Ditto, what he said!!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 5/27/09
I was a part of the family reunion my brother wrote about previously. I wanted to add my 2 cents as we are coming from two different viewpoints. He was right on with saying it was the best reunion spot ever. He has a large family & it did seem perfect for their needs.
My husband & I don't have children yet and we stayed in the Chickadee cabin. It is in the adult or couples section of the property. It was away from the big gathering and recreation area, so my husband and I got to enjoy a good bit of quiet time alone and away from the group. It was wonderful.
The cabin was perfect. Romantic. We could see the fire at night from our bed. Coming all the way across the country from Eugene, OR it was great that we did not have a drop of rain while we were there. Big note. If you are flying into Asheville from our part of the world and are going to rent a car, we found flying into Greenville, SC (GSP) was so much cheaper than flying into Charlotte and then onto Asheville. It was only about an hour drive and we saved several hundred dollars. Was worth the drive.
The cabins we in an idyllic setting, mountains, pastures, horses, not to mention being on a stream. I can't think of a thing I would change.
The staff took care of everything. My husband and I wanted to have more time to explore the area and stayed a few days longer than the rest. We were set up with all kinds of choices for our extra days there. The We did the historic trolley and got an idea of how Asheville was laid out, what we would want to come back to see later, went hiking at some great waterfalls, antique shopping (though I could not buy anything big to take back) She sent us to places we never found in any of the 4 travel guides we purchased in preparation for our trip.
If you want to try something tasty and a with a little "Asheville West Side" culture be sure and go to "Sunny Point Cafe"!! There were so many great places to eat in downtown Asheville that have outdoor seating, we could have just spent a week going from one place to the next. All very different, and wonderful. The Pisgah Inn up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just over our heads was also a wonderful place to eat after we had had a good day of hiking.
If you are there on a Friday night. Check out the drum circle. In fact, if you stay at Mountain Springs, you won't have to worry about missing a thing. Just tell Kate what you're interested in and she will take care of the rest.
We did try to pre-plan our trip with the guidebooks, but have to say we didn't do a thing we had on our list. Kate kept us so busy with things; we will just have to add some days to our next trip to do what we outlined in our books. I think one could easily spend two weeks in Asheville and not run out of things to do. And with us being at the cabins, we took time each day to relax from our running about and just chill with a glass of wine in the hammock by the stream. I wonder if they would just rent me a hammock??
In a nutshell, this is the place to go. The spring was great as we did not see allot of travelers and the trails and restaurants were not that busy. Though busy enough for me to see that folks are not freaking out about the economy scare and still traveling. That did my heart good to see.
I like the idea of getting free nights for referrals and for coming back. It makes us feel like we count and we like that spoiled feeling they gave us. Here we felt special. I think all of their guest does, as we stayed longer than the bulk of our group and got to meet a few other guests at the bonfire one night. They had all been coming there for some time and felt the same way we did. They even gave us some more good ideas on where to go.
When you book you can tell them that the Bradley clan referred you (give me some free time!!!) and know that you are in for a great mountain holiday!