I found a giveaway that was just too cool not to share! Please giveaways with my fans and didn’t want to miss giving you a chance to win a free night’s stay! Read on….
Last year we attended a family reunion in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The attractions all looked fun but I was shocked at the price of hotel rooms! OUCH! The pricey nightly rates threatened to shorten our trip by 2 days until we found Edelweiss Mountain Lodging. It was near all the attractions, but not in the middle of the big city and it was absolutely gorgeous! We were unanimous at the end of the reunion last year that we were definitely coming back in 2012…we just returned home from out trip this week and had an awesome time!
The Review:
Edelweiss has 12 rental properties but we rented the Prairie Creek Cabin & Guest House. It sleeps a total of 17 and that is how many people are in my husband’s immediate family….it was a perfect fit for us! Since we have the youngest baby that occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night the family voted that we got the guest house. It is just a few steps away from the main house. We arrived about an hour early and were able to check in with no problems. (We did call and ask if we could come early). The folks at Edelweiss are so thoughtful. When we walked into both places the air conditioners had been started and were cooling off the houses. It was nearly 100 degrees outside when we arrived and were grateful that they had thought ahead!
The guest house can sleep 5 people. It has it’s own kitchen, bathroom, tv, and loft. It was clean and had received some updates since we were there last year. Each rental they have is fully furnished. Dishes, towels, spare blankets, pots, pans, coffee maker, trash bags, soap, microwave, stove & fridge….it was like a home away from home! Up in the loft there are 2 single beds and a futon. They even had nightlights….they really had everything that I had at home. It was so nice! We were the first to check in and get the keys, the last family to arrive didn’t check in at the office since they knew we had checked in and that night before the office was about to close, Julie, the manager called to make sure we had all arrived safely…again super thoughtful!
The main cabin had undergone some gorgeous upgrades since last year. They removed the teal carpet and replaced it with hard wood floors on the main floor, they removed the old dark cabinets and upgraded to a beautiful kitchen, got new furniture, and re-arranged the floor plan. I can’t really show you the befores, but I can show you the afters!
It has 2 bedrooms on the main floor, one bedroom in the basement, and a loft that has 3 single beds and a crib! There is a bathroom on each level! You can’t see the kitchen table but there is one.
Downstairs there is an entertainment center filled with board games, DVD’s and VHS. They had a great variety to choose from, movies that would please ALL age groups. They also have a pool table and spare card tables so you can set up games on them! I can’t leave out the hot tub! We were in at least 2 times a day! This was a brand new hot tub! There was a big open field that belongs to this property that we had a great time playing on it!
There was a small creek that ran through the far end of the property. The kids went “panning for gold” that one of my cool sister in laws planted there for them! They traded their “gold” in for some sweet treats. We also played frisbee golf while we were there. They had a basketball hoop and a tricycle for the kids. There was a toy box stuffed with good toys and books. They had really thought of everything that someone MIGHT need. They had a baby gate (which we needed), TONS of towels, spare blankets, spare pillows, a potty training potty, cake pans, crock pot….they had everything there available for us to use!
We did bring our own bottled drinking water, but a few times we did drink the water there and it tasted fine, but it did have a iron smell to it. Edelweiss has an office where you can buy ice, ice cream bars, and call anytime for anything. We called for help when we were having trouble with our TV. I was told how to fix it and they offered to come right over if I couldn’t figure it out. We also stopped in almost daily and asked for directions, used the office’s WiFi and just chatted with them…they were really nice! The cabin we stayed at did not have cell phone service or internet access, it did have Satellite TV. They are working towards getting internet, but honestly, it was kind of nice not to have my phone going off all day.
Choosing a vacation rental vs a hotel really made sense for our family get together. Let me show you a price comparison:
Local hotel $115+tax=$125 a night (cheapest I found when looking!) x 4 nights stay=$500 x 5 rooms so each of our families to have their own rooms= $2500! YIKES…that is just lodging! Don’t forget to add eating out at least 2 meals a day!
Prairie Creek sleeps 17 people $250 + $65 Guest House Rental=$315 (additional fees and taxes applied to our group) x 4 nights=cost us about $1500 total. That is a $1000 savings! Plus we got to bring our own food so we didn’t have to eat out all the time! This is just so smart for get together’s like this and we had a blast staying in the same house! We were able to put kiddos to bed and close bedroom doors and stay up playing games late into the night! If we had stayed at a motel, we would have had kids sleeping in the rooms and not been able to play.
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| View from the loft of in the main cabin |
They have all sorts of cabin’s for rent, different sizes, different price ranges–to fit different families’ or group’s needs! They are all gorgeous and Edelweiss takes pride in keeping them clean and updating them frequently. You can see other cabin rentals HERE, they even have RV spots if you just want to camp out. The 5 days went by way too fast. I have awesome in-laws, stayed at a great place and had a fabulous time! Give Julie a call if you need a place to stay in the Black Hills for a vacation! Or if you are headed over to the Sturgis rally….keep Edelweiss in mind for lodging!
The Giveaway:
This is my favorite part….Edelweiss Mountain Lodging has offered to giveaway a coupon for FREE NIGHT’S STAY valued up to $250! This coupon is valid from and must be used in between 9/15/12-5/15/13! Awesome! Right?
Give oh Giveaway has teamed up with Donna’s Deals & More, Thrifty Momma Ramblings, Mommy’s Memorandum, Tatum’s Reviews, Snip Shop Save, & Kimberly’s Thoughts to bring you this awesome giveaway!
This giveaway is open World Wide (but you must be able to come to South Dakota, USA to redeem the coupon-can not be exchanged for cash) You must be 18 years or older to enter. Fill out as many or as few entries on the rafflecopter as you’d like, but the more you fill out the better the odds! This Giveaway will run until 11:59 PM on July 15th. Thanks for entering and GOOD LUCK!
Disclaimer: I did not received any monetary compensation for sharing this giveaway, I just like to share awesome giveaways with you. Edelweiss Mountain Lodging is responsible for prize fulfillment, not my blog.