Donnelly cabins for a late-October trip with ten

Two cabins in Donnelly sit in our portfolio, and only one of them has four bedrooms: White Fir Cabin, an A-frame that sleeps ten. The other, Fireside Lodge, has five bedrooms and sleeps twelve, and it sits inside Tamarack Resort with ski-in/ski-out access across the road. That's the shortlist. The rest of this page is about which one your group actually wants, and about the thing nobody tells you when you search "ski season" for the last week of October.

October 27 to November 1 is not ski season in Donnelly

It's the shoulder. Tamarack's lifts don't turn that early in any normal year, and the snow that falls on Valley County in late October tends to arrive, sit for a day, and go again. What you'll find instead is an empty valley, Lake Cascade still open and slate grey, larch turning gold along ID-55, and cabin rates that bear no resemblance to what the same weeks cost in January.

That's genuinely good news for your budget. A five-night stay over Halloween in a Donnelly cabin is a different financial proposition from a five-night stay in February, and the under-$2,500 target you've set is a far more realistic conversation about these dates than it would be over a holiday week. Rates move with the calendar and with how far out you're booking, so the number for your exact nights comes from our reservation team rather than from a page. But ask. The shoulder is where the room is.

If what you actually want is lifts spinning, you're looking at a different set of dates, and we'd rather tell you that now than after you've paid for a rental car. If what you want is a big house, a hot tub, and a valley with nobody in it, these are close to the best nights of the year for it.

White Fir Cabin: the four-bedroom you asked for

Four bedrooms, four bathrooms, sleeps ten. The structural detail that matters more than the bedroom count: one of those four bedrooms is a separate guest suite above the garage, with its own bathroom, a queen and two twins. For two families travelling together, or for grandparents who want a door between them and the teenagers, that suite changes the trip. Three bedrooms in the main cabin, two queens and a bathroom pair downstairs, a king with its own bathroom up top, and then the annexe for whoever benefits from the distance.

The cabin itself is the Idaho archetype done properly: soaring A-frame, wood interiors, a pellet stove, an open living space where ten people can genuinely be in one room without anyone perching on an arm. There's a fire pit in the back yard, a covered deck, and a private hot tub. Lake access, and Lake Cascade's shoreline runs for miles south and west of town, so late-October mornings down there are cold, still and almost entirely yours.

Two practical notes. The kitchen is set up for cooking for a crowd, which matters in a town this size on a weeknight in shoulder season. And White Fir keeps a crib and a high chair, so a family travelling with a baby doesn't have to rent or haul either. It's also a strict no-pet home, owner allergies, no exceptions, so if the dog was coming this isn't your house.

Fireside Lodge: one more bedroom, and the slopes across the road

Five bedrooms, four bathrooms, twelve guests, and a location tucked into the trees at Tamarack with long-range mountain views off the deck. Ski-in/ski-out access is directly across from the cabin, and the resort runs a complimentary shuttle once you're there, which is why this house empties its driveway on a powder morning while everyone else is scraping windscreens.

The bed plan is unusually strong for multi-family groups: a king primary suite upstairs with a spa-style ensuite, a second king with its own ensuite on the main level, a Euro king (side-by-side twins) with a full bath nearby, then a king and a queen down on the terrace level. Three levels, so groups naturally separate. The terrace floor is the one that earns its keep when the weather turns, with ping pong, arcade games, darts and a room built for a movie night. The garage has ski racks and boot warmers.

Outside, a covered wraparound deck with an outdoor fireplace and a grill, and a hot tub set back in the pines. Across the valley the Village at Tamarack has restaurants, a coffee shop, groceries and a spa. Seven Devils Taphouse is the quick one; The Reserve is the sit-down dinner.

The honest caveat for your search: this is five bedrooms, not four, and it's the more expensive of the two. If you're a group of eight chasing a budget, it's the wrong shape. If you're ten or twelve and splitting the cost, the per-family maths can flip the other way fast.

Which one, in plain terms

• Eight to ten people, budget is the binding constraint, you want cabin nights and a fire pit: White Fir Cabin.
• Travelling with a baby: White Fir Cabin, for the crib and high chair already in the house.
• Ten to twelve, two or three families, and you want to be inside the resort: Fireside Lodge.
• You want walk-out access to lifts when they do open: Fireside Lodge. White Fir is near Tamarack, not on it, so you'll drive.
• Weather turns and you have kids who need somewhere to burn energy indoors: Fireside Lodge's terrace level.

Neither home takes pets. Both have hot tubs, which is the amenity that actually gets used on a thirty-degree night in late October, whether or not anyone skied.

What Donnelly gives you that week

Donnelly is small. Main Street is the town, and it carries more cooking than a place this size should. Ragazza Di Bufalo does elevated Italian: slow-braised short rib, lobster linguine, shellfish manicotti. Casa Rossa pours wine and serves tapas out of a hundred-year-old red schoolhouse. Cougar Dave's is the family dinner, Growler's makes its dough and focaccia fresh, and Flight of Fancy is a scratch bakery and espresso bar where the huckleberry things are worth getting to early. The Roost is on Main as well.

Outside, the Crown Point Trail runs about two and a half miles alongside Lake Cascade from the Crown Point Campground, an old rail bed with almost no climbing. In late October it's a walk; later it's for snowshoes and cross-country skis. Hazard Lakes is a four-mile round trip up to a cluster of alpine lakes, dirt and rock, gentle gradient, though conditions up high in the last days of October are a coin toss.

McCall is thirteen miles north on ID-55, which puts Ponderosa State Park and the Payette Lake shoreline within easy reach, and Brundage Mountain eight miles beyond McCall. Cascade sits sixteen miles south. From Boise it's a little over two hours up ID-55 through the Payette River canyon, a beautiful drive with real curves. Fill up in Cascade or McCall: there's nothing in the canyon stretch.

Booking it

Tell us the exact dates, your head count, and your ceiling, and we'll come back with the real number for both cabins including taxes and fees, not a teaser rate. Booking direct with MVP Vacation Homes means no platform fees in the middle, and we can arrange grocery delivery, ski rentals or a car before you arrive. Guest support runs around the clock, which matters more in Donnelly in shoulder season than it does in a city.

Both homes require a signed rental agreement, and both carry a non-refundable cancellation fee, so ask us to walk you through the terms before you commit.