Fun and Educational Family Travel Tips

I didn’t get a whole lot of photos of the Duck and Speedboat tours, since I didn’t want to risk getting my camera wet, but here are a few.

In this one, you can kind of see what the Duck looks like in the background.  You will see these Ducks in town, too, as they will actually pick tourists up and take them to board a Duck ride if they are interested.

Here we are out on the water.  I guess my son is a tad bit cold!

Here is one of the rock formations.  When you get closer, you will see all of the nest that the birds have made inside and around the cave.

Here, you can see how soaked the kids got and you can also see one of the speedboats in the background.

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If you can’t get enough of the water, you might also want to take one of the speedboat tours at Wisconsin Dells.  We decided to go with the Dells Boat Tours option, mostly because that was the one that was available in the package deal I talked about earlier (when you pre-purchase tickets at the Kiosk). 

This trip was a whole lot of fun, though my family wasn’t too thrilled with the ride because you get very WET.  Since this was early June in Wisconsin, the water temperature was still pretty cold and the day wasn’t particularly hot either.  So, getting wet also meant getting cold.

Nonetheless, I had a great time on this trip and so did the rest of the family.  You do a number of 360 degree turns and the captain does a number of digs to make water fly up over you numerous times throughout the trip.

You can see some of the same formations you will see when you go on the Original Wisconsin Ducks tour.  What I liked about this was that the Ducks tour told silly stories about the formations, while this tour gave you the real information.  So, it was kind of neat hearing the tall tales as well as the real deal.

Before you head onto the boat, you will get a group photo taken.  When you get off the ride, you will have the option of purchasing a package that includes a keychain photo, a couple of 5×7’s, and a couple of wallet photos as well as a book for $20.  We were suckers and bought the thing.  The photos really were quite nice.

We also got to see several leatherback turtles lounging in the sun, birds building their mud nests, and a fisherman even caught a huge one right in front of us!  So, it was certainly a trip to remember.

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One of the most popular attractions at the Dells is the Ducks.  There are actually a few different companies that provide Duck tours.  Before going to the Dells, I had visited their websites and decided that I wanted to go on a trip with the Original Wisconsin Ducks.  I didn’t have any real good reason for that decision, I just liked what they seemed to have to offer. 

As it turns out, there are Kiosks in various areas at the Dells that will help you get package deals that will save you cash.  The first place we went after leaving the Kalahari was to the Tommy Barltlett Exploratory, which I will tell you more about later.  It so happens that one of these kiosks is located outside of the Exploratory so we were able to take advantage of the deals.  We already had a good idea of what we wanted to see, but I didn’t know about the kiosks with the package deals.  Look for it when you visit, as it can save you literally hundreds of dollars.

The Original Wisconsin Ducks happens to be the Duck provider that is a part of the package deal, so that worked out nicely for us.

The Ducks are definitely worth a ride.  We went early in the morning in early June, so it was a bit chilly.  The drivers are great - they are very friendly and the sidekick tour guide has a prepared dialogue that is quite amusing.  Be prepared to get wet, though, as they do take one big splash as they enter the water.

If you are unfamiliar with Ducks, these vehicles are capable of driving on water and on land.  For the first portion of the ride, you will go through a wooded area on land.  You will then go into the water, where the tour guide will tell you outlandish stories about the various rock formations.  You will return to land, and then back to water, and then back to land to finish the trip. 

All of the kids really enjoyed this one and so did we!

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