American Cabin/Lodge holiday

[Redkite11]

I have family who live in different countries and we would like to plan a family reunion. We are open to time of year. In the past, we have been to Portugal but the US is actually a better location for everyone to get to. Anyway, what websites are good for finding self-catering holiday lets in the US? I would like to book a traditional log cabin style villa in the US. It'll need to be big (5 couples plus babies and small kids). America is a big country and I don't really know where to go or look. I found a website for Lake Tahoe holiday lets but loads of them were for a minimum of 30 days and we will only need a week or two.

The main criteria would be:

• big self-catering house;
• kids activities nearby; and
• near international airport.

Any suggestions or tips?

Another option would be if there was an US equivalent of Centre Parcs.

We have been here several times: YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park Center (ymcarockies.org)

Can't recommend it enough, location is stunning, loads of activities on and off site. Fly into Denver.

I can say from extensive research I have never found a centre parcs equivalent.

https://www.loonpointresortmn.com/accommodations/

Weve booked here for next September.

consider being open to collections of cabins instead of one big house. I have done multiple big family trips where we had several cabins next to one another. It’s fantastic because you have multiple kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms. Everyone can have a bit of space, but there is also plenty of socializing.

of you want the cabin experience and not the beach experience, then you probably want to go north or mountain. Wisconsin and Minnesota have beautiful places. So does Montana, Colorado, California, ok, I’m just going to list states. I’ve done family reunions like this all over. There is an abundance of options.

you just have to search around the internet. Airbnb, vrbo, Expedia, Google, TripAdvisor.

if you narrow it down to a region that will help immensely. do consider airport access. Some of the best areas may be quite a drive from a convenient airport. Just how many connections do people want to make and how much driving do they want to do? I would honestly start with that. Given everyone’s locations, what airports are convenient for this type of vacation.

the closest to centre parcs is going to be Great Wolf Lodge, but it’s not the same. It’s just a big hotel, not a full resort with the same variety of outdoor activities.

Thank you for all the tips so far.

@idontlikealdi and @Stresa22 These looks great. Thanks! I like the log cabin look.

@Ponderingwindow I like the idea of several cabins but how would evening socialising work once children are in bed? Do you use a babysitter? Also are there any places you have used for family reunion and really loved and would like to recommend?

I have never found the centre parcs equivilent either! You could try Florida, plenty
of apartments where you could spread out a little, we stayed at buena vista, absolutely no shortage of kids activities with Disney, universal, And cape canaveral.
Burlington, vt has a number of chalet style places including a ranch style place lots of activities and the von trapps place or rocking horse ranch might be fun?? Alternatively, tanque verde in Tucson looks amazing, lots to do there with tombstone and the air museum but it’s spendy. Have you considered Canada? Vancouver island has some amazing places as does muskoka 2-3 hours north or Toronto. Summer it’s fantastic with wolves, moose, beavers and lots of water sports. Deerhurst is good.

smoky mountains in Tennessee. Your only a short (in USA) drive from Atlanta airport.
loads of cabins, lots to do, Dollywood is there too.

Great wolf lodge is like center parcs

We never had more than a couple of families with the bedtime issue. So we would have them stay together in the largest cabin available and evening socializing took place there.

I haven’t done one of these trips in years. It used to be an annual thing, but families shift and change. Mammoth Lakes worked really nicely for a couple of different groupings. I can’t seem to find the specific site we stayed at. It wasn’t a ski-in/ski-out set of cabins which made it dramatically cheaper. We did trips in both winter and summer and they are very different but both enjoyable.

I have also done northern and Wisconsin many times, but the actual place we stayed there was a dump. I know there are better places, but the main reason I wouldn’t advise it is accessibility.

we did Lake Tahoe once. That might be best. It tends to be expensive, but is easier to access.

honestly, the thing I worry about most of my suggestions is that they tend to be a bit remote. My family is American and has no problem taking two flights and then driving 4 hours. Our concept of travel is just different because we are used to the size of the place.

Ha ha! Very true that we have a different view of distance (although I’ll be taking a long flight). A four hour drive sounds rather painful for me. Reminds me of the 7 hour drives I had to endure as a child to Scotland. Now I’m an adult, I always go to Scotland by train.