frequently asked questions

Most of our cabins are clustered at what we call "ground zero" for access to the most popular area attractions. This ground zero is the intersection of hwy 74 and hwy 28N, near where many maps show the small town of Almond. We consider this ground zero because it is just about midpoint between the Nantahala Outdoor Center, Tsali mountain bike trails, and Bryson City. While there is a high concentration of our cabins located near this ground zero, we also have units the span from Whittier (15 minutes to the east) to the Nantahala Gorge (10 minutes to the west), to Graham County (10 minutes to the north). We do provide a detailed cabin locator map by clicking the map at the right of this page.

We consider seclusion and privacy as a major feature of our cabins. We design the cabins to maximize this. Many of our cabins are completely secluded (you won't even see other cabins around). Other cabins are within neighborhoods where other cabins are present, but still insulated with trees, mountain ridges, or other natural barriers. We also have some cabins that are close enough to each other that they are ideal for combining 2 cabins together to accommodate a larger group (examples: Fontana View 1, 2 & 3); see more about combining cabins for larger groups in the next question.

Our largest cabin, Fontana View 3, is a 5 bedroom cabin that sleeps in excess of 15 people. The exact capacity is determined by the configuration of the group (singles, couples, kids, total adults, privacy needs, etc). We don't recommend overcrowding a cabin because your enjoyment will suffer and our facilities are limited (septic systems, well supply, parking, etc). We have some cabins that are walking distance to each other and therefore are ideal for combining together to house large groups. Here are cabin clusters to consider:

• Fontana View 1 (2BR), Fontana View 2 (3BR) & Fontana View 3 (5BR)
• Watershed 11 (2BR) & Watershed 12 (3BR) [*]
• Watershed 1 (2 BR) & Watershed 2 (2 BR)
• Good Life 1 (1 BR) & Good Life 2 (2 BR)
• Fontana Lake Overlook 1 (4 BR) & Fontana Lake Overlook 2 (3 BR)
• Independence Lodge (4 BR) & Double Springs (4 BR)
• Tufo's Glory (2 BR) and Little Glory (1 BR)

[*] - The Watershed property is a 50 acre tract where all cabins are on a one way loop road that is about 1 mile around. Watershed 11 and Watershed 12 are the closest together and therefore the most suitable for combining together to accommodate large groups. However, any of our cabins named "Watershed #" are on this property and are therefore relatively convenient to one another.

Check-in time is 4pm the day of your arrival. Check-out is by 11am. We strictly enforce these, especially during peak seasons, as we have a very tight housekeeping schedule during peak seasons. If you desire an early arrival or late check-out, let us know and we will try to accommodate this. Without prior approval, however, we must insist on strict adherence to our check in and out times.

Our cabins all come with a hot tub (open year-round), gas grill, phone, washer/dryer, and air conditioning (they come with much more than this.... these are the things we get asked about most frequently) Our cabins are considered 'fully stocked'. This means all linens, towels, kitchen supplies and other basic items are included. Additionally, we include some convenience items such as board games, playing cards, and such. Each cabin is also equipped with a gas grill (including full tank of LP) and firewood (if outdoor fireplace equipped -- most indoor fireplaces are gas-log). Some non-perishable kitchen items will usually be in the cabin leftover from other guests. This includes condiments, coffee & filters, spices, paper towels, foil, etc., but we recommend you bring any perishables that you want, as we don't guarantee that these will be in the cabin. We do provide the following perishables: toilet tissue, facial tissue, hand soap, shower soap and shampoo, laundry and dish soap) Our driving directions include on-the-way grocery stores if you plan to shop before your arrival, but an Ingle's store is in Bryson City, less than 15 minutes away from most of our cabins.

Your rental charges include the housekeeping after check-out. There is no need for you to strip beds, mop floors, or take out garbage as all this is included. We do charge an extra cleaning fee when the size of your party exceeds a certain base occupancy, but this is clearly disclosed on our rate page. We don't charge extra per-person, as many cabins do. Housekeeping services are designed to clean up after reasonable and normal occupancy. The rental agreement you sign provides for additional cleaning fees for abnormal or disrespectful occupancy conditions. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• unsupervised pets or kids (pet waste, glitter, glue, wax, BB's, silly string, paintball damage, etc) rearranging furniture where more than 1 person is needed to restore
• unusually foul or excessive garbage (oyster shells, fish guts, strewn litter, vomit, soiled diapers, food in hot tub, cigarette butts, etc
• pets on furniture (and other violations of our pet policy), cigarette smoke inside

We do not allow smoking in our cabins. Ashtrays are provided on the outside decks. Pets are allowed in selected cabins, but only with advance notice, additional security deposit, and an additional cleaning fee. This is to preserve the enjoyment of future guests who may suffer from allergies or asthma. We strictly enforce these policies, and non-compliance could result in eviction (with forfeiture of remaining paid stay). Offenders will also be held responsible for damages that may include, but are not limited to, lost rents (if a subsequent guest needs to be refunded because of smoke or animal evidence) and additional cleaning charges. See Pet Policy.

As with any vacation travel, your cabin stay is subject to weather conditions and other acts of God. We rent our cabins year-round, but occasional extreme winter weather can cause difficulty getting to a cabin due to icy roads. Obviously, if you cannot access our cabin because of conditions on our roads, you will be allowed to reschedule or cancel. If you are concerned about this, you must contact us in advance of your arrival. We cannot guarantee weather, and therefore do not provide refunds in cases of merely poor weather, rather, we only offer refunds in rare cases where cabin access is not possible. Fallen trees, power outages, and other temporary inconveniences are rare, but do not negate our cancellation policy because while they may inconvenience your arrival, they do not prevent it. We make every reasonable effort to correct these problems, but unless overnight access is impossible, our cancellation policy is enforced. Also, we reserve the right to substitute cabins for any reservation (like or upgraded cabin will be provided at same rate).

Because of our proximity to Deal's Gap (aka the "Tail of the Dragon") and other great rides, we have many guests arriving on motorcycles or with motorcycle trailers. We strongly suggest you speak with our agents about the specific conditions at each cabin before assuming you will be safe arriving to any cabin on a motorcycle. We do not guarantee access via motorcycles as many mountain roads or driveways are loose gravel and can be very difficult or unsafe for even experienced riders. Because of the diverse types of motorcyles, the varying experience levels of our guests, and the different conditions at each of our cabins, we err on the side of caution when suggesting a cabin to our friends on motorcycles. Please note that we do have some cabins that are accessed by entirely paved roads and are frequented by motorcycle riders.

Currently DSL service only available to a few areas where our cabins are located. Specifically, the following cabins are equipped with wireless internet access: Kingfisher's Roost, Rocky View, Stackstone Ridge, Black Forest Lodge, and all the cabins on the "Watershed" property (i.e. Watershed 1, Watershed 2, etc. plus all the Treehouses). Because of the limited ability to adequately support this service in the mountains, the wireless internet access is provided FREE, but we do not offer any guarantees of service or any tech support at all. Rather, we have just made a good faith effort to provide this service and hope you will be able to successfully enjoy it. Every cabin does have phone service, and most of the major internet providers do have local numbers for dial-up access (AOL, MSN, Earthlink all have local #'s). Please note that the local calling area is quite small (the dialing prefix will be 488 if it is a local call). If you have to dial a 1 before the number, then you are dialing long distance and will incur charges. Our rental agreement specifies you NOT charge long distance to our bills and provides a 40% surcharge if you do. We cannot be held accountable for accidents ("I didn't realize it was long distance") or charges caused by kids using the internet.

If you need a high-speed internet connection, we have offices in Bryson City with DSL and wireless access. Call us and we will be happy to provide you with access to our internet service for free. It is becomming more popular for coffee shops and small businesses to have a wireless signal at their location, too. If you look for it, chances are you will find a connection you can use somewhere in Bryson City or perhaps at the NOC (their service may not be free).

Maybe, but it is best to assume it will NOT work. All our cabins have local phone service, accept incoming calls, and provide 911 services. Some of them have long-distance blocked, so we suggest you bring a calling card for long-distance dialing. Our rental agreement prohibits you from charging long-distance to our cabins, anyway. That being said, some cabins will get cellular service. This usually depends on the service provider (Verizon, Cingular, Alltel are best; Nextel, T-Mobil and other "urban" area providers are probably the least likely to work in the mountains) and the phone ("tri-mode phones are good, strictly GSM phones are less likely to work everywhere). Many phones that don't get service at the cabin still might get service in Bryson City or other larger towns like Waynesville or Asheville. Blackberry and other sophisticated services will likely not work. Please remember that even if you have "bars" indicating a signal, you may not receive calls as you would at home; also, even if you are receiving calls, you may not have all the features like voicemail message alerts, text messaging, or paging.

As far as possible. We have some weekends in October that are booked every year in advance. Holiday weekends tend to book months in advance, as do weekends in October. Summer dates fill up, so to get your preferred dates, pick them as soon as you can. Since we don't require any specific days for a weekly stay (some places require a Saturday through Saturday, for instance), getting a full week of your choice usually requires advanced planning. Last minute availability is possible, so call us to see anyway, but we tend to fill up in advance (especially our larger cabins).

Generally speaking, the weather is not extreme. Summers may get hot, but the nights usually cool down. Winters may be cold, but the days are usually pleasant. The rainy season is winter and spring, but the weather is usually dictated by national front patterns. Thus, absent a large storm system moving through the area, precipitation is not likely even in the rainy season. As a guide, you may click to see an average temperature chart.

The closest airport is Asheville NC (airport code AVL), which is about 70 miles from Bryson City. Asheville is a very small and easy airport to travel through, and is serviced by the following airlines: USAir, Delta, United, Northwest. However, because Asheville is not a major hub for any airline, it may be difficult to find a direct flight from your departure city. If you fly USAir or Delta, you will likely connect in Charlotte NC (CLT) or Atlanta GA (ATL), respectively. By the time you layover in one of these cities, fly to Asheville, and then drive the final 70 miles, it might be quicker to just end your air travel in either Charlotte or Atlanta and drive the rest of the way (about 3 hours from either airport). Rental car variety and bargains may be greater in these major cities as well. A secondary city to consider is Knoxville TN (TYS), but don't be fooled by the apparent close proximity. Knoxville is through the Smokies and the drive is slow, difficult and unpredictable depending on time of day and season.

We generally do not publish nor provide guests with a physical address of our cabins because we have discovered a history of inaccuracy with MapQuest (and other internet mapping services) and GPS systems. Not only have we had customers directed via a wrong route (taking them an hour or more out of the way), we have even had people directed to a point completely different than our cabins. For this reason, our Rental Agreement specifically cautions about using internet mapping services. We provide specific driving directions to your cabin after we receive your signed rental agreement, and we strongly suggest you follow these directions. If you would like to use a mapping website or GPS as a secondary guide, please use Bryson City NC (zip code 28713) or Almond NC (zip code 28702) as your general destination and then use our detailed directions to take you specifically to the cabin. One other related point is that mountain driving conditions and distances aren't always presented accurately on maps. Sometimes the shortest distance on a map can be the most lengthy or difficult drive.

When you sign up for our email newsletter or make a reservation with us, you provide your email and other personal information to us. We will never sell, trade, or distribute this information to any other party. You do agree to receive email communications from us regarding your reservation (if applicable). You also agree to receive occasional (no more frequently than weekly) emails with promotions, announcements, etc from us, noting that each email communication sent for this purpose will have an "unsubscribe" option clearly visible. We will immediately and permanently comply with your unsubscribe request.

Our cancellation policy is clearly stated on our reservations page, and is very consistent with other rental businesses in the area. We realize it is a strict policy, and we often are asked for exceptions and leniency for personal emergencies. Thus, we have supplemented our cancellation policy with this FAQ and hope you understand our position regarding last minute emergencies:

We try to be sensitive and compassionate that some emergencies arise and unforeseen last-minute cancellations are unavoidable. We will address each case individually as to whether we can allow flexibility in our cancellation/refund policy and still uphold our contractual obligations. Guests are reminded that we do NOT own the cabins, as we are property managers for private owners. As such, we are directly responsible for the financial success of these rental cabins, and we are contractually bound to our cabin owners to uphold our reservation policies with rare exception. Our situation is that we cannot let the personal hardships of our guests become the financial hardships of our owners. As sad as it is when any guest must cancel (for any reason), you must understand the financial burdens of your personal hardships are also yours. We try to make this fact clear ahead of time (by the strict terms of our cancellation policy in the Vacation Rental Agreement you sign) so that there is no need for clarification at the last minute when the guest party might be dealing with other severe personal problems.

Of course if our area is inaccessible by severe weather, natural disaster, or whatever, we will not hold you to a rental contract when access to the rental property is not possible. You do, however, agree in your Vacation Rental Agreement with us, that substitution of an equal or better cabin is our right without defaulting on the Agreement. You should note that we have never had an instance where a guest could not be provided a cabin because of weather. Thus, it is rare that a cancellation will be provided penalty-free because of weather (including snow/ice storms, hurricanes, forest fires, etc).

Hurricanes are another frequent issue. These pose a particular problem because so little certain information is available when we need it, and by the time we have it, it may be too late. Unfortunately, we cannot grant cancellations due to the threat of a hurricane in your area. We feel the pain of guests who must deal with boarding up windows rather than traveling to vacation, but in many cases that process is just a precaution. We cannot grant cancellations at the time precautions are being taken. Once it is determined (heaven forbid, of course) that a scheduled guest was severely affected by a natural disaster, we offer compassion and flexibility by allowing, post-facto, that guest to reschedule without penalty. This is one example that we have realized in the past and unfortunately probably will more in the future.

Other hypothetical examples and scenarios are difficult to imagine, so won’t be addressed here. Examples of instances, as unpleasant and unfortunate as they might be, that will NOT be cause for penalty-free cancellation are: sickness or injury of a family member (“my son broke his arm and just won’t enjoy the mountains, so we can’t come”), car accidents, loss of employment, military deployment, gas prices, etc.; Once again, we cannot allow the financial burden of your personal hardships and obligations to be borne by the owners of our cabins (total strangers to you).

Please understand that we must operate our business with certain tough decisions, and know that you will always have our compassion for your problems and our appreciation for your business.

We have provided as part of our icon set an icon indicating certain cabins as "motorcycle friendly".  All this indicates is that the roads up to the cabin are paved (acknowledging that gravel roads are difficult to motorcyclists).  Experienced riders may find it accessible to other cabins that are not indicated as motorcycle friendly, but you do so at your own risk. 

This distinction as "motorcycle friendly" can be used by other guests who may be concerned about access.  We never recommend towing trailers, boats, campers, etc as many mountain roads may be difficult in these scenarios.  We also strongly recommend AGAINST MINI-VANS as these have historically had problems with mountain roads where many other types of vehicles have not.  Light pick-up trucks (2WD), because they lack weight in the rear wheels where traction is needed, also can be problematic.

Guests bring trailers, motorcycles, campers, large passenger vans, etc at their own risk, as our cabin access is designed for reasonable vehicle access only.  If you bring a vehicle to the mountains that is not reasonably meant for mountain driving, you do so at your own risk and may be held responsible for your rental contract despite your difficulties getting to your cabin.

If you have any concerns about vehicle types or other cabin access questions, please discuss them with us in advance of making your reservations.