At the end of February 2024 we spent a wonderful weekend in the charming small town of New Harmony in Indiana. New Harmony has a population of only 700 people or so, but despite that there’s quite a few accommodation options, albeit most of them being bed and breakfasts.
We ended up staying at the town’s main hotel – the New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center. This pet-friendly hotel was a great place to stay as our room was very nice, there are some good amenities and it has lovely grounds.
Here’s a review of our stay at the New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center.
Check-In
We’d spent a couple of days in Cincinnati beforehand, visiting friends and checking out some neighborhoods seeing as it’s on our shortlist for places to move to for at least 1-3 years once we finish our 50 state road trip. It was therefore only a 3.5 hour drive westwards to New Harmony and we arrived shortly before 4pm.
There was only one person ahead of us in line, so it wasn’t long before we were getting checked in by the friendly front desk agent. The hotel is spread out over several buildings and we were given clear instructions for how to get to the building we’d be in (the Riverbend building) and where to park.
Bedroom
We were given room 363 which is on the top floor of the Riverbend building. When entering the room the bedroom was straight ahead and the bathroom was on the right.
The bedroom was fun as there was a four poster queen bed, with a bedside table on one side and a dresser on the other.
On top of the dresser was a coffee maker with options for coffee, tea and hot chocolate. There were a couple of ceramic cups rather than disposable cups.
On the far side of the room from the entrance was an alcove with a work desk, along with a couple of drinking glasses and a folder with lots of information about the hotel and New Harmony in general.
To the left of that was a wooden armchair. While that might not sound great in theory, it seemed more comfortable than you’d expect although neither of us spent an extended amount of time sitting in it.
There was a large wooden cabinet which contained the room’s (fairly small) TV, along with an iron and a blanket.
In the corner was a mini fridge with a microwave on top. The mini fridge was one that had a small freezer section in the top which was useful for us to keep our ice packs frozen.
Back by the room’s entrance was an open closet. This contained an ironing board, luggage rack and a couple of towels for the hotel’s swimming pool.
Bathroom
The bathroom was a standard hotel-looking bathroom that was a decent enough size.
A nice added feature was that they had soap from New Harmony Soap Company, thereby helping support a local company rather than providing some kind of mass-produced soap from a wholesaler.
There was walk-in shower rather than a bathtub and the shower had good water pressure. There was only a small raised section at the base of the shower, but that – along with the long-enough shower curtain – meant there wasn’t any issue with water making it out on to the bathroom floor while showering.
Dining
It didn’t seem like the New Harmony Inn offered breakfast at the hotel. Its restaurant – Red Geranium – was on winter hours during our stay:
Seeing as it was opening at 8am on Saturday and Sunday, that suggests that perhaps they do offer breakfast at the weekend, but we didn’t go to check it out.
Here’s their dinner menu:
We didn’t eat dinner at Red Geranium, instead eating out at every other place around New Harmony! Shae and I did stop in for a quick drink at Red Geranium’s Grapevine Bar though and had a nice chat to the server there.
Amenities
Swimming Pool & Hot Tub
The hotel has a large indoor swimming pool which is in its own separate building. It’s open from 8am-8pm each day with the exception of 1pm-3:30pm on Tuesdays when it’s closed for routine maintenance.
There’s a hot tub, but it might only be available seasonally as it was empty when we visited in February.
Fitness Room & Sauna
The New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center had a surprisingly well-equipped fitness room.
At the far end of the fitness room there was a sauna available for guests to use.
Volleyball
If you’d like some outdoor activity, just outside of the swimming pool building was a volleyball net.
Vending & Ice Machines
At the entrance of the Riverbend building there were vending machines for drinks and snacks.
The basement of the Riverbend building had an ice machine, while a sign also advised that the Rosebank building has three ice machines.
Conference Center
As the name of the New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center suggests, the hotel has a conference center available. This is available for functions of 50-300 guests.
Seating Area
While not particularly special, a feature that I appreciated was that on our floor by the elevators – and presumably every floor in the Riverbend building at least – there’s a seating area. That was useful as I’m always up late at night working on stuff, so that meant I had somewhere I could work while Shae slept in our room.
Golf Cart Rental
The hotel has golf carts that guests and other New Harmony visitors can rent. A four passenger golf cart cost $18 per hour, while a six seater cost $30 per hour.
Hotel Grounds
The hotel has quite spacious grounds that can provide a great opportunity to wander around. I imagine that it looks particularly beautiful in the fall.
Pet Policy
The New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center is a pet-friendly hotel and has a very reasonable pet fee. It’s only $35 per stay (rather than per night) and you can have up to two pets in your room.
Service
We had minimal interactions with staff at the hotel, only seeing the front desk agent when checking in and out. That said, she was very nice and welcoming.
Wi-Fi
The New Harmony Inn offers complimentary Wi-Fi for all guests. I was able to work during our stay and we were able to stream shows on our Amazon Fire TV Stick and had no issues with the speed or connectivity.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in is from 4pm, while the check-out time is 11am.
Location
The property is at the north end of New Harmony. It’s such a small town that the Harmonist Labyrinth which is on the south side of town is less than a mile away.
That means that everything to see, do, eat and drink in New Harmony is within walking distance which is lovely. Be sure to check out our guide to New Harmony for more about the town.
Parking
The hotel offers free parking for all guests. There are a couple of main parking lots for guests, with additional parking lots for the conference center and Red Geranium restaurant.
Cost
Seeing as this is an independent hotel, it wasn’t one we could use hotel points for. The rate for our stay was $166.41 per night including tax.
We booked it through Capital One Travel rather than directly or via another site like Hotels.com because Shae’s Capital One Venture X credit card had a $300 travel credit expiring at the end of 2023. This hotel was bookable through Capital One Travel, so $300 of the hotel rate was covered by that credit and ensured it didn’t go to waste.
n.b. Although we didn’t stay until 2024, we made the reservation in November 2023 which is why we were able to use the 2023 $300 credit towards the booking.
Final Thoughts
We had a very good stay at the New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center. We normally stay at chain hotels, so it was fun getting to stay somewhere that was less cookie-cutter. Our room had nice decor, the hotel has some good amenities and its location meant we could easily walk everywhere in town.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! The pet fee of $35 per stay is very good compared to the majority of hotels we stay at, the grounds are perfect for walking your pup around in and our room was nice and quiet.
Our Rating
Room = 4.2 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = N/A
Location = 4.8 / 5
Service = 4.4 / 5
Overall Value = 4.4 / 5
Total = 4.44 / 5
Address
New Harmony Inn Resort & Conference Center, 504 North St, New Harmony, IN 47631
We are headed out on an upper Midwest month long driving trip the first of June. How do I find things about each state on your site?
On the home page of the site there’s a map of the US. If you click on the states you’ll be visiting, that’ll take you to a page where we’ve tagged all our posts about that state. As you scroll down, at the end there’ll likely be a numbered section to go to the next page of results as in many cases we’ll have written even more posts about that state – hope that helps!