Group travel
Trekking the Superior Hiking Trail
You can backpack, day hike, stay in lodges or go with a group on Minnesota's premier path.
To a novice, Minnesota's Superior Hiking Trail presents a bewilderment of possibilities.
There are 277 miles of trail between Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth and the Canadian border. Some are in the city, some deep in forest. Many stretches include spectacular views of Lake Superior, but others (gasp!) are a little boring.
People come from all over the nation to hike this beloved trail, and some take three weeks and do the whole thing. But there are many ways to hike the trail.
Playground in the woods
At Deep Portage, adults take a tip from the kids.
As adults, we sometimes forget how great it is to be a kid.
People give you toys to play with. They show you new games and explain things in interesting ways. They feed you freshly baked cookies and s'mores.
Kids take it for granted. But I didn't one January, when I got to stay at Deep Portage Learning Center, in the woods north of Brainerd.
Cabins for a crowd
When groups travel, they divide costs and multiply benefits.
Contrary to common wisdom, the best deals in travel aren’t too good to be true.
The key is to travel with a group. Gather 20 people, and you can bring costs way, way down. How does $6.50 per night sound?
That's what I paid when I went to Whitewater State Park with my outdoors group, the Minnesota Rovers. It was late October,
but the bluff-country park still was covered by a quilt of color: russet, burgundy, bronze.
Join the club
When you travel with a group, you'll make friends and save money.
Collectively, no one knows more about traveling in the Upper Midwest than its outdoors clubs.
Club members organize dozens of excursions year-round — hiking, paddling, skiing — and they know all the best
places. Once, I thought I'd made a real discovery — High Point Village, an appealing little resort with 10 miles
of hiking and skiing loops around the foot of Timm's Hill, Wisconsin's highest point.
It turned out the Twin Cities-based North Stars Ski Touring Club already had found it and reserved it for one of their trips.
Follow the leader?
On a guided trip, drop a bundle or a bit — the choice is yours.
Want to save money on trips? Then, step away from the fancy catalog.
Glossy pages of snow-capped mountains and medieval castles are eye candy for travelers. But the prettier the brochure, the more eye-popping the prices.
Luxury excursions are like Jaguars and Jimmy Choo shoes. We covet them, we window-shop for them, but only a few of us can afford them.
Schools of know-how
In resort areas, many people go home from vacation with a new skill.
In hindsight, it's good to be grown up and out of school: no more tests, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.
But it's also good to be a grown-up who's back in school, because schools have grown up, too. There are no tests and few books, and teachers are as friendly and attentive as cruise-ship hosts.
In fact, attending some schools is a lot like being on vacation.
Hikes with benefits
For exercise as well as edification, tag along with an expert.
Out in the forest, solitude can be overrated.
Occasionally, we all need silence. But you may have more fun if you play follow the leader.
When I go on a hike, especially if I don't know the area well, I like to tag along with naturalists. Thanks to them, I've learned all kinds of interesting things.
Adventures in renting
Thanks to VRBO, a no-frills group lives beyond its means on a trip up north.
If you’ve always wanted a second home – or a third, or a fourth – now is the time to acquire one, at least for a weekend.
People who snapped up beach houses and country retreats during the real-estate boom now are renting them out, trying to pay the mortgage. But renting a vacation house straight from the owner was popular even before the bust: Why not see how the other half lives?
Browsing the pages of HomeAway and Vacation Rentals by Owner – VRBO, the biggest and best-known listing service – is like going on the Parade of Homes, except you get to stay in the house you like best.
Planning a family reunion
It's tough to please everyone, but the rewards are huge.
I applaud anyone who takes on the job of planning a family reunion.
When more than a few branches of a family are involved, planning a reunion requires the strategic skills of a general, the diplomacy of an envoy and the social agility of an emcee. In other words, plan carefully, because it's hard to make everyone happy.
First, find out what people really want. Are they expecting to spend most of their time reacquainting themselves with far-flung family members, or more time acquainting themselves with the golf course and swim-up bar?
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2012 all rights reserved
