The Daily Dot may receive a payment in connection with purchases of products or services featured in this article. Read our Ethics Policy to learn more.
Airbnb isn’t dead, but it’s certainly lost its luster as the go-to option for a quick relaxing getaway over the years. Fees are through the roof and a glut of investment properties means you’re often paying a premium for a boring drab space. Why spend hundreds to visit someone else’s house? If you’re truly looking to escape from your daily life, you might just need a Getaway.
Ready to find out more? Keep reading for our Getaway review.
What is Getaway?
Getaway is a change of pace from the traditional Airbnb or hotel vacation escape. Rather than a place to sleep on vacation, Getaway is the vacation, offering feature-packed tiny home cabins in the woods. It’s every comfort of home you could imagine, with none of the distractions of modern life.
Found in 2015 by two Harvard students, Getaway was designed as the ultimate vacation from modern life. You get the comforts of home without the connections that pull you out of the moment.
Tell me about Getaway’s cabins
Each cabin comes with heat and AC, power outlets, a kitchen to cook, a stunningly comfortable bed, and a giant picture window to enjoy the views of nature. Most importantly for soft city folk, there’s a bathroom complete with a hot shower.
What you don’t get is just as much a feature. There’s no TV and no wi-fi. Each cabin comes with a little box to put your phone in so you won’t be distracted during your stay. Everything that makes the great outdoors great, without forcing you to endure well the great outdoors.
Where can I rent a Getaway house?
Currently Getaway has over 19 locations around the United States, providing a perfect glamping experience from California to Tennessee and everywhere in between.
You can find them in Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio, Boston, Charlotte + Raleigh, Chicago, DC, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Machimoodus, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Eastern Catskills, Western Catskills, Pittsburgh-Cleveland, Portland, and Seattle.
With such beautifully designed cabins and the promise of a peaceful night’s sleep we simply had to see for ourselves if it was too good to be true. Thankfully the fine folks at Getaway were kind enough to let us review a cabin for the evening at the company’s Nashville location.
Getaway review: Our night with Getaway House
Part 1: Arrival
Upon arriving it’s immediately clear how far away your campground is from society. We stayed at the Nashville location, but the cabin was actually about an hour away in Celina, TN. This gave us the gift of being far away from Bachelorette parties or loud parties.
Our campground was at the back of an acres deep property, past dozens of other tiny cabins, spaced far enough apart to provide a private experience. When we pulled up we were greeted with a beautiful cabin, fire pit and chairs, picnic table, and box of fire supplies. We also discovered two bars of cell signal and 5G that only occasionally decided to work. Even without wi-fi, the remote location kept us disconnected.
What immediately struck me, even before walking inside the cabin, is the stillness. Nature has a soft and beautiful white noise that’s often hard to hear in the city. There’s simply too much ambient sound, and the hum of nature gets drowned out. As you stand in the stillness and breath the clean mountain hair, a sense of peace washes over you. If not checking your email was a physical sensation, it would be this feeling.
Part 2: Your home away from home
Stepping into your cabin is a little surreal if you’ve never been in a nice tiny house before. The beech-colored wood paneling creates a warm ambiance for your evening apartment. One side of the cabin is made up of a tiny little kitchen. You’ll discover everything you could need: a counter, sink, burner, fridge, and cooking supplies. In the cabinets, you’ll find basic—coffee, tea, s’mores supplies—that can be purchased for a small fee.
On the far end of the cabin in your bed, a gloriously soft queen-size mattress is next to a giant picture window. For science, we immediately curled up with a book and enjoyed the early evening golden hour pouring through the window. Don’t worry about privacy or needing a dark room to sleep in. There’s a blind you can pull down.
At the other end of the cabin is the bathroom. The worst part of camping is always the bathroom. You’re either stuck using an outhouse or a public restroom best. At worst you’re doing your business in the woods. Like a common bear. Getaway gives you your own private bathroom, complete with soft toilet paper, unlike the single-ply horrors of public campgrounds.
Across from the toilet is a frankly incredible shower. It’s wild to imagine this kind of shower pressure in a tiny house in the woods. Sure, you’ll run out of hot water faster than at home, but it’s a lovely luxury.
Part 3: Oh crap…we forgot supplies, and Getaway saved the day
Upon arrival, we realized we forgot to bring food. This is important to consider when plotting your trip. Getaway’s little kitchen is perfect for cooking a small dinner and the firepit can easily handle steaks if you bring them. While we found a wonderful meal in town (shout out to Dale Hollow 1 Stop BBQ), Getaway offers a food box with pasta, oatmeal, soup, and other goodies for $30.
Once settled in for the night we decided to build a campfire to enjoy some s’mores and the cool mountain air. Each campsite is equipped with a box containing everything you would need to make a fire, each for a small cost. This is somewhere Getaway would easily gouge campers, but the prices are incredibly reasonable.
A bundle of firewood was $8 and lasted us four three hours of campfire time. If you haven’t built a fire since scouts as a kid like myself, you can also get a simple firestarter for $2. Finally, the s’mores set up was $5. Frankly, this is a steal if you’ve ever tried to make s’mores for two people. S’mores are three separate purchases at a minimum, and your $5 includes two sticks for roasting.
A quick note about s’mores
If you want the best s’more experience after you make your cookie, place it on the included grill top. Roast your s’mores when given the opportunity. You’re welcome.
Part 4: Goodnight Getaway
After a relaxing evening of sugar and several beers, we finally called it an evening. Making sure to fully smother our fire, we retired for the night to our plush bed. We were blessed to schedule our visit during a full moon. The picture window and bed made for the most comfortable star gazing I’ve ever experienced the moon rose in the night sky.
Your campground is far from the city, providing you with a crystal clear view of the cosmos along with the gentle rustling of nature echoing through the woods. The moon illuminated the forest around us as we dozed off. Hours later we were woken by the warmth of the morning sun. Check-out was at 11 AM, the same as any other overnight lodging.
What makes Getaway different than renting an Airbnb or cabin?
As someone who grew up camping and got soft writing online, Getaway was a delight. You get the beauty of nature, from hiking trails to your own firepit and night sky far from city light pollution, but spare yourself the indignities. No sagging, leaking tents. No hard ground to sleep on. There’s a bathroom. Being out of cell phone range and still having a roof and a working toilet ruled.
Sure, you could rent a cabin and have a similar experience, but no you really can’t. Renting a cabin for one night can cost $500+ dollars before fees, which isn’t bad if you’re splitting the cost with multiple people. But for a couple, that is outside of most people’s price ranges.
Getaway cabins range from $99 to $439 per night depending on the location and time of year you’re trying to book. This is one of those times when living in a red state or away from a major city hub is going to help you. Booking a Getaway location in Los Angeles will cost you far more than the company’s offerings an hour away from Nashville.
When you consider a crappy Airbnb in Los Angeles can run you $200 a night after fees, Getaway feels downright reasonable. Especially if you get a cabin in one of its less expensive areas. Like all lodging, holidays and summers are going to have higher prices than the winter months.
Final verdict: Is Getaway worth your money?
We had such a great time without Getaway we’re actually looking forward to booking for ourselves this winter. Getaway is an incredible summer experience, but with its indoor heating and simple-to-build fire kits, it’s actually kind of ideal for people who enjoy a crisp evening outside.
Most importantly, my wife wanted to go back. As two adults who are constantly online working, Getaway offered us a night where personal connections were easy because of how disconnected the rest of the world was. You don’t realize how often you check Twitter or Instagram until you do it for the fourth time with no reception. By the end of the night, we weren’t even bothering to carry out phones around. Did you know you can do that?
Getaway offers a cozy and romantic glamping cabin experience that doesn’t gouge you for the small stuff you forget. In a world of $15 chips in minibars, you have to respect a company that just charges $5 for a s’mores kit.
If you feel the call of the wild beckoning you but are having a hard time selling your significant other on the great outdoors, Getaway is the perfect middle ground. All of the luxuries of a modern hotel, smack dab in the middle of nature’s bounty. We truly can’t wait for our next chance to get away.
Are you interested in escaping for your own private slice of heaven? Book your overnight stay or next weekend getaway with Getaway right now.
Best of all, you can use coupon code DAILYDOT to get $25 off your stay.