Fun and Educational Family Travel Tips

Here are some photos from my stay at the Kalahari while at Wisconsin Dells.

This is a view of the outdoor water park from the balcony of our room.  This one shows the pools and gives you an idea of what the resort looks like.

Here, you can get a better idea of what the slides look like at the outdoor park.

 An elephant is the symbol of the Kalahari resort.  Just outside of the outdoor waterpark is a statue of one that makes for a nice photo opp.

 My digital doesn’t take the best of photos when indoors, but here is a shot of the indoor play area that the twins spent most of there time at.  One of them is playing peek-a-boo in this one!

One neat feature of the waterpark is the boogie-board simulator.  Check out the look on my son’s face!  (He was the only one brave enough to give it a try!).

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Although my recommendation would be to stay somewhere other than the Kalahari in order to save some cash and get the most bang for your buck, the resort is very nice.  The room we stayed in was quite spacious and safety procedures are quite impressive.  We had to use a card in order to access our hall, to use the elevator in or wing, and to access our room. 

If you do stay at the Kalahari when you visit Wisconsin Dells, one tip:  you might need to put your key in a reader right inside of your door in order to activate the lights throughout the room.  We really felt like fools not knowing how to turn our lights on!  Also, if you have young ones that cannot swim, life jackets are available for rent at the resort.  To me, they should be given for free because I consider it to be a safety issue.

The staff at the Kalahari was very friendly and helpful.  If you will be using the waterpark, however, you will need to stop at the kiosk to get a bracelet if you are resort guest.  This kiosk is located a bit away from the entrance, so don’t get drawn in by the entrance and think you will be able to get in that way, as you will just be sent back to the kiosk. 

One thing that slightly bothered me was that, after being done with the waterpark from the time being, I had asked the employee if we could remove the bracelets and get new ones later if we decided to return and she said they preferred we kept them on and that “everyone in Wisconsin Dells has bracelets on anyway.”  I would have preferred being told I could remove the bracelets if we liked.  With as much as the place costs, I am sure they could withstand the cost and inconvenience of supplying my family with new bracelets if we needed them later.  My kids, particularly the twins, were not too thrilled about wearing them in the first place.

So, if you have money to spend and if you will make good use of the waterpark, you might want to stay at the Kalahari.  You could truly spend your entire vacation there because of the restaurants and activities available.  If you are going to check out the other sites the Dells has to offer, however, you might want to just go somewhere else.

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The most recent family vacation that my family and I went on was a trip to Wisconsin Dells.  After having already gone to Disney World earlier this year, we decided to go on a sort of mini-trip to a location that was nearby (unfortunately, my husband doesn’t get much vacation time and I am always using it up with vacations!).  So, since we reside in Indiana, a trip to Wisconsin Dells was only about 5 or 6 hours away.

I had never been to the Dells before and I really didn’t expect much from it.  In fact, I kind of thought that it would be pretty lame - especially after having gone to Disney.  But, we really did enjoy our time there.

Wisconsin Dells is known for its many waterparks.  After having watched a travel channel special and finding that two of its water parks were listed as the top ten in the nation, Noahs Ark and the Kalahari resort, I decided to book a stay at the Kalahari.  The Kahlahari has both an indoor and outdoor water park.  Since we went in early June, it was actually a bit cold to enjoy the outdoor water park.  The indoor water park was a whole lot of fun, though, and there were some great play areas that my five-year-old twins could enjoy without concern for their safety.

Althouogh the rooms at the Kalahari were really nice and the water park was great, my family and I likely won’t stay there again.  The luxury of staying at a resort with a waterpark is quite costly and turned out not to be worth it for us because we only spent time there on two days of our trip - and, the second day was really more because we wanted to feel like we were getting our money’s worth.  If you are planning a trip to the Dells, it might be better to simply plan a stay at a less expensive hotel and save your money for visiting the many sites the Dells has to offer. 

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One of the great hidden joys of blogging about travel is the friends that you can uncover.

Today, I received an email from a fellow travel blogger who said he happened to “stumble” across my blog.  To hear from my readers and to learn that they are getting something valuable from my blog is certainly satisfying.

My new friend also offers helpful information for travelin parents.  His latest entry attempts to dismiss some of the most common myths that parents harbor regarding travel, such as safety fears and concerns about taking a child out of school.  Check his blog out at Go Budget Travel.

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If you want to climb to the highest point in the Smokies, you need to visit the Smokies.  Be careful, though, if you come too early in the season, the road will still be closed for snow.  We went in late March the first time and were unable to visit, but it was open when we went back in June.

The climb up the domb is quite high, as you can see in this picture.

Once you make it to the top, the view is magnificent!  The view quality has a lot to do with how clear the day is - and the Smokies didn’t get their name for no reason.  So, don’t expect to be able to see clearly for miles and miles.  Nonetheless, it is fabulous!

 I guess I have shared enough photos of my boys that it is only fair that I include one with me in it….as you can see, I am not the most physically fit of people and I made it on all of these trails and up Clingman’s Domb, so you can too!

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When you take a drive down Roaring Fork Motor Trail in Gatlinburg, you will have the opportunity to walk the trail to Grotto Falls.  It really isn’t too bad of a trail - though this is the one that I had to carry one twin the whole way up the mountain and down while my husband carried the other!

It was well worth it, though, as you can see.  This is my oldest boy, Jacob, standing beneath the falls.

There was also a very beautiful little creek flowing along the majorty of the trail.  Several small falls fell along the way.  Here is one photo of the creek.

Here’s the two oldest boys standing way up high on some rocks in front of the falls.

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Of course, Gatlinburg isn’t all about museums and tourist activities.  You can enjoy some of the beauty of nature here as well, particularly at Roaring Fork.  We found this drive to be just as beautiful, if not more so, than what you see at Cades Cove but with far less tourists.

Here’s a water mill you can see along the way.

Here is one of the mountain views we saw along the way.  There are a number of places to pull off and take in the sites.

Here’s another mountain view - I guess the thin mountain air brought out the love and affection in the two oldest boys!

There are several small waterfalls that you can enjoy as you drive and pull off to check out more closely.  This is just one of them.

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When  you visit Gatlinburg, you might decide to stop at the Guiness World Records Museum where you can compare yourself to the record holders.  Here, my husband and boys fit themselves inside the belt of the world’s fattest man.

Here, the two oldest boys compare themselves to the world’s tallest man and the world’s shortest woman.

 Two of my boys try their talents on this large piano and make beautiful music (ok, maybe it wasn’t THAT beautiful) at Ripley’s Museum.

Here, my oldest son ponders what has happened to his head at Ripley’s Museum.

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Here are a few of the natural sites you will get to enjoy while at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Here is one of Cades Cove.

Cades Cove is found in Townsend, Tennessee.  Just outside of Townsend is an access point to the Foothills Parkway.  Here is one of the views you can see along the way.

You can also check out Tuckaleechee Caverns while in Townsend.  Here, you can enjoy a number of different cavern formations.  Taking pictures in the cavern without special equipment is pretty tough, but I kind of like the way this photo of a waterfall inside the caverns came out.

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I really think that cabins are the way to go when it comes to family travel.  It gives you lots of room to spread out while maintaining your privacy.  In addition, you can save money by cooking a meal or two rather than eating out all of the time.  Most of all, when on a vacation to a natural setting, it allows you to enjoy the beauty of nature while still having the comforts of home.  Here are some photos of the cabin where we stayed on our second stay at the Smokies.

Here is a front view of the cabin.  As you can see, this particular one was named “Autumnwood.”

 Here’s the hot tub.  Many of the cabins at the Smokies have extra little luxuries such as hot tubs.  This one was accessed by going out the front door and walking across the balcony (which offered amazing views) and walking into a screened in room.  The grill and other outdoor items were outside of that area.

The cabin itself didn’t have a pool, but we had access to the pool located at the main office from the cabin rental facility.  Here are the two older boys playing in the water mushroom that was just outside of the main pool.

Here is the actual pool.

Notice the gorgeous mountains in the background!

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