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Recommend a family camp kind of resort for long weekend away from DC
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Anonymous
| My family wants to take a long weekend away from DC and we'd prefer not to drive too far. We've already done the tent-camping thing for the summer and we will have a beach week in late August. What I'd like is a woods/lake place where we could do swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, canoeing and the like. Ideally, everything would be at the same place, even perhaps a lodge with meals, so Mom and Dad wouldn't have to spend a lot of effort researching and piecing entertainment together each day or driving from place to place or cooking. Homestead and Greenbriar are too expensive. I looked at Deep Creek Lake but it seems what is available there is just individual rental cabins and you have to handle the rest yourself (with the exception perhaps of Wisp which is booked solid the weekend I'm interested in). I also saw one other lodge style resort in Deep Creek Lake but it seemed more couples then children oriented. Mine are a 3 yo and 5 yo boys and I don't want to stay in a place where they aren't able to run around and be dirty and have real summer fun. I feel like there should be a lot of lodge style, lake side, family resorts (that aren't posh like the Homestead) available for a summer weekend away from DC but I'm having trouble finding them. |
Anonymous
| Seven Springs or Bedford Springs Resort? |
Anonymous
| Thanks so much for the input. Bedford Springs is too refined for what I'm looking for. Seven Springs almost does it, but I was hoping for a place where you canoe and swim and fish in the lake then were you do paddleboats and moutain slides and paintball. Make sense? |
Anonymous
| (Sorry for the typos that made my post nonsense. Trying again.) Thanks so much for the input. Bedford Springs is too refined for what I'm looking for. Seven Springs almost does it. But I was hoping for a place where you canoe and swim and fish in the lake rather then one where you paddleboat and go on a moutain slide and do paintball. A little more focus on nature and the rustic and a little less theme-parky. Make sense? |
Anonymous
it's funny because I was wondering why would want a family camp if you were going to be away from your kid. too much DCUM for me 
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Anonymous
| Some traditional kids summer camps offer a week of "family camp" - look for places in PA or WV |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| How cool, the Dirty Dancing location! This sounds pretty good. PP, have you been there? How is it for little ones? There appear to be a lot of lodging options, which do you recommend - hotel, lodge, cabin and does it matter which cabin? |
Anonymous
| Graves Mountain Lodge |
Anonymous
| Just realized that Mountain Lake is a 5-6 hour drive from DC. I was hoping not to go so far. Disappointing as it looks pretty good. Graves is also interesting although the bluegrass thing I'm not too sure about. We aren't really the bluegrass type. |
Anonymous
| Have you checked for places near the Northern Neck? We stayed at a place kind of like this for a family function. We didn't have kids and were only there one night so you might need to do some research but we stayed at Port Kinsale. I would love to know what you eventually find, sounds fun! |
Anonymous
| I just found Woodloch Pines in the Poconos. http://www.woodloch.com/home Like the Moutain Lake option mentioned above, this appears to be what I'm looking for. But it is also 5-6 hours from DC. Isn't there anything like this closer to home? |
Anonymous
|
No, there really isn't - Woodloch is awesome - it is not cheap though, especially during the heart of the summer and I don't think it works out to be less than Homestead or Greenbrier although it has a very different kind of feel. I'm not sure it is exactly what you are looking for either - you may be thinking about something a bit more low-key.
For just a weekend you might want to look up Rocky Gap in Maryland (a bit closer than Deep Creek Lake). The lake is pretty, the prices are reasonable and I think they have some nice kids activities. I don't think I'd stay there more than a few days but it may fit the bill for a weekend. |
Anonymous
| Bedford Springs is terrible! |