Most of our December weekends are already spoken for. Most of our December weeknights are not. If you can leave on a Sunday and be home by Thursday, you get the same private hot tub and the same quiet hillside outside Luray, at the lower nightly rate and with the roads mostly to yourself.
What changes on a weeknight
The price. Sunday through Thursday nights cost less than Friday and Saturday nights at every cabin. A weeknight is $185 at The Turtle and $275 at The Sparrow, and the booking page shows The Stag's rate for your dates. Cleaning and the Virginia and Page County taxes go on top, and you see the full total before you pay. Two weeknights at The Sparrow in early December, for example, come to $749.45 all in.
The rules are looser. The minimum stay is one night, so a single weeknight works; only Friday and Saturday arrivals need two. Book within seven days of arriving and the site takes 10% off the nightly rate on its own. Stay four to six nights and it takes 7% off instead.
The drive. From downtown DC it's about two hours on clear roads, and a little less from Arlington or Alexandria. Leaving the city on a Friday afternoon can add an hour. Leave on a Sunday or a Monday and you mostly miss that. Our page on cabins near Washington DC has the routes.
Which cabin for which trip
The Turtle is built for two: one king bed with a seven-by-six-foot window into the forest right behind it, a private hot tub, and an observation deck at the top of the hill. December nights are long, which means more hours of dark sky from that deck.
The Sparrow is a true A-frame for up to four, with a wood stove in the living room, a private hot tub on the deck and a stone wood-burning fire pit out front. Bring your own firewood; the Walmart in Luray and the gas stations nearby sell it.
The Stag sleeps six in two bedrooms with two bathrooms. Upstairs is a game loft with a Polycade arcade, air hockey and a Board game console, and the six-person hot tub sits on a covered deck. It's also the cabin with the most open nights in December.
All three have a PlayStation 5 and Starlink internet, which averages around 180 Mbps, in case one of you has to log in for a morning.
What to do in Luray on a weekday
Luray Caverns is ten minutes away and open every day of the year. The Thornton Gap entrance to Shenandoah National Park is fifteen. In winter, sections of Skyline Drive close from time to time in ice and snow, but the park itself stays open and you can still walk in to hike, so check the park's alerts before you set out. Some downtown restaurants keep shorter hours midweek in winter, so look up the places you have in mind before you drive in.
Getting up the hill
All three cabins share a gravel mountain road. We strongly recommend four-wheel or all-wheel drive, and we clear the road after it snows.
Open dates
On the day we posted this (19 October), these December nights were open:
- The Turtle: 6–10, 13–14 and 20–23 December
- The Sparrow: 1–3, 7–10, 13–15, 23 and 26 December
- The Stag: every night from 1 to 23 December
They won't all last. The booking page shows what's open right now, with the price for your dates.
If you're planning further ahead, our winter weekend guide covers January to April.
