Affordable Carolina Cabin Rental

I promise to continue with my Eurotrip posts soon, but I really wanted to post about a great little trip we took for New Year's Eve. We decided pretty last minute this year that we should go away for New Year's and we knew flying anywhere was out of the question, money-wise; after looking into hotels in cities such as Atlanta and Charleston we knew that wouldn't be happening either...not for close to $300 a night for a room because it was a holiday weekend.

The idea of renting a cabin was a fleeting one at first, but it quickly became obvious that it would be the most affordable option so long as we could get some friends to tag along. After quite a bit of research into cabins in Tennessee and North Carolina, though, another problem presented itself - though there seemed to be many cabins available for New Year's, most of them had no check-ins or checkouts allowed December 30th-January 1st...which meant we would need vacation days that we didn't have to check in on Thursday the 29th and out on Monday the 2nd.

Until I contacted Country Cabins in Maggie Valley, NC, that is :) This area came up as a possibility because Cataloochee Ski Area is located there, and we figured that if we were going to go out of town we might as well visit somewhere that actually had, you know, things to do. Luckily, Country Cabins had availability, no minimum stay, and affordable rates - we stayed in Cabin #5 (a.k.a. their "Cedar Springs" cabin) and the total was just over $300 for two nights.

Cabin #5 or "Cedar Springs", Country Cabins in Maggie Valley NC

The Cedar Springs cabin sleeps 4-6 people - with a queen bed in the main bedroom and a double bed and two twin beds in the loft. We filled it right up with 6 people and our two dogs but it didn't really seem crowded and we all thoroughly enjoyed the cabin itself.

Looking into the cabin from the front door

View from the cabin's kitchen - from left to right, the main bedroom door, the bathroom door, the front door

View of the living room/fireplace from the landing on the stairs that lead to the loft

The great thing about this specific cabin is that it has its own hot tub! Though there is also a large enclosed hot tub that is shared by the other four cabins, the Cedar Springs cabin has a private hot tub on its side deck. As a hot tub was pretty much my only real requirement for wherever we stayed, we definitely got lucky that this specific cabin was still available!

Poppin' champagne in the hot tub. It can "fit" six people but is more comfortable with 5 or less...trust me.

The only issue we had was that there were no paper towels, only three or four trash bags, and only two rolls of toilet paper :-/ We could get by without paper towels but the trash bag and toilet paper issues became problematic toward the end of our stay. However that is probably completely our fault because we didn't realize that we only had 1 more trash bag and half a roll of TP left until late Saturday night. When I say late I'm talking 11 PM-ish...too late to be bugging the owners, and we'd been drinking so there was no going out to buy trash bags and/or toilet paper. So my suggestion if you should rent a cabin like this is to JUST IN CASE bring a couple garbage bags, a roll or two of TP, and some paper towels from home :)

Now, as I previously said - and as you can see from the above picture - we were able to bring our dogs! This trip wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been able to bring them, honestly, because we booked so late that all of the local boarding facilities were filled up. Not only does Country Cabins allow pets, but their deposits are very affordable (something I'm definitely not used to!). They only ask that if you will be leaving the dogs alone in the cabin you bring a carrier or crate to confine them...which is totally understandable, of course.

Maggie Valley itself was actually bigger than we'd expected! There are a lot of little shops and local restaurants lining the road for a few miles in either direction from Country Cabins; also nearby is a small tubing hill and the aforementioned Cataloochee Ski Area. Steve and I did go skiing on Saturday, but only for a few hours in the afternoon. It was in the mid-50s and I didn't even have to wear gloves while we were there!

Cataloochee is a really small mountain - not surprisingly - but I was shocked that they had been able to create as much snow as they did, considering how warm it has been. It was crowded, being a holiday and all, and the lines for the lifts got a bit ridiculous at times, but in general it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, seeing as I'm used to skiing in Vermont and Wyoming ;) I will say that the lift tickets are overpriced, though. A half day ticket - good from 1 PM to 4:30 PM - was $49...and considering they only had three lifts and something like 5-7 trails open...I don't know. I could pay about that much for a full day of skiing at Berkshire East in Massachusetts and that ski area is at least twice the size of Cataloochee. Just saying.

In general, though, this was a perfect idea for New Year's. We played board games by the fire and hung out in the hot tub and spent no more money than we would have had we stayed home and gone out to the bars...and without the hassle of cabs and crowds and whatnot. Definitely something I'd do again in a heartbeat, and I would absolutely suggest Country Cabins as a great little weekend getaway!

New Year's Cabin Crew!