MichelleMunches

Would you look at this view?! I’ve never been a mountain girl, but I could definitely get used to this. This trip was planned as a Christmas gift for my boyfriend this year! It all started when we were talking about our bucket list and he said that his number one item is to see the Northern Lights, but ya girl is not liquid with the funds for that right now. So, Facebook being creepy as always showed me an ad for “northern lights” snow tubing and I thought this would be the perfect adventure! And thus began the planning!

The Planning

I began planning this trip in December when I saw the ad and we went in January. I would definitely recommend planning early because the slots for the activities definitely fill up quickly because they’re such a hot commodity.

Hotel:
This resort offers various options for staying during your trip. Obviously price ranges depend on the amenities at each location. They have nine different options and I opted for the cheapest one being the Massanutten Resort Hotels. I was definitely weary about staying here after reading the reviews on Yelp, however, I can assure you that these hotels are meticulously clean and extremely comfortable. I opted for one king bed and it was extremely comfy. The room offers the king bed, a sofa, tv, and the bathroom was extremely clean as well. We also luckily were given a room with a balcony! Not all of them have it though. The room also came with a hair dryer which was very helpful! I would 100% stay here again. 

Activities:
Reviewing the resort activities, they offer, snow tubing, indoor/outdoor waterpark, skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, etc. There’s truly a lot. We went for a weekend getaway so I planned for northern lights snow tubing on Friday evening and then all day waterpark on Saturday, check out on Sunday.

Tips & Advice

• Prior to coming on this trip, I had never even heard of Massanutten Resort and thought I was truly going to be roughing it this weekend in the woods/mountains. However, let me assure you that there is civilization there! Only 20 short minutes away is a town called Harrisonburg which has tons of restaurants, an Aldi, a Target, a small mall, etc. Definitely did not rough it. 
• As for arrival, I planned for the northern lights tubing to be for 7-9pm Friday evening and we didn’t arrive until 6pm. I would definitely recommend planning for enough time to arrive, settle, and get to your activity. The line to check in was insane, 3x wrapped, and I was worried we wouldn’t make it to tubing. Fortunately, we made it with a few minutes to spare. However, from the check-in building to the hotels is a little ways away, so I would just factor in enough time to get around!
• As for the indoor waterpark, it was incredibly fun, but I would not expect to stay there the entire day. The day we went it was open from 10am-9pm (times vary based on when you go, make sure to check online) and I had anticipated staying the entire day, however, after doing everything a few times, we ended up leaving around 1-2pm and had arrived at 10am. It was definitely fun, but after around 12pm, the lines for the waterslides became slightly long and we had already rode it so many times. The indoor waterpark is definitely tailored more for children, but we still had fun, especially in the lazy river and hot springs. Next time, I would definitely opt to go for the twilight session which is 5pm to close and it is a pro-rated price. Not completely worth the full day pass in my opinion. However, the outdoor waterpark looks like it has more amenities for adults, so that may be worth the full day pass.
• When you check in for your stay, you receive recreation passes which allow you access to the Massanutten Fitness Center which houses the indoor poor, hot tubs, basketball court, racquetball court, and small arcade. I did not know they had this prior to coming and wish I had because there was so much to do! We went to the hot tub Saturday evening and it was a lot of fun. They have a giant outdoor hot tub, as well as an indoor one. The outdoor one was definitely popular, we were surrounded by people we did not know, but it was a good time!
• Time, I would recommend coming for a week if you can because there’s truly so much to do and I wish I had more time to do all the things the resort offered. I wish I had gotten to go ice skating because it looked super beautiful. As well as time, the winter was a lot of fun, but my boyfriend and I both agreed we’d love to come back in the summer as well because there’s equally as much to do!
• Check out The Peak! During your stay, you receive a map and you have to check out the peak. You drive up around the lodges and you can see the beautiful view (shown above!).
• What else is there to do? If you’re willing to travel outside the resort, there is a small town called Harrisonburg nearby which we explored Sunday after checking out. There were lots of cute shops and restaurants there. One super cute one that had a Bob’s Burger painting (see below), there’s a Gamers Oasis if you’re into games/figurines, and there’s even a place called Ruby’s that’s a game arcade with a bowling alley in it!
• What is there to eat? The resort itself has a few options that we saw, one being The Campfire Grill (which we said we would love to try next time). As I said above, if you’re willing to travel, there’s tons of options outside the resort. We checked out Waffle House, Sushi Village (AYCE Sushi), and Thunderbird Cafe.

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