Last weekend our family was invited to spend a few days in the gorgeous town of Cashiers in Jackson County, North Carolina! The timing couldn’t have worked out better because we had an extra long weekend (thanks to a teacher work day!) which was perfect for a family mountain weekend getaway.
Matt and I have visited Cashiers a few times with friends before we had kids so we were really excited to bring Thomas and Caroline with us for a fun family weekend getaway in the mountains.
Saturday
Cashiers is about a 3 hour drive from Charlotte and we arrived to town on Saturday just in time for a delicious BBQ lunch at Cashiers Valley Smokehouse before checking in to our hotel for the weekend.
We stayed at The Wells Hotel Cashiers which couldn’t have been in a better location. This newly renovated quaint mountain lodge is located right in the heart of Cashiers, within walking distance to shops and restaurants. We stayed in the Log Suite which worked out perfect for our family. The 750 sq ft suite features two bedrooms (both with king size beds), a living room and a full kitchen. As soon as we arrived the kids called dibs on the upstairs bedroom and settled in while we unpacked.
Once we were all unpacked we were ready for our first hiking adventure of the weekend! We hiked Silver Run Falls which was great for the kids because it was only .25 miles from the parking lot to a gorgeous waterfall.
After the hike we returned to the hotel where we took a short path from our log suite to Whiteside Brewing Company. It was SO nice to have this fun local brewery right on property. It was the perfect place to relax at the end of the day. The brewery has a huge outdoor space where the kids ran around, a large selection of local and house-brewed beers, delicious food and yoohoo! The kids were mind blown over their first “fancy chocolate milk” as Thomas called it.
After a few snacks and yoohoos, we headed back to our suite for showers, pajamas and pizzas from Slab Town Pizza!
Sunday
Sunday morning we were up early and ready for breakfast. I normally don’t sleep super great when we stay in hotels but the beds and the luxury bedding were incredible and all of us slept really well.
For breakfast, we went to Zookeeper Bistro which was sooooo good.
Once we were all fueled up, we hiked Whiteside Mountain, one of the oldest mountains in the world and the highest vertical cliffs in the eastern United States—about 1,800 feet! This hike brought back so many memories from previous hikes (several with my college bestie, and Matt and I hiked this trail with Charlie before kids)!
The two-mile loop was easy for the kids and there were so many icicles along the way to the top!
Once we were thawed out from the hike, we headed to The Ugly Dog Pub for a delicious lunch of tacos, burgers, salad and margaritas!
After lunch we relaxed back at the hotel for a few hours before walking over to Whiteside Brewing Company (again)! The kids had so much fun at the brewery the day before that they begged to go back for another round of yoohoos and dinner. We were all pretty tired so we ended up grabbing our dinner to go and ate it back at the hotel while we watched Three Amigos.
Monday
Sunday morning we packed up, grabbed coffee and a light breakfast from Bucks Coffee Cafe and headed back home!
On the drive back to Charlotte, I asked everyone what their favorite part of the weekend was. Matt loved the Silver Run Falls hike the most, Caroline liked playing games and drinking yoohoos at Whiteside Brewing and Thomas shocked us all with his favorite being the Whiteside Mountain hike (which was my favorite part of the weekend too)!
And that was a wrap on a fun weekend in Cashiers! Do you have any family mountain weekend getaway ideas planned? Let me know in the comments below…
A huge thank you to Jackson County Tourism Development Authority for partnering with my family on this trip! All reviews are my own.
Kristin Ayers
Tuesday 29th of March 2022
All of that food! I've never heard of Cashiers, so thanks for introducing me to a new place. We live in West Virginia and could definitely make a long weekend out of it too. Looks like a blast.