New Lake Erie Resorts Are Redefining Luxury Waterfront Getaways

We admit it — we’re hotel snobs. Friends joke that our idea of roughing it is staying in anything less than a 4-star hotel. So we were happy to learn that more upscale lodging options are opening on the shores of Lake Erie. Following are three we checked into to check out.

Hideaway Bay Resort

Christian Edie and Kevin Cullen first discovered Hideaway Bay in 2011 while standup paddleboarding along the Lake Erie shore near their rented Hanover, New York, home. The only thing they saw on the overgrown driftwood-strewn shore was a rundown structure that had housed the Hideaway Bay Restaurant before it closed in the early 2000s. But the onetime professional standup paddleboarders were smitten.

“It was one of the most beautiful bays on Lake Erie,” Edie rhapsodizes. “We were like, ‘We need to do something here.’”      

The thought resurfaced every time the couple passed the 3.6-acre property while leading kayak and paddleboard tours. “We kept envisioning what could go there.”

That vision became a reality in June 2024, when the couple and their general-contractor partners, brothers Gene and Matt Tundo, opened the Hideaway Bay Resort.

They replaced the old restaurant with a new eatery, 10 waterfront cottages and a long list of amenities and outdoor recreational opportunities. Walnut Creek, which borders the property on the west, provides what Edie describes as world-class trout fishing. And the couple’s water-sports business, SUP Erie Adventures, offers standup paddleboard and kayak instruction, tours and rentals, along with foil-boarding and kiteboarding lessons. They also arrange Hobie Cat sailing tours with another company.

“This is a world-class wind-sports destination. … We’re in the top five for the entire U.S.,” Cullen says. 

We checked in at the Drift restaurant, an expanse of natural wood, wicker and rattan that evoked a beach vibe without the stereotypical sun-, sea-and-sand motifs. Our pale-yellow-sided cottage, elevated four feet off the ground to reduce the chance of flooding, was just steps from the property’s stand-alone wood-burning sauna and hot tub, grill station and fire pit. 

Sliders off the front deck opened to a living area with an electric fireplace, wall-hung flat-screen TV, queen sleeper sofa, coffee table and brass bar cart. The corner kitchenette was outfitted with a microwave, coffeemaker and undercounter refrigerator, the cabinets filled with table service for four, a two-burner hotplate and couple of pans. 

A bedroom furnished with a queen-size bed on a two-storage-drawer base, dollhouse-cute vanity and four-hook wall rack (the only closet housed utilities), along with a bathroom consisting of a subway-tiled stall shower, pedestal sink and commode, rounded out the first floor. A narrow circular staircase led to a queen-bedded loft room with its own balcony. Light sleepers may want to request a cottage closest to the water — a stretch of railroad track borders the back of the property. We slept soundly through the night. Trains do not sound horns because they do not cross a road, and the cottages, we later learned, were built with insulated sound paneling.

Those yearning to simply rest and relax can book a morning yoga session, in-room massage or facial, or rent a chair, daybed or cabana on the sandy beach — rentals that are available to daytrippers as well as overnight guests. (Swimming in the lake is not permitted due to environmental issues stemming from creek runoff, but wading in the water is considered fine.) The cabanas come with waiter service from a beach bar and kitchen that serve up fare such as spicy watermelon margaritas, grilled Caribbean lobster and chicken yakitori with cucumber salad. 

Drift, which also is open to the public, offers a menu influenced by the experiences of its general manager, who grew up on an Arizona ranch and married a Japanese woman, and his executive-chef son. We vacillated between ordering street tacos and steak frites, teriyaki salmon and Japanese scallops, before settling on a meaty pork-, beef-and-veal Bolognese served over tagliatelle. 

The nightly cottage rate includes a continental breakfast served as a restaurant buffet in the summer, a plated-and-covered selection left in the kitchenette refrigerator during shoulder and off-seasons. We preferred the latter — the two mini muffins, slice of lemon pound cake and bagel became breakfast in bed. 

$430-$600 a night/$600-$800 a night Fourth of July weekend, chair $10, day bed $50 and cabana $250 a day, 42 Lake Ave., Silver Creek, New York, (716) 401-5762, hideawaybayresortny.com (check website for restaurant hours).

Vincent William Wine

Michael Profeta was intrigued by the large structure he spotted from a lakeside park in Madison, Ohio, during a 2015 drive to his suburban-Cleveland home.

“It was not finished, but it looked really, really old,” the engineer-owner of an MRI procurement-, installation-and-repair company recalls. 

Closer inspection revealed a For Sale sign in front of a 13,000-square-foot stone-and-cedar-sided mansion started in the late 1990s on five lakefront acres just north of the Grand River Valley wine region. Profeta bought the place, unsure of exactly what he’d do with it. The home winemaker planted grapevines in front of the house “for ambiance,” then began finishing it with his own two hands, eventually hiring carpenters, plumbers and other trades to finish the job. 

“Truthfully, I underestimated what it was going to be,” he says.

“It” became Vincent William Wine, an exquisite adults-only inn named after Profeta’s father Vincent and his wife Katy’s father William Carney. The to-the-manor-born experience begins the moment guests step through the front door into an entry hall endowed with a grand curving staircase, crystal chandelier and glass doors framing views of the lake. But the atmosphere is relaxed — people routinely mistake Profeta for the gardener when he’s working in the vineyard or front-courtyard vegetable garden. 

Manager Tracy Savage says many guests returning to the two-year-old inn ask for their favorite of the seven lakeview rooms, each of which has an ensuite bath — the one with the private rooftop patio is particularly popular. There’s also a guest house with two two-bedroom units available for rent on Airbnb that served as the linen house for the Cottage Grove Inn, a popular summer resort that stood on the site from 1914 until it was demolished in 1962.  

We checked into the most luxurious of the inn’s accommodations, a first-floor suite overlooking the lakefront pool and hot tub. It boasted a European-country décor featuring a stone fireplace and king-size bed stationed under a candelabra-style chandelier. A silver tea set and ice bucket, along with an electric tea kettle, coffeemaker and basket of snacks, were arranged on a leathered-granite wet bar with a hammered-bronze sink and undercounter beverage refrigerator. 

But the real attraction was a huge bathroom with the biggest steam shower we’ve ever seen, complete with rain head and multiple body sprays, and a 6-foot-long double-slipper clawfoot tub. We chose soaking in a hot bath over braving the June rain for a dip in the pool or wade in the lake on the private beach.

Profeta’s Sicilian heritage is reflected in the mix of Italian and American dishes served in the inn’s restaurant, which is open to the public (and children). We sat down for dinner in the cozy tasting room and ordered Nonna’s Meatballs, two 3-ouncers made with Profeta’s mother’s recipe and topped with red sauce, basil and ricotta cheese. A slice of house-made tiramisu, dusted with cocoa powder and garnished with fresh berries, followed. The meatballs were so delicious that we returned to get another order for a late-night snack.

We were disappointed to learn that the restaurant had depleted its stock of Vincent William Wine’s 2021 estate cabernet franc. But Profeta’s software-engineer son was kind enough to fill our glass from a vessel containing a yet-to-be-bottled portion of the 2022 vintage — one that had taken double gold at the 2025 Ohio Wine Competition the previous month — tapped from a stainless-steel tank in the basement wine cellar. Our admittedly uneducated palate savored luscious notes of cherry and raspberry, along with a hint of black pepper.  

We left too early to sample the complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast options. (The breakfast sandwich, which put scrambled eggs, spinach, white cheddar cheese, bacon and breakfast potatoes between slices of a freshly baked croissant, sounded too big to handle while driving.) But we resolved to return, if only for Nonna’s Meatballs. 

$459-$609 a night Wednesdays through Sundays, 1300 Belleair Ave., Madison, Ohio, (440) 428-1300, vincentwilliamwine.com (check website for restaurant hours).

The Wave at Marblehead 

Allyson Robinson recalls that her husband Matt was skeptical when a Realtor friend approached them in 2022 about buying and renovating the former Lighthouse Resort in Lakeside Marblehead, Ohio. The Columbus, Ohio, construction-company owner and his interior-design-savvy wife knew from years of summering at their nearby vacation home that the 23-year-old structure looked like any three-story chain motel off an interstate exit. And it had been closed since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. A tour by flashlight in lieu of electricity revealed that it would require a down-to-the-studs gut job to turn the place into a boutique hotel.

“I probably caused a lot of gray hairs on my husband, talking him into this,” Robinson admits. 

The couple, along with a group of investors, reopened the property as the 65-room, three-suite The Wave in October 2024. It surprises with enough resort-style features to keep work-weary adults from venturing off the grounds, even for a walk to the iconic Marblehead lighthouse: a pristine resurfaced pool, firepits surrounded by Adirondack chairs on the pool deck and well-manicured lawn, a pickleball court, indoor fitness center and outdoor bar where food is delivered from the onsite restaurant — a perk that eliminates the hassle of changing out of a bathing suit just to eat. Across the road is the hotel’s private stretch of rocky beach. 

Our one-bedroom lakeview suite was so tricked out that we could have lived there for a month. A peninsula with wooden barstool seating separated a living area furnished with a nubby white sleeper sofa and entertainment center from a sleek kitchen equipped with a full-size stainless-steel refrigerator, dishwasher, two-burner electric cooktop, built-in microwave and coffeemaker. The gray cabinets were stocked with table service for four, cookware, various utensils, kitchen towels and hot pads. There was even a bottle of dishwashing liquid and roll of paper towels on the solid-surface counter. 

The bedroom was dominated by a combination armoire-desk and king-size platform bed complete with cream-colored throw and accent pillows. The adjoining taupe-tiled bathroom featured a big ADA-compliant stall shower and custom trough sink long enough for two people to use at a time if there were more than one faucet.

A gusty wind off the lake made the sunny afternoon too chilly for lolling by the pool, so we headed into the restaurant, a light, airy space open to the public where diners can sit at a big four-sided bar or request a table in front of the fireplace, by a lakeview window, or on the firepit-warmed patio. The menu was varied — main courses ran the gamut from burgers and salads to salmon-and-tuna poke and Korean fried rice. We ended up eating grilled walleye tacos served with house-made malt chips while watching the occasional freighter traverse the darkening blue horizon.

We woke up early, dressed and hurried downstairs to discover that the restaurant wasn’t open for breakfast on weekdays — it only serves brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. A staffer offered coffee self-served in the lobby, which we sipped while watching the sun come up over the lake — a fair-weather ritual at The Wave, judging from the number of guests on the restaurant patio. 

$330-$1,500 weeknights/$400-$1,900 weekends, 614 E. Main St., Lakeside Marblehead, Ohio, (419) 780-3756, wavemarblehead.com (check website for restaurant hours).

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