As I mentioned in my last blog, my husband and I packed up the car, grabbed a bag of road-trip snacks, downloaded a podcast and took to the road. We ventured 4.5 hours across our state for a long weekend at Nemacolin, a luxury resort in western Pennsylvania that seemingly rises out of the snow (at least for us, as we are in the throes of a Northeast winter) to delight all types of travelers with a long list of activities, eateries and fun. For those of you who are The Bachelor fans, you may recognize Nemacolin as the setting for Matt James’ quest for love this season.

A weekend away felt wonderful for a number of reasons: change of scenery, time spent in the great outdoors, the comfort of a luxury hotel bed, treating ourselves to a decadent room service breakfast, trying new things, a much-needed massage and a feeling of normalcy and travel I’d been desperately craving. With a long roster of options and onsite amenities, there’s actually something for everyone at Nemacolin, and you can feel the pride each staff member takes in their job, the resort and the owners.

I felt safe at the resort. Upon arrival, our temperatures were taken; there was mask compliance everywhere, even outdoors; and many additional measures, like regular staff COVID testing, that enhanced the feeling of safety and cleanliness.

We tried a little bit of everything, starting with clay shooting at the top-notch field club on a cold Friday morning. I’d never shot a gun before, so the entire experience was new to me, but I did manage to hit a few clay targets. After a yummy lunch, we took a “safari,” meeting the resort’s resident tigers, lions, bears and more. I told you this place offered a little bit of everything! We wrapped up our first day snow tubing and utilizing the resort’s new “magic carpet” to get back up the hill. We caught glimpses of staff trying out new snow bikes on the ski hills, which looked like an absolute blast, so we’ll add that to our list for next time, along with dog sledding, fully booked the weekend we visited.

The next day was for relaxation — we started in the spa, had some downtime to relax in the room and lobby bar and took part in a Pinot & Paint class, crafting snowy “masterpieces” while enjoying a glass of wine.

There’s more to come from our weekend away, but we’re already planning a return trip in the fall, eager for all the seasonal activities on offer then!

— Kim Krol Inlander, editor in chief