Dahlonega resort a labor of one family's love

Travel

Dahlonega resort a labor of one family's love

Siblings build Forrest Mountain Resort and Conference Center in Dahlonega, GA one cabin at a time. Guests find it so comfortable that 60 percent return 'for rest,' the concept the family matriarch had in mind when she named the resort, located just north of Atlanta.

Amicalola Falls State Park, about five miles from Dahlonega, is also worth visiting.

Nowdays, Denise decorates the guest cabins and leaves the building to brother David. Little sister Michele Kraft-DeBlois, who joined the family business in 1988 as marketing and public relations director, promotes it.

Three Sisters also hosts an annual Georgia Wine Country Festival in June. 706-865-9463, www.threesisters vineyards.com.

Guests ride horseback and take horse drawn carriage and wagon rides at Forrest Mountain Resort & Conference Center in Dahlonega. In 1977 when David Kraft, then 17, and his sister Denise Kraft, then 19, arrived on the scene, the 140 acre property was only wilderness.

Guests relax in an outdoor hot tub. Afterall, Forrest means "for rest," explains Denise Kraft Roberson. "And that's what our guests find plenty of."

Wolf Mountain Winery claims the most picturesque setting of the areas six wineries. Its outdoor patio is a popular place for Sunday brunch. 706-867-9862, www.wolfmountainvineyards.com.

Wine aside, the Dahlonega Gold Museum in the North Georgia town is a popular destination for tourists to learn about Dahlonega's Gold Rush history.

The family behind Forrest Mountain Resort and Conference Center (clockwise): Keith Roberson (Denise's husband), David Kraft, Denise Kraft Roberson, mother Darlene Kraft and younger sister Michele Kraft-DeBlois.

Thirty-two cabins, Victorian cottages and group lodges later, Forrest Mountain has a 60 percent return guest rate, virtually unheard of in the hospitality industry. The ballroom is where guests dance the night away.

"My dad (Frank Kraft) paid $50,000 for the property and mortgaged our house in West Palm Beach to pay for it," David recalls. "He challenged me and Denise to come up here and build cabins that we'd sell or rent."

David and Denise built the resort's cabins with their own hands. "I had the most building experience and that was very little," David says now.

"We put hot tubs in the cabins after Dad went to a home show and saw them in the middle of a house. He said that was the coming thing," David Kraft recalls. "We were one of the first resorts outside of the Poconos to do that."

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Amicalola Falls State Park, about five miles from Dahlonega, is also worth visiting.

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