Oct 19, 2021 7 min read 2021

Getting away to Asheboro: Our weekend in a getaway cabin.

We recently had the opportunity to spend some time in the Asheboro area and stay in a small cabin in Asheboro and we wanted to share a few tips and recommendations.

Asheboro is a small town just south of Greensboro and is between Raleigh-Durham to the east and Charlotte to the west. About 25,000 people live in Asheboro and it is known for a few things, the North Carolina Zoo (the world’s largest natural habitat zoo) and the historic structures and buildings, and an aviation museum. But this area has more to offer; Seagrove is an even smaller town, further south, that is known for pottery. The Uwaharri National Forest is also filled with trails including off-road vehicle trails (aka OHV Trails). With Greensboro just a 45 min drive north there is plenty of shopping and stores.

We recently had the opportunity to spend some time in the Asheboro area and stay in a small cabin provided by https://getaway.house (we paid for it). We loved the cozy cabin it has everything we needed to be comfortable and was plenty spacious. It was a fun experience, and we wanted to share a few tips and recommendations for those who are planning a trip like this.

Recommendations List:

Bring your Pillow
There is AC
Bring Stove-top/Camp-stove Foods (and get the essentials Pack)
Don’t over Pack (you can leave the camp chairs at home)
Bring an Aero-Press
No Wi-Fi and limited Cell Service
Pre Download Movies, Music, and Audio Books Before you go
Bring Boardgames
Check out their Getaway Guide
Bring Good Company!

While these recommendations are dependent on your situation, these are our personal experiences and hopefully they can help you prepare if you decided to go on a getaway like us.

Bring Your Pillow

If your anything like me (Ben) you enjoy your pillow and have selected it for a multitude of qualities. This was one thing I did not bring, and regretted it, as I love my memory foam pillow with cooling gel (as you can tell it's particular). In my defense it’s not that I need this pillow to sleep, It’s just something that helps me relax and get a good night sleep. Basically, what I am saying here is if you have a routine at home or something that helps your relax and sleep, i.e. ear plugs, eye mask, warm milk, etc. bring it. This will make the experience much better and more relaxing.

There is AC

Being located in North Carolina, the early autumn season is a little unpredictable in temperature and weather, could be 60F and rainy or could be 95F and sunny. The cabins do have both heat and AC, which is great for us as we both like to sleep in a cold room. Having AC made this a much more comfortable with the 90F days we had in Asheboro as it was quite late before it dropped below 80F. Heat would have been great if it happened to be one of those 40F mornings, but we did not need it on our trip, but good to know it was there instead of having to break out the sleeping bags.

Bring Stove-Top/ Camp-Stove Foods (and bring firewood)

The cabin has both an indoor stove top and pots and pans for use inside the cabin in all weather. If the weather is nice, there is a camp stove outside you can light a small campfire and cook the food on the rack. They even supply you with ample amounts of tin foil or you can bring your own cast-iron implements (you are not supposed to use their nice pots and pans on the camp stove). If you want to use that camp-stove, you are going to need to bring some firewood and some tinder or fire starters. While we have access to firewood and were able to bring some, they do have plenty there that is pre dried and is a lot easier to get started (and burns a little bit hotter for easier cooking). We used their wood for one night as we had burned through ours and it was plenty enough for a few hours fire and was fairly priced for kiln dried wood.

They do offer an essentials pack which provides a few snacks, some pasta and marinara, and a soup. I loved this idea as we got a few interesting snacks and it really helped plan dinners as basically one meal was planned and there were snacks that allowed us to fill up between meals. This does cost a little extra and you could probably bring some stuff from home or a local supermarket, but I thought it was a neat idea to have some food ready for us already there.

Do Not Over Pack

They have plenty of stuff in the cabin, and as they say, “everything you need, nothing you don’t”. you can see what is included in the cabin in their post: https://journal.getaway.house/getaway-cabin-design-whats-inside/ . Now this can seem weird, as I just told you to bring your pillow, but there is really plenty already in the cabin and almost everything I thought of they already had. You don’t need to bring camp chairs as they had a nice picnic table and some Adirondack chairs. Just bring your clothing and toothbrush and food and that’s pretty much all you need…

Bring an AeroPress

They did have some coffee for sale that was in a brew-able form and had a built-in filter for a trivial cost and had creamer and sugar in the cabin and the kettle to heat the water. However, if you like your coffee like us, bring a brew kit like a Chemex or a AeroPress for your morning coffee. This will also require you to bring along your favorite coffee pre-ground or bring whole bean and a grinder. Also if you have a particular creamer or milk you like bring a small bottle as there is a refrigerator/freezer combo. Same goes if you are a tea drinker bring your tea with you as there is an already a kettle and mugs there.

There is no WIFI or 4G LTE

If you are planning on using this as a working vacation, hopefully do not need internet, as there is no WIFI, and the cellular service is limited. This is really a perfect get away from it all, including technology. We did find that AT&T service was the most usable and got 1-2 bars of LTE and Verizon got a similar 1-2 bars, but the service on Verizon was significantly worse and was pretty much unusable for data, however phone calls seemed to be okay.

Pre-Download Movies, Music and Audiobooks

As previously mentioned, there is limited service and no WIFI so if you like movie nights or watching a show before bed, download them to your laptop or tablet before you leave or while you still have service as it is not really possible inside the cabins. We like our movie nights and watching a travel show or two before bed on the weekends, so we were able to download a few on the road before we got to the cabin. This was also our backup plan should it start down-pouring or if we had a rainy evening.

The cabins have a small radio that also has Bluetooth (also gets local AM/FM if you are interested in the news). You can connect your phone and listen to an audio book while cooking dinner or your favorite podcast while relaxing in bed. We also like to listen to music occasionally in the mornings (chill or lo-fi), so download a few playlists or podcasts before you go. Just be cognizant of the time-of-day and your neighbors, we keep our music subdued in general (i.e., below a library conversation level) and kept it inside the cabin. You could also bring headphones if you want to relax or meditate outside.

Bring Boardgames

There was a deck of cards in the cabin, which would have made for a great rainy-day alternative. You could also bring your favorite board game whether that is chess, battleship, or monopoly. Both of us occasionally enjoy a board game and pick something up at Target every once in a while to try.

Check out the Getaway Guide

We had a great experience in Asheboro, and tried to pre-plan before we got there, however life moves fast and we were driving to Asheboro before we had everything planned. We got lucky with Getaway providing a local guide in the cabin. This guide had plenty of local insight and a few popular locations to do hikes and other activities. This really saved us, especially with the lack of internet access this made picking things out to do, or even confirming some of the places we had already planned significantly easier.

Bring Good Company

If you have made it this far in, I’ve saved the best piece of advice for last; Bring good company! This is a great opportunity to spend time with your loved one away from all the distractions of modern-day society. You are going to be spending time in a small space closer together, and in the great outdoors, take this opportunity and enjoy it. Make sure you bring a companion you will enjoy this with. If you are on a solo trip, bring a good book, or even your pet (you can bring pets to these cabins) or bring just your thoughts. This was a great weekend for us to wind down, relax, and spend some time together and enjoy nature and the Asheboro area!