I LOVE my Facebook friends. When I said I was looking for ideas for an outdoorsy, whitewater, ziplining Perry vacation, there were a ton of great suggestions. One thing that came up repeatedly was Nantahala and Nantahala Village Resort. Looked it up on the web, Google Map drive time of 10 hours and ding ding ding…we had a winner! We do not mind driving and listen to Audiobooks, while the kids listen to movies. We brought groceries and stopped when almost there for last minute stuff.

Nantanhala Village Resort: We got a 2 bedroom cabin. One room had 2 sets of bunk beds, one room for us, one bathroom, quaint living room, eating area, efficiency kitchen and a foosball table. We even got to bring along our dog Chulo. We felt safe there, the accommodations were nice and clean and the grounds were huge! The kids could walk all over the place or stay in the cabin while we walked around. The grounds could use some facelift and well as some of the facilities such as the gameroom, but were perfectly acceptable for us. The pool was very nice and the cute little coffee shop opened on the weekends. They even made booking outings a snap and did it for us over the phone. There was a TV with Direct TV. We did not have internet in our room (a nice break), but WiFi was available at the lodge.

Wildwater White Water Rafting Our guide Lee rocked it! Turned out to be an Army Veteran too – HOOAH! Our family had our own raft and guide and now Christmas card pictures too. We chose to go without wet suits as it was sunny that day. Yep – the water was cold – but we were fine!

Wildwater Ziplining: We did this on a separate day than the rafting. What a blast for the whole family!

NOC Duckie rentals: We went with this outfitter because Wildwater did not have 3 singles available. Hubby and the boys went out for this excursion. They loooved it and were impressed with the organization with this larger company! Hubby wore a wetsuit (included with rental) and the boys did not and were fine. Duckys are inflatable kayaks and they went over the same path we did for whitewater. They went on the weekend and their only complaint was that the river was crowded.

Gem Mining: We were looking for a little extra activity to do that was relaxing and we could all enjoy together. We were pleasantly surprised how much we all enjoyed this!

Bryson City Tubing: After all the adrenaline rush stuff, my daughter convinced us we should go tubing. Now we all have been “lazy river tiki tubing” before so we went along with a relaxing afternoon plan. This turned out to be one of our favorite activities. You can rent tubes anywhere in Bryson City – about $5 for the day. You drive into the park – hike as far as you want with your tube (wear water shoes or sandals) and then weeeeeee rapids on a tube! Non-stop fun the whole way. We hiked as far as you could go, about a mile and did the half hour or so ride tow times. The second time hubby met us with the car at the rental place so we got to go further. We all LOVED this! We should have brought picnic lunches (next time).

Anthony’s Restaurante and Pizzeria: We decided to drive into Bryson City for dinner. Looking online and speaking to one local, nothing seemed appealing – bad reviews, high prices etc.. But we were int he mood for pizza and beer, so decided to give it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised how good the food was. Wish there was room for us to dine outside as inside was nothing to write home about. Prices were great too!

The Jarrett House: We met up with hubby’s relatives from Asheville there. Great homestyle cooking for the whole family. We stayed in the parlor and chatted a bunch afterwards as well. Worth the drive from Nantahala.

Nantahala Horseback: Walking distance from our cabin, were the stables. Princess and I enjoyed an hour leisurely ride around the Lake. It was beautiful.

Thirteen Moons Restaurant: Hubby and I decided to sneak out on our own for a couple of cocktails and food. We left the kids at the cabin and hopped on over to the restaurant on site. Turns out our White Water guide Lee was also our server. The food was very good and the service excellent. We did not feel the need to bring the kids there and spend the extra bucks as they were happy with cabin food. We did enjoy ourselves and we are sure the kids would have enjoyed it there too.