Shenandoah - Big Meadows Lodge vs. Skyland
 

Hello,

My family (me, husband, 2 boys 15 and 12) are going to Shenandoah in early August. We will be staying at Skyland or Big Meadows, in a room. I am concerned with the heat. Do you think we need to have a room with air conditioning? I was hoping that with the elevation, the room would be cool-ish at night.

Any preference for where to stay? Both look just fine, but having the visitor's center at Big Meadows is attractive. Besides hiking, we are also looking into canoeing and horseback riding while at the park.

Thanks!

My only stay inside the park was at Big Meadows in a room with a/c. In late June. It was humid during the day and somewhat cooler-ish in the evening. Our room would not have had good cross ventilation so hard for me to say what it would have felt like w/o a/c. There was a table fan. We loved our stay in the park and worked up a pretty serious sweat hiking & canoeing so appreciated the creature comfort of a/c in the late afternoon & evening.

I can't comment on the A/C as we have never stayed at Skyland or Big Meadow in the summer months. I will say, however, that you might want to consider Big Meadow for its central location and amenities such as the Byrd Visitor Center, the Amphitheatre (for ranger presentations) and the Taproom (for nightly free musical entertainment). The horses for the trail rides are at Skyland, so you'd have to drive up there for that.

I needed AC at Skyland in September... I also found the food substandard, but I believe Big Meadows has the same concessionaire.

My TA review is here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._Virginia.html

I recommend Big Meadows, because of its central location and greater variety of amenities & activities.

In early August I would recommend AC, simply because it's nice to end a day of sweating with a blast of dry, cool air.

There is no canoeing within the national park itself, but there's plenty of choices in Luray & Front Royal.

Skyland is the only choice for horse back riding within the park, unless you bring your own horse.
> http://www.goshenandoah.com/activiti...rseback-riding

Thanks everyone! Big Help!

FWIW, I've been staying and eating at the lodges for many years and I have always found the food to be particularly good because so much of is made with local products. In fact, I read that the menus this year will feature even more locally-produced food.

The food used to be pretty good, I wouldn't say great, but the concessionaire changed the year before last. I was extremely disappointed with the new one, enough I actually wrote to the Park Service about it (which got me a discount coupon I haven't used).