pound of meat that we took home! Again dinner the next night with enough still leftover for a sandwich the following day. I had doused it liberally with the mild sauce and heated it up slowly in the oven in foil so it was tender and very tasty even reheated.

One thing that I was particularly impressed with at the Little Red Restaurant, Jansson's and Mac's was how friendly and attentive the waitstaff is. We were at Mac's so early that they weren't busy yet but let me tell you that the waitresses at Jansson's and Little Red Restaurant give new meaning to the term hard working. They really hustle and always with a smile and kind word, no dawdling for them!

There is a gas station with a restaurant there in Fairfield Bay that we heard had very good food. They certainly must because when we drove by at breakfast or lunch time there sure were a lot of cars. I quit wondering why a gas station would have such a big parking area!

We got pizza at Dock of the Bay. Sorry, I wouldn't recommend them. People told my husband that numerous gas stations offer Hunt Brothers Pizza and that it is good and he said it was very good. You can get 2 huge pieces for $5.95 or a whole pie with whatever you want on it for $12. My husband kept apologizing because going to Dock of the Bay was his idea and the pizza was so bad I wouldn't eat the leftovers. He did eat some of it for lunch, probably out of guilt, but we ended up throwing out the last couple of pieces.

We went for Taco Tuesday at El Poblano both weeks we were there. While not amazing they were certainly good enough that we went back!

At my request they put us in the Cliffside section where they are in the process of redoing the units. We could have been in another section where the units were already redone but we were happy with our unit, it was large and comfortable. We enjoyed using the fireplace, sitting on the deck and the view from our top floor unit. We look forward to going back.

ace2000 · Apr 13, 2017

Jan M. said:
At my request they put us in the Cliffside section where they are in the process of redoing the units. We could have been in another section where the units were already redone but we were happy with our unit, it was large and comfortable. We enjoyed using the fireplace, sitting on the deck and the view from our top floor unit. We look forward to going back.

Thanks for the update and review Jan! You mentioned a couple of restaurants that we haven't tried.

As you mentioned, if you like outdoor gardens, you would love Garvan gardens in Hot Springs (about a 2 hour drive from Fairfield Bay). We were just there a month ago and it is stunning. Another one you may want to try is the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. I liked Garvan better, but they both were outstanding.

We're booked for late May at Fairfield Bay.

ronparise · Apr 14, 2017

There have been several threads here over the last few years that discuss the possibility of full time living in timeshares. The legacy, Fairfield resorts were always the example I used to show how it could be done

a one bedroom here at Fairfield Bay can be yours for the whole year for about $1600 a month. and assuming VIP even less as there is often availability inside 60 days

Jan M. · Apr 14, 2017

ronparise said:
There have been several threads here over the last few years that discuss the possibility of full time living in timeshares. The legacy, Fairfield resorts were always the example I used to show how it could be done

a one bedroom here at Fairfield Bay can be yours for the whole year for about $1600 a month. and assuming VIP even less as there is often availability inside 60 days

I booked our stay in two bedroom unit through the sale weeks on RCI. We have platinum RCI membership so the week cost $199.70 with no points needed. It wasn't cheaper than using my Wyndham points but by booking the sale weeks I had a receipt for my husband to submit on his expense account for reimbursement since he was in Arkansas for work. Before we found out that his company would pay for the stay if he could provide a receipt I originally had them booked with my Wyndham points. I got my platinum discount and free upgrade on the unit size so the first week, a value week, would have cost me $121.16 and the second week, a high week, would have cost me $176.69.

Now, provided that I could get my platinum discount and free upgrade on every single week for an entire year I would use 1,592,500 points and my maintenance fees on that many points would be $8039.41 And that boys and girls is how the sales people helped us convince ourselves to spend the money to buy enough developer points to be platinum. As I've said before we were already gold VIP back when it was still Fairfield. When you've already spent that much it is pretty easy to talk yourselves into going for the whole enchilada. Again that was before I found TUG. However I can't make any excuses for us for deciding to spend the money to go Presidential Reserve. While we have no regrets about our earlier purchases of developer points, that Presidential Reserve purchase qualifies us a fool and his/her money. Despite all the presentations/updates we sat through and told each other: we don't need to spend any more money, we are where we wanted to be with our points and VIP level, we aren't fancy people and only have one son, so we don't need those big, fancy units. We are a good example of why some people who post on TUG tell other people to do themselves a favor and DO NOT go to those updates no matter what incentives they are offering.

Now back to living out of a resort like Fairfield Bay full time. You would definitely need to have the driving expertise and a 4 wheel drive vehicle to handle those hilly roads that twist and turn during the winter months. So there are other resorts that I would be looking at to spend the winter months. We still laugh about the very first time we used our timeshare to get away from the below zero temps, snow and ice in northwestern Pennsylvania in January and encountered an older couple (lol, we are now the age they were back then) who came down to stay at Cypress Palms in Orlando to get away from the cold winter weather in....wait for it....Myrtle Beach. So maybe Tower 2 at Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach for the first 10 weeks of the year instead of Fairfield Bay.

Avislo · Apr 14, 2017

Jan M. said:
I booked our stay in two bedroom unit through the sale weeks on RCI. We have platinum RCI membership so the week cost $199.70 with no points needed. It wasn't cheaper than using my Wyndham points but by booking the sale weeks I had a receipt for my husband to submit on his expense account for reimbursement since he was in Arkansas for work. Before we found out that his company would pay for the stay if he could provide a receipt I originally had them booked with my Wyndham points. I got my platinum discount and free upgrade on the unit size so the first week, a value week, would have cost me $121.16 and the second week, a high week, would have cost me $176.69.

Now, provided that I could get my platinum discount and free upgrade on every single week for an entire year I would use 1,592,500 points and my maintenance fees on that many points would be $8039.41 And that boys and girls is how the sales people helped us convince ourselves to spend the money to buy enough developer points to be platinum. As I've said before we were already gold VIP back when it was still Fairfield. When you've already spent that much it is pretty easy to talk yourselves into going for the whole enchilada. Again that was before I found TUG. However I can't make any excuses for us for deciding to spend the money to go Presidential Reserve. While we have no regrets about our earlier purchases of developer points, that Presidential Reserve purchase qualifies us a fool and his/her money. Despite all the presentations/updates we sat through and told each other: we don't need to spend any more money, we are where we wanted to be with our points and VIP level, we aren't fancy people and only have one son, so we don't need those big, fancy units. We are a good example of why some people who post on TUG tell other people to do themselves a favor and DO NOT go to those updates no matter what incentives they are offering.

Now back to living out of a resort like Fairfield Bay full time. You would definitely need to have the driving expertise and a 4 wheel drive vehicle to handle those hilly roads that twist and turn during the winter months. So there are other resorts that I would be looking at to spend the winter months. We still laugh about the very first time we used our timeshare to get away from the below zero temps, snow and ice in northwestern Pennsylvania in January and encountered an older couple (lol, we are now the age they were back then) who came down to stay at Cypress Palms in Orlando to get away from the cold winter weather in....wait for it....Myrtle Beach. We still laugh about that. So maybe Tower 2 at Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach for the first 10 weeks of the year instead of Fairfield Bay.

Add Seawatch Plantation, Towers on the Grove, and Westwinds.