This VRBO was situated off the beaten path. So far off that we weren’t bothered by traffic, ambient light or loud neighbors. But the listing stated it had views of the mountains, which wasn’t entirely true. We stayed in August so the foliage was thick, not allowing much of a view of the Shenandoah mountains. I’m not sure how it would have fared in the winter with less foliage, but the surrounding trees were quite dense.
Onto the property. We really appreciated the fact that they emptied the hot tub and re-filled it prior to our arrival, but unfortunately it took almost 18 hours for it to get above 100 degrees. Cleanliness comes before convenience I guess. The rooms were spacious and the beds comfortable. One downside was the water being discolored, almost brown. The brochure/handbook said this might be from the mineral rich waters in the area. I have visited Iceland and Costa Rica and swam in their mineral springs and never noticed brown water. Maybe I missed out on that part of the tour in those countries. We ended up using bottled water for coffee, hygiene and our dishes as not fully knowing the source of the discoloration, better safe than sorry.
The WiFi was almost as bad as dial up. It worked great in the morning and when it was sunny, but was useless during inclement weather and at night. This might be due to the owners using a satellite service or the fact that it’s so high up, service in that area was non-existent. The handbook instructed us to use our phones as a hot spot if the service was poor. For what we paid for the VRBO, the WiFi should’ve been better or it should’ve been advertised as unavailable.
Finally, the location was not the most car friendly. The driveway had softball sized rocks strewn about an unpaved road with 1-2 foot wide divots. I almost parked on the access road so as not to have any damage done to my car. But there were some deer casually strolling by as well as a few woodpeckers in the woods. That was fun to see and hear.
Overall, I give this location a 3 out of 5 stars. It did the job, but not what we expected after what we read in the listing. We could’ve gotten a roadside motel in town for half the price with great views of the mountains.