One of the largest and most visited lakes in the eastern United States, Lake Cumberland stretches 101 miles across the Kentucky state. While the lake might be home to the largest fleet of houseboats in the country, the best way to explore its 1,200 miles of shimmering coastline, wooded coves and rocky cliffs is by staying in a cabin rental. Thankfully, there are dozens to choose from too.
The shimmering shores of Lake Cumberland are popular with hikers, birders and wildlife watchers (Photo: Blue Athena via Flickr/ CC BY 2.0)
Millions of visitors flock to Lake Cumberland every year for fishing, birding, hiking, biking, and more. It’s one of the best places in the region for birdwatching, home to red-tailed hawks, coopers hawks and American kestrel, as well as nesting chimney swifts and flocks of turkey vultures. Unsurprisingly, the lake is a paradise for water sports enthusiasts too, with 100 open slips, rental fishing boats, pontoon boats and ski boats. If you’re travelling with pets, you can bring your dog on the trip too. Rather than opting for a hotel or a traditional B&B, travellers are increasingly choosing to spend the night in nature by booking a cabin. We’ve compared several popular travel sites offering cabin rentals and have selected the best based on the variety of cabins on offer, customer service, prices, location and reviews.
VRBO.COM
In the past few years, VRBO – or ‘Vacation Rentals By Owner – has grown to become one of the United States’ leading vacation rental platforms. Unlike other providers, VRBO only lists entire properties so you’ll never need to share your holiday with the host or other guests. Each property is given a rating out of five stars and you can also read reviews at the bottom of the page. You can filter properties by bedrooms, property type (cabins), house rules and amenities, such as hot tubs. You can also filter by price, though you’ll need to click through to the main listing page for the full breakdown of price and fees. Pricing is extremely reasonable when compared with similar properties in Lake Cumberland. For instance, we found an exceptional five-star rated six-person cabin rental with lake views for under $100 per property, per night.
BOOKING.COM
This global accommodation provider usually springs first to mind when looking for affordable hotel rooms, but the website also offers a wide range of properties, from B&Bs to treehouses. The site features an excellent range of privately-owned cabin rentals on or near Lake Cumberland, most with shimmering views of the lake. It’s trickier to navigate your search than the first entry on our list since there’s no option to filter property type by cabin, but you can eliminate hotels using the search tool in the sidebar. You can also set your budget per night. Most properties include a guest rating, though newly-added properties don’t offer this. If you’ve booked on the platform before and you have an account, you can also benefit from ‘Genius’ discounts too.
IT’S CABIN TIME
This Kentucky-based booking platform offers state-specific accommodation rentals. You can whittle down your search from the get-go by selecting ‘cabins’ from the drop-down list of accommodation types – and there are plenty to choose too. You can filter your options further by town (choose Mill Springs, Jamestown, Russell Springs or Burnside), nightly rates, weekly rates and the number of bedrooms. Once you’ve made your decision, you can connect, plan and book your trip directly with Kentucky vacation rental owners or local property managers. There are no third-party booking fees and you can guarantee rock-bottom rental rates too.
Book at RentKentuckyCabins.com