Our family was really looking forward to staying at a working farm in a cozy cabin with our kids.
On the positive side, the cabin is authentic and spacious for a family. It has two bedrooms, a living room, and a nice size kitchen. There are cows, llamas, sheep, lambs, turkeys, ducks, chickens, pigs, peacocks, and other animals to see. The cabin also came with a few toys and many childrens' books. The view from the cabin itself is beautiful, simply farm and the mountains. We also sampled the farm's fresh milk and eggs. In Winchester proper, we toured the excellent Discovery Museum in the historic district, which the kids adored, and frequented the Jim Barnett Park three times, which had a great assortment of climbing equipment.
On the not so positive side, the farm is adjacent to an industrial park, about 1/2 a mile away from FederalExpress, Ford Motor Parts, and General Electric, so the drive there is not scenic at all. The cabin had a few too many cobwebs and flies for my liking. I understand that it's right on a farm so maybe this is just unavoidable. Eating meals with many flies is kind of a bummer though. Also, the drawers, dishes, and silveware were not terribly clean. I washed everything that my family ate with while we were there. I was told that we would have breakfast in our refrigerator upon checking in: bread, milk, butter, sausages/bacon, cream, eggs, and sugar. In my mind, I thought this would all be fresh. Instead, everything but the eggs and milk were store bought. So a package of white english muffins, a package of bacon, Domino sugar, store bought cream, and no butter. Granted the eggs and milk were very good. When we went down to the farm at 7:00 am the next morning for the milking of the cows, I asked what other activities the kids might enjoy. I was thinking that the kids could collect the chickens' eggs, help feed the sheep or goats, or go for a hayride. We were told they could come back at 5:00 pm to see the cows milked again. So, you are somewhat left on your own. Thankfully one of the farm employees, once prompted, was very helpful and did let us do all the things we were hoping minus the hayride, fall season only.
Winchester is fairly limited in activities for kids. The museum and park are great options and there was an animal exhibit nearby as well. Next to those options was Dinosuar Land in nearby White Post, but you'd really need to do some research on your own to map out activities for a family.
I'd probably recommend this for a couple rather than a family with kids, or maybe as a place to visit during the day to see all the animals, but the area seems more conducive to adults than families.
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