Thanksgiving
Arrive Wednesday, cook Thursday, hike Friday. Skyline Drive is usually open, the crowds of October have gone, and the overlooks are clear.
Christmas, New Year & Thanksgiving
The holiday where nobody has to host.
Hespera Reach is two private five-bedroom cabins near Luray, Virginia, fifteen minutes from Shenandoah National Park and Luray Caverns: ten bedrooms, twelve beds and seven bathrooms, sleeping twenty.
Two kitchens, one table, and no one's house to clean afterwards.
Thanksgiving for twenty usually means one host, one oven and a lot of chairs borrowed from the neighbours. Here there are two full kitchens, so the turkey and everything else can happen at once, and a table in Aubade's Long Room that seats all twenty.
Christmas and New Year are the quiet season in the valley. The ridge goes blue and bare, the saunas earn their keep, and the hot tubs are best when it's below freezing. On wet days there are two games and theatre rooms, and Luray Caverns is the same temperature in December as it is in July.
Holiday weekends have a three-night minimum, and they are the first dates to go.
Christmas
Two fires, ten bedrooms with their own keys, and a lawn between the cabins for the children on Christmas morning.
New Year
The year turns over in a hot tub on a dark hill with nobody else in sight. Then the sauna, then the cold air, then bed.
Questions people ask
Can we book Hespera Reach for Christmas or New Year?
Yes, for one cabin of ten or both cabins for twenty. Holiday weekends have a three-night minimum. Ask early; these are the first dates to go.
Is it good in winter?
Winter is what the saunas were built for. Both cabins have a cedar barrel sauna and a hot tub on the deck, a fire pit, and a games and theatre room for the dark evenings.
What if it snows?
The track is graded and fine for normal cars. In snow, message us before you set off and we'll tell you how it is. Skyline Drive can close in ice, but the valley roads stay open.
Can we have friends over for New Year's Eve?
The cabins are for the people staying. Hespera Reach is a place to stay, not an event venue, and we don't host parties for outside guests.
Is there skiing nearby?
Massanutten Resort is on the far side of the valley, close enough for a day on the slopes.