By Christine Haines
Photos courtesy of Forsyth County, NC
I hate staying in hotels. They’re good for business trips, get-away weekends and overnight stays while on the road, but for a vacation, I’d much rather rent a house, or at least stay in a suite.
Everyone staying in a hotel room has to be on the same sleep schedule. Face it, it’s nearly impossible to sleep if someone sitting on the bed beside you has the light on to read or is watching television, or if the shower is running just a few feet away.
And, of course, the proximity of the shower and television applies to the rooms to either side of you, as well as to those above and below, unless the hotel is really upscale and somewhat soundproofed, so you can also be at the mercy of strangers.
All in all, I’d rather rent a house or at least a suite. It’s nice to be able to go into another room if you’re going to be staying somewhere for a week or so. It keeps nerves from getting frayed.
If you’ve been following my columns, you know that I’m basically cheap so spending tons of money on an upscale hotel suite or pricy vacation rental really isn’t on my agenda, so finding the right place to stay can take some effort. But sometimes you can find a real gem.
One of our best finds has been Tanglewood Park in North Carolina. My sister, who lives in North Carolina, found it for us when we were planning our trip that include Old Salem and a professional bull riding event at the Jerome Davis Ranch. Tanglewood is less than a half hour away from Winston-Salem, and not much more than an hour from both the Davis Ranch and my sister’s house. Those were very acceptable travel distances for us.
We didn’t have much planned for most of the week — visiting Old Salem (see “Four Museums, One Great Vacation), visiting with my sister and heading to the bull-riding event at the end of the week — so Tanglewood ended up being perfect for us.
The park has a rich history, going back to the 1750’s. An 18-room Manor House was built in 1859 and it was expanded to 28 rooms in 1921 and the estate was enlarged to 1,100 acres when it was purchased by William Neal Reynolds, the brother of tobacco entrepreneur R.J. Reynolds. The property was willed to Forsyth County in 1951 and now serves as a county park with riding stables, a golf course, public swimming pool, bike trails, fishing and boating lakes and numerous gardens and other amenities.
The Manor House is now a 10-room bed and breakfast, with each room having its own bath. The nearby Guest House sleeps 7 and can be rented by the week, as can three cottages set along Mallard Lake. We opted for the less expensive, more secluded cottages when we stayed there. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was clean and comfortable, air conditioned (very important in North Carolina in the summer) and very reasonably priced.
Cottage makes these structures sound like small huts in the woods. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are sprawling 2-3 bedroom single-story houses with large, fully equipped, eat-in kitchens and huge living room/dining room combos with a fireplace, television, and lots of comfy couches and chairs.
It was wonderful. We lounged around, read, played card games and board games, went horseback riding and enjoyed watching other people riding the Aqua-cycles on the lake. We could have gone golfing (if we golfed) or mountain biking (if we biked). The swimming pool, which is well used by the county recreation program, was within walking distance, and the gardens were absolutely beautiful. The horses were well trained and the trail was well groomed, but mostly, we enjoyed the solitude. It was nice to vacation outside of the box.
For more information about Tanglewood, log onto http://www.co.forsyth.nc.us/tanglewood/.
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