Located in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, 2 ½ hours from Potomac, Massanutten Resort has for over 50 years been a favorite destination for nature lovers and active lifestyle enthusiasts who are drawn to the fresh air, pristine natural beauty, and wide range of outdoor (and indoor) activities. Offering some of the region’s best skiing, snowboarding, and other cold-weather sports, it has long been recognized as one of the Mid-Atlantic’s premier winter vacation destinations.
Perhaps less well known is Massanutten’s allure as a year-round resort, offering hiking, mountain biking, golf and dozens of other family-friendly activities, making it a perfect get-away during the warmer months, as well. Upon arrival, guests check in at the Woodstone Meadows Welcome Center to pick up their keys before continuing on to their accommodations – a mix of traditional wood-clad condominiums, a hotel, and spacious single-family homes that are clustered in developments throughout the resort.
Spread across 6,000 acres on Massanutten Mountain, the sprawling resort is effectively split into the lower “valley” and upper “mountain” sections. “The valley” features one of the resort’s two 18-hole golf courses, a petting farm, an enormous indoor/outdoor water park, and a myriad of other activities.
The ”mountain” is dominated by the Massanutten Ski Resort, a network of slopes and trails which in winter caters to skiers of all abilities. After the snow melts, the ski area is transformed into an expansive mountain bike park with over 5 miles of gravity-fed bike trails that snake through the trees and traverse the ski slopes. An additional 30 miles of pristine hiking and cross-country mountain biking trails cut through wooded terrain on the back side of the mountain and are easily accessible from the resort. This part of the resort also boasts multiple restaurants, the Mountain Greens Golf Course, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and the Family Adventure Park, which features zip lines, summer tubing (a riff on snow tubing), a climbing wall, and a ropes course geared toward those 12 and under that winds its way through the trees.
In all, guests can choose from over 100 daily activities within the resort, and dozens of others (kayaking, gallery-hopping, and wine tasting, among them) within a few minutes’ drive.
There is also a wide variety of dining options conveniently sprinkled around the resort, mostly fast-casual, with nothing too pricey or pretentious. The laid-back Campfire Grill is famous for its hand-crafted pizzas, while the recently opened Splash’s Bar & Grill features fresh seafood and a raw bar. My personal favorite, Base Camp, occupies a glass-sided, open-air, yurt at the base of the ski slopes, with seating that spills out onto the deck. You can usually find my wife and me here after a day of skiing or, in the warmer months, enjoying the live music, upscale bar food and local craft beers. Our kids often spread out a blanket nearby and watch a movie under the stars.
Sometimes, in the summer, we’ll treat ourselves and rent one of the spacious residences in the resort’s exclusive Regal Vistas development, all high ceilings and picture windows with sweeping views of the valley. Our kids and their friends will spend their days at the water park or mountain biking, and my wife and I will play golf (both courses, if we’re lucky), and we’ll meet up at the end of the day to eat dinner as a family and catch up on each other’s adventures. Invariably, laughter ensues. Later, after the sun’s gone down, the kids will watch a movie and my wife will find a comfy chair to curl up with a book. I'm already thinking about tomorrow. When the lights go out, we all sleep like babies.