Select Traveler January February 2022

THE MAGAZINE FOR BANK, ALUMNI AND CHAMBER TRAVEL PLANNERS

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DON’T MISS MEDORA | AUTHENTIC INDIANA | MOUNTAINTOP EXPERIENCES

ICELAND is as

COOL as it gets JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Explore

mo’ Jo! H istoric Mis souri Theater

ture Center

Na Remington

Whiskey Mansion Bed and Breakfast

Walter Cron

kite Memoria

l

St. Joseph, MO is home to 13 distinctive museums, 12 annual festivals, amazing architecture listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and personalized itineraries custom made with home-town hospitality. Also enjoy goodie bags for groups and a personal welcome from a St. Joseph representative.

JUST AROUND THE CORNER Located at the crossroads of Interstate 29 and MO Highway 36 and only 30 minutes from North Kansas City puts St. Joseph within easy driving distance of over 17 metropolitan areas. StJoMo.com or 800-785-0360 for information.

THE MAGAZINE FOR BANK, ALUMNI AND CHAMBER TRAVEL PLANNERS

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VOL.30 NO.1

JAN/FEB 2022

ADVENTURES IN

ICELAND

By Mac Lacy

contents planners

TALK BACK

checking in:

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JANET JOHNSON

toolbox: conference going places:

TECH UPGRADES

PREVIEW

8 10 12

MAC T. LACY CHARLES A. PRESLEY BRIAN JEWELL HERBERT SPARROW DONIA SIMMONS ASHLEY RICKS CHRISTINE CLOUGH RENA BAER KELLY TYNER KYLE ANDERSON SARAH SECHRIST

ON THE COVER: Seljalandsfoss waterfall is a popular wedding site in southern Iceland. Photo by Sebastian Wasek.

TRAVEL WITH FRIENDS

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KYLE ANDERSON

888.253.0455

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING SALES

K YLE@ GROUPTR AVELLE ADER.COM

Founder and Publisher Partner VP & Executive Editor Senior Writer Creative Director Graphic Designer/Circulation Manager Copy Editor Proofreader VP, Sales and Marketing Director of Advertising Sales Controller

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26 Indiana 30 Columbus FAV O R I T E S

W H AT ’ S N E W I N

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TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S

Medora

Select Traveler, the Magazine for Bank, Alumni and Chamber Travel Planners, is published bimonthly by The Group Travel Leader, Inc., 301 East High Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40507 and is distributed free of charge to qualified travel program directors throughout the United States. All other travel suppliers, including tour operators, destinations, attractions, transportation companies, hotels, restaurants and other travel-related companies, may subscribe to Select Traveler by sending a check for $49 for one year to: Select Traveler, Circulation Department, 301 East High Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40507. Copyright The Group Travel Leader, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of editorial or graphic content in any manner without the written consent of the publisher is prohibited.

NAME OR ADDRESS CHANGES: If your copy of Select Traveler should be mailed to another manager in your organization, or if you personally know another travel director who is not receiving Select Traveler, please send your correction to: Select Traveler, 301 East High St., Lexington, Kentucky 40507, or call (859) 253-0455.

APPLY TODAY FOR THE FAMS YOU’D LIKE TO ATTEND!

Are you looking for new ideas in your old favorites or a new destination for your group to enjoy? Register for one of our 2022 FAMs to learn about these great destinations from the local experts.

These FAMs are open to tour operators and group leaders with active travel clubs.

Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from the destination. All other expenses including hotel accommodations, meals and admissions will be covered by our CVB hosts.

WITH THE GROUP TRAVEL LEADER

COASTAL MISSISSIPPI APRIL 10-13 Join us in Coastal Mississippi April 10-13, 2022, where you’ll get to tour Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and other seaside towns in the Coastal Mississippi Region. Registration closes February 18 so go to www.grouptravelleader.com/COASTAL-MS-FAM to register for the chance to attend this FAM and learn more about our region.

MYRTLE BEACH MAY 1-4 Join us in Myrtle Beach May 1-4, 2022, where you’ll get to explore our beautiful beach, see a live show at one of our theaters and tour popular attractions. Registration closes March 7 so go to www.grouptravelleader.com/MBFAM to register for the chance to attend this FAM and learn more about our city.

GROUP THE

TRAVEL LEADER

If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Tyner at:

888-253-0455 KELLY@GROUPTRAVELLEADER.COM

perspective P U B L I S H E R ’ S

G

uy Grosgebauer speaks for 63-year-old men everywhere when they brave their first group tour. As a recent retiree from the defense industry, this Texan, who also keeps a home near Denver, came with his wife, Karen, on his first group tour with Collette to Iceland in November. We became friends and I wanted his impressions of his maiden tour.

“I’m pretty active, and my biggest fear was waiting on people everywhere we went,”

he said. “We really didn’t know what to expect, so we came in a day early to get acclimated. That was a good thing because the pace of this trip was filled all the time.”

Grosgebauer traveled internationally in his career. He had meetings in nearby Norway numerous times. He is someone who knows his way around airports and Ubers, so it was reasonable to wonder how he would like group travel.

“Our tour manager did a nice job, and I have been impressed with how much we’ve seen in a short time,” he said. “I would recommend this trip without hesitation to my friends back home.”

John and Robin Vinson are avid travelers who lived for years in Hawaii because of their work and make their home now in Mystic, Connecticut. John was the “unofficial” photographer in our group, and he photographed the northern lights by staying up for hours at night checking for them.

“We came to see the northern lights, but the sky itself is remarkable,” he said. “The stars at night are beautiful by themselves.”

“The beauty here is raw,” said Robin. “In that way, it’s much like Hawaii.”

I often find that my fellow travelers say things better than I can. Those of you who plan travel know exactly what I mean.

Email me anytime with your thoughts at maclacy@grouptravelleader.com.

Mac Lacy 6

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P L A N N E R S

T A L K

B A C K

what’s something you do to entertain passengers on the motorcoach?

MICHELLE DEFORD

TRIPPIN WITH MICHELLE SPENCER, INDIANA We play funny games, play bingo, tell stories and award a funny hat to wear for the last to arrive on the bus at each stop.

PEGGY FULLER

CPB 55+ TRAVEL CLUB LOUISIANA When the guide is not narrating, we watch movies, play bingo and more.

RICHARD NOLA

ST. MARGARET’S SENIOR TRAVEL CLUB BUFFALO, NEW YORK On the bus, I tell jokes, sing, play videos, play bingo and feed them.

You have to know how to space activities out and give them some quiet time.

DENIS JONES

SCTRAVELONLINE.COM COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA We watch movies on our bus trips.

JANET JOHNSON

NATIONAL EXCHANGE BANK AND TRUST FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN On each motorcoach tour, we do a Banking Moment, where I talk for a few moments on one bank product: scams, mobile banking, bank products/ checking, CDs, etc. Questions are asked and answered. It has become quite popular, with travelers asking, “When we do get to hear your Banking Moment?” We also play NEBAT, which is just like bingo, only they must call NEBAT — National Exchange Bank and Trust — instead of bingo.

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JANET JOHNSON PROGRAM & EVENTS MANAGER

NATIONAL EXCHANGE

checking in W I T H

J A N E T

J O H N S O N

BANK AND TRUST FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN

Janet Johnson travels with her husband Frank to destinations around the world.

National Exchange Bank and Trust is a locally owned and independent bank and has been a pillar of stability in the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, community since 1933. Today, the company has 32 offices in southeastern Wisconsin.

National Exchange Bank and Trust has offered the Golden Years Club for its customers for 35 years. One of the benefits of the Golden Years Club is group travel.

Born: Between Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin Employment: Has worked in the banking industry for 48 years. She has enjoyed growing with the bank’s Golden Years Club, which just celebrated its 35th anniversary last November.

Family: Married to Frank for 47 years; three children and eight grandchildren Hobbies: Cheering on her grandkids at sporting events, spending time in the backyard and cooking

BY ASHLEY TAYLOR

J

anet Johnson didn’t grow up with many travel opportunities. Living on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin town between Milwaukee and Green Bay didn’t offer much travel.

But in adulthood, she has made up for her lack of travel as a child. She leads the Golden Years Club at National Ex

change Bank and Trust, which offers about 28 tours a year.

“We offer one-day tours, several local overnight three to four days, several fly destinations, and one or two international tours,” Johnson said. “I am so thrilled to be part of this program. Who would have ever thought I would be traveling to these awesome destinations?”

Being from a small town in Wisconsin, Johnson has great respect for National Exchange Bank and Trust and its Golden Years Club.

“So many of our travelers would never have had the opportunity

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to experience travel if not for the opportunities that National Exchange Bank and Trust provides to our customers,” she said.

WOR K I NG HE R WAY UP

Johnson began working for National Exchange Bank and Trust right out of high school. She planned to work the summer before heading off to college. However, she ended up staying and learning the banking industry. She has worked in several departments and has been a part of the banking world for 48 years. Her recent work with the Golden Years Club has proved to be a highlight of her career.

“I have worked in various departments and watched our bank grow from one office to 32 offices,” she said. “I have been part of the bank for 48 years, working full time for a few years before taking off

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a little time to start my family. I worked in marketing part time and grew with our senior program, returning to work full time.”

JUMPIN G TH R O U G H H O O P S

Johnson recently took her group on a river cruise on the Rhine and Moselle rivers in Europe. Her customers were the only passengers on board.

“How awesome is it to sail with only your group on a cruise ship?” she said. “After being canceled three times, our travelers were anxious to hit the road or, should I say, rivers.”

International travel is a little more difficult these days, but Johnson explained the details of her group’s recent experience.

“Preparation for our cruise took a little time — or maybe a lot of time,” she said. “Forms to enter each of the five countries we were visiting had to be filled out ahead of time on our cell phones, and hard copies needed to be in hand for each traveler. Thanks to our travel vendor, Cruise and Tours Worldwide; their assistance made this process easy. The forms included pertinent info on COVID vaccines and health information. Group COVID testing was on Sunday, with our departure from Chicago on Monday evening.”

“Now definitely is the time to travel. We felt very safe and comfortable in all our visits.”

Travel is undoubtedly different now, but safe travel is still possible with extra care and precautions. Johnson isn’t ready to give up. She is a planner and planning 2023 and 2024 now. And she has no plans for retirement.

D E S T I N AT I O N

1. Mexico — “We try to vacation there one to two times a winter.”

2. Minocqua, Wisconsin — “It is so relaxing up north in Wisconsin.”

3. Home in my backyard — “When we are at home, we enjoy our beautiful backyard with a koi pond and several wildflower gardens.”

“SO MANY OF OUR TRAVELERS WOULD NEVER HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE TRAVEL IF NOT FOR THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT NATIONAL EXCHANGE BANK AND TRUST PROVIDES TO OUR CUSTOMERS.”

A N U N FO RGE T TA B L E E XP ERIEN CE

Johnson was unsure at first about taking her group on a cruise with no other customers. She worried she and others would not get to meet new travelers. However, she found the trip to be unforgettable.

“We arrived in Amsterdam on Tuesday and proceeded to our cruise ship, the Ama Prima,” she said. “To our surprise, our group of 21 travelers were the only passengers aboard this sailing, besides the 42 crew members. At first, I was a little disappointed not to be able to meet new travelers, but in the end, it was a great way to get to know my travelers, and the crew added so much to our experience.

“We traveled to Cologne, Rudesheim Mainz, Lahnstein, Cochem, Traben-Trarbach, and motorcoached to Paris. This experience will never be forgotten. Traveling during this time with smaller groups gave us the personal touch and many inside, behind-the-scenes opportunities.

One of the many highlights was our tour of the Eiffel Tower. Before COVID hit, the line to get in the gates was very long. But on this trip, we just walked in, and the tour began.

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1 8 5 4

faves

L E A V E N W O R T H

U S A

Experience "The First City of Kansas"

Make

HISTORY

With your next Group Tour!

Explore our history at the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum, the Buffalo Soldier Monument on Fort Leavenworth, tour the Carroll Mansion, and stroll our 28-block historic downtown shopping district and so much more...

call (913) 758-2948 or

VisitLeavenworthKS.com

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T R A V E L

T O O L B O X

your program can be both high tech and high touch

BY B RIA N JE W E LL

A

re you due for a technology upgrade?

Although the digital revolution has been under way for two decades, it has accelerated dramatically over the last two years as people have integrated virtual tools into every element of their professional and social lives. So as your travel club returns to activity in earnest in 2022, it’s worth considering whether your old ways of doing business could benefit from a digital makeover.

Travel will always be personal, but employing smart tech tools can help you make planning, booking and executing trips easier and more enjoyable for both you and your customers. Here are five popular technology developments that could represent areas of opportunity for your travel program.

O N LI N E R E GI ST R AT I O N AN D PAY MEN T When you run a trip in partnership with a tour operator, there’s a good chance the tour company takes care of registration and payment on its website. But what about trips you put together yourself? You should offer your customers the same convenience of an online registration and payment experience. Your organization may already have the necessary web technology. If not, you can set up simple registration and payment processing websites with platforms such as Wix, Squarespace, WooCommerce and Shopify.

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ST R AT E GI C E M AI L M A R K ETI N G You probably have an email list for your travel club and send periodic e-newsletters letting your members know about upcoming trips. But are you making the most of its potential? Blast email services such as MailChimp and Constant Contact allow you to see who’s opened the emails you’ve sent and even generate a list of who’s clicked what links, so you can follow up with members that have taken a closer look at certain messages you’ve sent. You can also set up automated email campaigns that send birthday greetings to existing members or a series of onboarding messages when someone new joins your list.

WO R K FLO W AUT O M AT I O N How much time do you spend copying information from one place and pasting it into another? For most of us, it’s too much time. Instead of manually compiling the names and contact info of people who sign up for a trip, for instance, try taking advantage of workflow automation tools that do the work for you. One of the most popular is Zapier, a web-based software that can create powerful connections between your website forms, CRM system, email provider, website, social media and almost any other digital system you can think of. You set up actions that take place automatically, saving you time and busywork.

CR M U TI L I Z ATI ON There’s a good chance your organization uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system such as Salesforce or HubSpot to keep track of client details and interactions. But are you making the most of that system? Have you built CRM groups, categories, tags or events specifically for your travel club?

Do you make notes in the system about who has attended your events, opened your emails or joined you on a tour? When a qualifying lead is added to your organization’s CRM, do they automatically join your travel email list? Taking advantage of these systems can help you sell more

DIGI TAL I T I N E R AR I E S

effectively and make customers happier.

You probably send travelers a printed itinerary in their final documents package before a trip begins. And although that’s great to have, it’s inconvenient to carry during a tour. To supplement your paper itineraries, then, offer people a digital version they can carry on their phones. The simplest way to do this is to email a PDF of the final itinerary the day before a trip. For a more robust digital itinerary tool, consider using an app like Travefy, which allows you to build easy-to-navigate digital itineraries that travelers can access on their phones. It also gives you group messaging and photo sharing during the trip.

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C O N F E R E N C E

connection Delegates can see a historic “Big Boy” steam engine and enjoy authentic Western culture at the Select Traveler Conference in Cheyenne.

GLOBAL TRAVEL AWAITS AT SELECT TRAVELER CONFERENCE

BY DAN DICKSON

T

ravel planners can immerse themselves in a wealth of new trip ideas at the Select Traveler Conference, which will take place this year in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Scheduled for March 28-30, Select Traveler will be held at Cheyenne’s historic Little America Hotel and Resort. The conference features planners who represent travel clubs at banks, chambers of commerce and alumni groups from colleges and other organizations. Representatives from qualified travel destinations such as cities, states, regions, attractions, and hotel and resort properties meet with the travel planners to help them put together trips for their groups.

The conference will feature two valuable marketplace sessions with 50 appointment slots available for each travel club director. Planners will sit down with destination providers for quick six-minute chats, sort of “get-to-know-you” meetings, and

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All photos courtesy Visit Cheyenne

the two sides will exchange information to see if they might like to do business together. The parties can meet informally again later during the conference if they would like to pursue a deal, and follow-ups after the conference are always smart.

GLAD TO SEE YOU

Cheyenne, the capital city of Wyoming, with a population of 63,000, is pleased to have this group of travel planners coming to town.

“We always love to pull out the stops and put on a show for conference attendees,” said Jim Walter, who is VP for Visit Cheyenne, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. “The leisure market is more important than ever for us. Free, independent travelers, groups and families have carried us through the pandemic. We look forward to growing that market.”

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Exploring downtown during Cheyenne Frontier Days

Cheyenne Street Railway Trolley

Song and dance at a Cheyenne restaurant

“THE LEISURE MARKET IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER FOR US. FREE, INDEPENDENT TRAVELERS, GROUPS AND FAMILIES HAVE CARRIED US THROUGH THE PANDEMIC. WE LOOK FORWARD TO GROWING THAT MARKET.” — JIM WALTER, VISIT CHEYENNE

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Walter believes that if he can convince travel planners to see and experience Cheyenne for themselves, they will be sufficiently impressed and want to bring their groups back there.

“If they can see the renaissance that Cheyenne is experiencing, that will make it so much easier for them to become an ambassador and to bring people back to visit us,” he said.

“We love hosting planners of all sorts and showing them what a dynamic place to visit Cheyenne is.”

To make travel as easy as possible, the conference will offer shuttle service from Denver International Airport, 105 miles south of Cheyenne. Delegates are urged to be on the lookout for further details on this service from conference organizers at Group Travel Family. In addition, some travelers may find it easier to fly directly into Cheyenne Regional Airport, which has a couple of daily flights to and from Denver through United Airlines.

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C O N F E R E N C E

connection CONFERENCE AGENDA

The Select Traveler Conference begins on a Monday this year. Delegates can register from late morning through the afternoon and will meet the Group Travel Family’s staff that will be taking care of everyone.

Sponsors are always important to the conference because they bring so much tour product information and so many viewpoints to the meeting. Delegates will get to meet them in their booths in the marketplace and hear from them on the main stage before, during and after mealtimes. Those sponsors will also be handing out “auction dollars” to the travel planners they meet and those “dollars” can be spent during an exciting auction that will feature valuable prizes.

A planner breakout session will take place on the first day of the conference. That is where travel planners will gather in small groups to discuss issues and problems that all planners face in the industry. Everyone can offer stories and seek solutions for those concerns. All the comments will be collected and compiled and sent to planners after the conference.

The opening night’s dinner and event is called Night at the Ranch and is sponsored by Visit Cheyenne. “We will have a chuck-wagon-style dinner,” said the CVB’s Walter. “That will include specialty cocktails and local craft beers. We will have a band and dancing along with roping, maybe a mechanical bull and other fun Western things.”

The second day will bring a sponsored breakfast with travel speakers and entertainment. Then it will be time to get down to work — the real reason buyers and sellers go to Cheyenne — during the first marketplace session. This will be business networking at its best. That will be followed by lunch and then the fun sponsor auction.

The conference will also include entertainment. One performer will be Daniel Jaspersen, who does “engaging magic for intelligent audiences,” according to his website. Count on several amazing card tricks and other surprises when Jaspersen takes the stage.

For group travel planners wanting to entertain their troops while on a trip, Jaspersen has a lot of contacts in the industry who can enliven any gathering. They include jugglers, comedians, caricature artists, balloon artists and circus performers.

At the conference, he will be happy to meet with planners individually and offer suggestions, the goal being to help planners have successful events of their own.

The Branson Convention and Visitors Bureau will sponsor the evening meal on day two as Branson will host the 2023 Select Traveler Conference.

Day three will bring another breakfast at which travel experts will share destinations and ideas with delegates. Then the second marketplace session will start. This will be one more chance for destinations to make a good impression on group travel planners. The conference will end after a quick lunch.

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Cheyenne Depot Museum

Cheyenne Farmers’ Market

Cheyenne trolley tours

Terry Bison Ranch

One of Cheyenne’s “Big Boots”

OLD WEST LIVES

Convention delegates who enjoy Western history can learn quite a bit when they visit Cheyenne. The city is a remnant of America’s Old West. Historians credit railroads for the city’s becoming a boom town soon after the Civil War. It was from Cheyenne, in what was then Dakota Territory, that the Union Pacific Railroad began its ascent over the Rocky Mountains. Its graders and track layers worked endlessly and performed many engineering feats until they pushed their way to California.

At first, Cheyenne was just a railroad camp town, but it then sprang up so fast that observers nicknamed it the Magic City of the Plains. Today, the city commemorates the railroads with a

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restored downtown train depot that is simply gorgeous. It contains an interesting museum that is full of railroad stories, pictures and artifacts.

Delegates with free time before or after the conference can hop on one of the local Cheyenne Street Railway Trolleys to see and hear about the colorful history of the area thanks to knowledgeable guides. The town was a rough place to live back in the old days, with many saloons, brothels, shootings, stabbings, and wild cowboys and other characters. But Cheyenne eventually grew up and became one of the region’s most important cities.

Another way to soak up Cheyenne and Wyoming history is to stop at any of the 25 eight-foottall cowboy boots on display on streets around the city. Designed by local artists, each boot commemorates important state history. Visitors enjoy posing in front of them to take selfies, and some groups use them for scavenger hunt games. The city is also adorned with several huge state history murals that are worth seeing.

Another fun activity is to visit the Terry Bison Ranch and ride a small train out onto the plains and into a herd of bison. Riders can see the beasts up close, touch them and feed them a snack.

Cheyenne is also home to the largest outdoor rodeo and Western celebration in the United States, held each July. Travel planners can bring groups into town at other times of the year and arrange for a mini rodeo with events such as horseback riding, roping, bronco and steer busting, and barrel racing, among others. A chuck-wagon-style meal can also be set up for groups to enjoy.

Visit Cheyenne will offer three sightseeing tours on the conference’s second day. One group can tour the Cheyenne Depot Museum and the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. Another group can choose to see the Terry Bison Ranch, and a third group can visit the Wyoming State Museum and the beautifully restored state Capitol.

SEE YOU THEN

The CVB’s Walter said he is excited to welcome Select Traveler delegates and hopes they can bring their groups to the area in 2022 and beyond.

“Wyoming starts in Cheyenne,” he said.

“Whether we are your final destination or the start of an epic Western road trip, Cheyenne has the rugged history of the Old West, as well as a surprising mix of modern arts, live music, culture, food and drink.”

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HIGH there

Surrounded by Montana’s Rocky Mountains, Butte is an ideal destination for groups wanting to enjoy the outdoors.

Courtesy Butte Elevated

Take your group back to the mountains

BY KATI HYER

“T

he mountains are calling, and I must go.”

Since 1873, that phrase has captured the hearts and imaginations of mountain-bound travelers everywhere. It’s no wonder why. John Muir put words to the feeling that only mountain destinations can offer: a welcome rest, an elevated spiritual experience and the opportunity for adventure.

America’s mountain destinations come in many flavors, allowing visitors to taste whichever they like. They can begin with the rolling hills around Huntington, West Virginia. From there, they can check out two contrasting versions of the Rocky Mountains, from Durango, Colorado, in the southwest to the Northern Rockies of Butte, Montana. Back east in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, variety awaits Great Smoky Mountains visitors. And last but not least, travelers can find delight in the waterway-filled plateaus of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.

PIGEON FORGE, TENNESSEE

Good ol’ Rocky Top, as eastern Tennessee is called, evokes thoughts of bluegrass music, fresh fried trout and the unmistakable blue of the Smoky Mountains.

It’s in this world of sweet tea and black bears that travelers will find luxury, entertainment and thrills. Just look to U.S. 441, the Pigeon Forge Parkway, a five-mile tourism artery lined with dining, shopping, attractions and accommodations. Conversely, if hitting the trails away from the crowds is more your speed, Pigeon Forge delivers — the resort city is just minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Outdoor enthusiasts can get their fill from its 800 miles of trails, waterfalls, sightseeing and wildlife.

“You can go to New York for a show, Orlando for roller coasters and to the West for mountains. Here you can do it all,” said Mike Gwinn, senior sales manager at the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism.

Groups longing for a resort escape will find multiple premium accommodations in Pigeon Forge. For example, look into the Inn at Christmas Place and luxury cabins at the Parkside Resort. And Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort boasts front porch access to the park’s multimillion-dollar light and fountain shows.

New Pigeon Forge experiences are always in the works, so entertainment options are endless. Check out the Smoky Mountain Opry, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede and Paula Deen’s Lumberjack Feud for theatrical entertainment. Additionally, wineries, distilleries and plenty of shopping are other diversions that delight.

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Thirsting for adrenaline? Buckle into rides like the Mountain Monster, the Lumberjack Lift and the Rocky Top Mountain Coaster. And, of course, there’s world-famous Dollywood. Tickets to the music star’s country-themed destination gives access to nearly a dozen roller coaster rides and a water park.

MYPIGEONFORGE.COM

DURANGO, COLORADO

Ever long to ditch the concrete jungle and find your wild side? Or perhaps you’ve dreamt of stepping onto a movie set. Either way, the small Colorado city of Durango will satisfy your craving.

The Denver and Rio Grande Railway built Durango in the late 19th century as a stop for passengers and silver and gold ore. Although the mining activity has long since ceased, visitors have found the scenery a more precious commodity.

The picturesque Animus River courses directly through downtown, giving visitors a good excuse to go whitewater rafting, tubing, paddleboarding, kayaking or fly-fishing right after breakfast. After a day full of adventure, groups can take a quick trip up to Trimble Hot Springs to soak in natural mineral springs surrounded by staggering mountain views.

A little further into the San Juan Mountains is Purgatory Mountain, an alpine skiing destination with some of the most consistent and abundant snow in the Southwest. Groups can hit the slopes in the wintertime and mountain bike or enjoy alpine roller coasters in the warmer months.

A fixture that unites the outdoors and Western culture is the iconic Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

“It’s a wonderful way to experience Colorado,” said Rachel Welsh, public relations and communications manager at Visit Durango. The train is the only way to access select locations in the San Juan Mountains, including the first zip-lining course in the United States.

Those authentic railways and steam engines have inspired travelers and film producers alike. “True Grit,” “City Slickers,” “The Prestige,” multiple John Wayne films and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” were all filmed in part or in whole around Durango thanks to the train and breathtaking mountain scenery.

DURANGO.ORG

CATSKILLS, NEW YORK

Where can you start the day in arguably the most energetic, lively city in the Western Hemisphere and end it where time seems suspended between waterfalls and mountain peaks? None other than the Catskill Mountains, right on New York City’s doorstep.

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park Courtesy Pigeon Forge Dept. of Tourism

A fall train ride in Durango

Durango’s Purgatory Resort Courtesy Visit Durango

Courtesy Visit Durango

HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA

“What attracted people to the Catskills years ago is still true today,” said Lisa Berger, director of Visit the Catskills. “Resorts tucked away in the middle of nowhere, small towns and incredible outdoor vistas.” Lush and verdant, the Catskill Mountains aren’t a true mountain range, but rather a dissected plateau, beautifully raised rolling land sharply cut by rivers, waterfalls and lakes.

Travelers tend to plan visits to the Catskills through the lens of culture and history, or for outdoor experiences.

Art connoisseurs will enjoy exploring the region that inspired the 19th-century American art movement known as the Hudson River School. History aficionados will look forward to other significant sites, including Historic Huguenot Street in the preserved 1677 town of New Paltz, where French and Dutch immigrants fled religious persecution. The Catskills are also home to the historic town of Kingston, where colonial politicians on the run from the British ratified the New York State Constitution in 1777.

Outdoor enthusiasts will find all-inclusive resorts like the Rocky Horse Ranch and the Pine Grove Dude Ranch ready to welcome tour groups. Plus, the Catskills region boasts more than 75 miles of connected rail trails and 350 miles of carriage trails, where travelers can explore all four counties that make up the Catskills region. In the wintertime travelers will enjoy group skiing and snowboarding at three centers.

Sharing borders with both Kentucky and Ohio, and on the rolling hills of the western Allegheny plateau is Huntington, West Virginia.

The state is flush with beautiful mountain drives, including some not-so-typical ones. An hour’s trip from Huntington is the HatfieldMcCoy Trails, a series of off-highway vehicle trails. Groups looking for a unique, sometimes mayhem-filled outdoor activity can go off-roading by dirt bike or ATV while exploring the history of the feuding families.

Within the city, Huntington staff plan diverse tourism events all year long that feature the town and its culture, history and scenery.

For example, on Saturdays in July, a riverboat chugs down the Ohio from Cincinnati to entertain groups on river cruises. In the fall, Huntington officials host the Autumn Colors Express, a display of renovated antique rail cars. Travelers can board the Express to see the colors change in a daylong trip around the state.

“Our city is named for Collis P. Huntington, a railroad magnate,” said Tyson Compton, president of the Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We try to keep that railroad history alive as best as we can.”

And from May to December, the Heritage Farm Museum and Village is one of Huntington’s biggest draws for group travel. The living Appalachian experience replicates pioneer life with seven museums, period actors and 25,000 square feet of exhibits.

Year-round, the Blenko Glass Company, one of the few remaining handcrafted glass companies in the country, offers group factory tours where visitors can see the glassblowers at work.

VISITTHECATSKILLS.COM

VISITHUNTINGTONWV.ORG

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Exploration in Butte Courtesy Butte Elevated

Hiking in the Catskills

A day out in Huntington Courtesy Visit the Catskills

Courtesy Huntington CVB

BUTTE, MONTANA

Rugged natural places and fascinating history make Butte, Montana, a wildly attractive mountain destination.

A mile high in the Northern Rockies of Montana, Butte calls itself the smallest big town in the state. The 1800s mining town drew thousands of settlers eager to strike their fortunes in copper, and those European cultures still influence Butte today.

“We maintain Irish, English, Cornish, Serbian, Slovenian, German and other cultures here,” said Maria Pochervina, executive director of Butte Elevated. “So diverse food plays a prominent role in Butte’s atmosphere.”

As a gateway community for the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, Butte offers visiting groups no shortage of outdoor recreation. Adventure seekers can experience 13 trailheads all within the same distance from the city center. No matter which activity they pick, beautiful terrain, outdoor experiences and wildlife are guaranteed.

Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and horseback riding are all available in and out of town: Butte is flush with urban trails that crisscross the community.

In addition to mountain activities, Butte hosts dozens of experiences, including underground mine tours, historic mansion tours and ghost tours. Butte’s tourism professionals are promoting the town’s notorious history to visitors, from the old gallows frame where criminals were hanged to the longest-running brothel in the nation and the so-called cabbage patch where the poorest of the poor lived. These

“WHAT ATTRACTED PEOPLE TO THE CATSKILLS YEARS AGO IS STILL TRUE TODAY, RESORTS TUCKED AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, SMALL TOWNS AND INCREDIBLE OUTDOOR VISTAS.” — L I S A B E R G E R , V I S I T T H E C AT S K I L L S

glimpses of Butte’s more colorful past represent a growing attraction for the town. A trolley is equipped to host up to 26 people on one of Butte’s haunted tours, and plans for more are in the works.

“Everything in our history has to do with our mining past,” Pochervina said. “We can’t help but have a lot of wild history.”

BUTTEELEVATED.COM

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Elemental Iceland

Icelandic horses grace the pastures of many roadside farms.

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Nature never rests in this remarkable country

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BY MAC LACY

celand is a country defined by the forces of nature.

Geographically and geologically speaking, Iceland is a volcanic island in the North Atlantic that sits about 900 miles west of Norway and 750 miles east of Greenland. It lies on the 66th parallel, which places it high in the Northern Hemisphere, like the uppermost regions of Alaska, the Yukon, Norway and Finland.

Warmed by the Gulf Stream coming across the Atlantic and cooled by frigid currents from the Arctic to the north, Iceland has a mercurial climate. It is home to 30 active volcanoes, vast glacial fields, an unrelenting coastline, numerous thermal pools and 370,000 Icelanders whose culture has been defined for centuries by selfreliance.

My wife, Kim, and I traveled there in November with Collette in hopes of seeing the northern lights. The northern lights are another force of nature that draw travelers to Iceland, but seeing them is not a given. A trip to Iceland promises encounters with volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, icebergs and the cool capital city of Reykjavik, but it doesn’t promise an encounter with the northern lights. As the planet’s foremost heavenly phenomena, the northern lights come and go as they please.

REYKJAVIK AND THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

After flying overnight for six hours from Chicago, we were met at Keflavik International Airport by our tour director, Kristin Bogadottir, and traveled to the City Center Hotel in Reykjavik. A city of about 240,000, including suburbs, Reykjavik is home to almost 60% of the country’s population. We took a walking tour that afternoon and visited sites like Iceland’s Parliament building, the towering Hallgrimsskirkja Lutheran church that sits above the city and charming streets filled with holiday shoppers.

By Susanne Kremer

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Traditional turf farmhouses remain at Skogar Museum

A cemetery for Christian congregants in southern Iceland

Our group of 33 wasted no time in our search for the northern lights. Following a welcome dinner at Hofnin, a charming harborside restaurant, we boarded a cruise vessel and headed out into Faxafloi Bay. We stayed out for an hour and a half — most of us outdoors on the top deck — without any luck. As it turned out, our evenings in Iceland were cold but not brutal. A cup of hot chocolate made them pleasant.

Iceland’s Golden Circle was a stellar place to visit on our first full day. During the trip, the days were long because we usually went out after dinner in search of the northern lights. As Collette points out in its description of this tour, this is a trip for active people who enjoy walking and who can withstand a couple of hours outside in inclement weather.

The Golden Circle refers to three specific sites: Thingvellir National Park, where clans met to unite the country in A.D. 930; the Geysir Geothermal Area, where thermal pools erupt sporadically to become noisy geysers; and Gullfoss, a spectacular waterfall.

We walked some distance through Thingvellir across Iceland’s midAtlantic ridge. Geologists identify this ridge as the juncture of two tectonic plates that divide North America and Europe. This national park

Iceland’s Lava Centre in Hvolsvollur

stands where visitors can see the mid-Atlantic ridge stretching for miles.

Clans whose roots were from lands that became Norway and Sweden assembled there in the 10th century to begin a democratic government.

We hiked in snow through the Geysir pools site and were nearby when one erupted, spewing boiling spray into the air. We had lunch there in a large cafeteria filled with fellow travelers. Cuisine in Iceland features primarily cod and lamb that are both prepared in many ways. Pork is offered to a lesser degree, and some other types of fish are featured as well.

I made the mistake of paying for bottled water only once. Water in Iceland is an infinite resource. It flows so pure from the mountains that Icelanders tap into natural water for all their needs. The faucets in our hotel rooms flowed with cold, natural water, and we filled our bottles with it daily. Likewise, the thermal water heated by volcanoes provides all the hot water the country needs. The hot water in our showers came directly from natural sources.

We ended our Golden Circle journey at Gullfoss. It was a lengthy walk to see this monumental waterfall from several vantage points.

Purists maintain there are two waterfalls there where the Hvita River

Reykjavik’s towering Hallgrimsskirkja Lutheran church

Stone formations in the tide at Reynisfjara

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Black stone beach at Reynisfjara

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Skogafoss is among Iceland’s tallest waterfalls

Photos by Mac and Kim Lacy

plunges twice and changes direction, creating a bilevel spectacle in the Gullfossgjufur canyon.

Hiking near a glacier in Vatnajokull National Park

BLACK SAND AND POWERFUL SURF

We arrived that evening in Vik, a seaside community at Iceland’s southern tip that became home for three days. We stayed in the Hotel Katla, a property ideally suited for exploring the region’s black sand beaches, mountains and glaciers. Bogadottir was indomitable as a seeker of the northern lights, and we drove out after dinner to a barren vantage point on a clear night. After two hours of searching the horizon for a sign of them, we headed back.

In six days of travel with Bogadottir, she raised her voice once, as we approached our first stop the following day.

“I am warning all of you to be careful on this beach,” she said.

“The Icelandic government has instructed tour guides to offer a stern warning before bringing visitors to Reynisfjara. Do not turn your back to the ocean. Do not go anywhere near the surf. This is the North Atlantic, and you will not be able to save yourself if you are swept into it. No one else will be able to save you either.”

The top of Skogafoss waterfall

Thingvellir National Park, where clans united Iceland in 930 AD

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Mac Lacy with tour manager Kristin Bogadottir at Jokulsarlon

Massive icebergs in the glacial bay at Jokulsarlon

By Cheryl Juetten, courtesy Willamette Valley Visitors Association

Our group spent half an hour marveling at the towering basalt cliffs, black sand and powerful surf at this beach. It would be a shame if it were closed to travelers, but that has been discussed. One week earlier, a young girl lost her life there when a rogue wave swept her and two others into the ocean. We took Bogadottir’s warning seriously.

Later, we made our way to Dyrholaey, a volcanic peninsula overlooking the North Atlantic. This southern coastline is characterized by ancient stone formations that have been battered by tides for centuries. Icelandic folklore deems some of them trolls that turned to stone when sunlight caught them outside their caves.

Skogar Museum preserves the turf-covered homes of Icelandic farmers from the late 1800s. Many were torn down years ago because they were considered inferior to newer homes, but this museum was able to save several and bring them to one location. The museum includes a schoolhouse, a church and a collection of agrarian lifestyle items from that period.

The Skogafoss waterfall is among Iceland’s tallest, measuring almost 200 feet high and about 90 feet wide. A stairway has been erected for those willing to make the climb to the top. It’s a physical endeavor, but the vistas from above of surrounding mountains are stunning. A viewing area at the bottom is an easy walk, but ice was forming when we arrived, so visitors to Iceland’s waterfalls should be careful as winter approaches.

‘YOU ARE ICELANDERS NOW’

A group photo from the basalt backdrop at Reynisfjara

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Our trip the following day to Jokulsarlon, Iceland’s glacial lagoon, was a two-hour drive, so we started early. “You are Icelanders now,” Bogadottir said. “You leave in the dark and return in the dark like we do in winter.”

We drove for an hour or so through miles of blackish, lunarlike lava fields. These charred, jagged stretches seemed endless on both sides of the road. Bogadottir said they dated to the 1700s when Lakagigar erupted.

As daylight appeared, we began seeing mountains and glacial fields in the distance. I spotted maybe half a dozen waterfalls dropping off those cliffsides into small farms. In this rural stretch of Iceland, farmers have pastures blessed with alpine waterfalls to provide water for their horses and crops.

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A toast at the Blue Lagoon

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insider’s P E R S P E C T I V E

At Jokulsarlon, we dressed our warmest of the week. The glacier there stretched for miles up into the distant mountains and dropped countless icebergs into the river it created. We watched as small icebergs drifted by us toward the sea. Larger ones, some the size of houses, sat motionless in the lagoon.

“A glacier is just snow that never melts,” Bogadottir said. “There is snow up there 1,000 years old, and that’s where these icebergs originate.”

We walked over to small icebergs lodged on the beach. Most were bluish and somewhat opaque; many had geometric, almost crystallike compositions. Some were beautiful. They were inanimate but seemed to have a lifelike quality about them.

We traveled to the largest national park in all of Europe, Vatnajokull, and hiked up to a vantage point for viewing Europe’s largest glacier. These rivers of ice inhabit mountain passes. Over thousands of years, they re-create their landscapes just as volcanoes do. It’s hard to imagine a landscape more realigned over centuries than Iceland’s.

ICONIC MOMENT

On our last full day, we returned to Reykjavik, and drove on portions of the Ring Road, a highway that encircles the country. Bogadottir surprised us with wonderful Icelandic crepes at a service station along the way.

We had two big items on our schedule that day: We would go to have COVID-19 tests at the city’s municipal building, and we would head to the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s most popular stops.

COVID-19 tests are currently required for boarding flights home, and Collette schedules their groups to do it upon their return to Reykjavik. The process was well organized. We downloaded the necessary forms to our phones, stood in line for maybe 30 minutes, were tested with swabs and got our results via email within hours.

The Blue Lagoon is an internationally known spa facility outside Reykjavik that has been developed in a lava field using technology. Its milky-blue waters remain at 102 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. We brought a change of clothes and a swimsuit and were each assigned a locker. After a shower, we entered the huge pool area, where hundreds of people were relaxing.

Collette had scheduled an iconic Icelandic moment for our final stop. We used our free drink tickets at the walk-up bar in the Blue Lagoon and spent the afternoon recounting an incredible week in a remarkable country.

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ur tour manager, Kristin Bogadottir, is a native Icelander and accomplished photographer who has shot assignments in Iceland for the New York Times. She also manages tours for Collette several times a year.

“The winter here is black and white compared to all the color in summer,” she said. “But winter travel to Iceland has grown so much in the past 10 years. People want to see the northern lights, and the sun is never high, so it’s a good time for photography.

“I am still amazed by the northern lights,” she said.

“Someone will call and say, ‘The lights are out,’ and I’ll stop what I’m doing to go outside and watch them. Sometimes when they are out, you hear foxes begin to chatter. It’s a magical moment.”

I asked her about volcanic eruptions.

“It smells like 1,000 matches burning,” she said. “We had an eruption nearby this year that lasted from March until September. We had travelers come to Iceland to see it, and our police were very helpful in managing a trail to a safe place to watch it. They are quite good about that.”

I asked her advice about where to go on a return trip.

“Well, you’ve seen the South, so go north,” she said. “Go to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. It’s Iceland in miniature. See the Westfjords and take the ferry to the Westman Islands. You can drive the Ring Road in a week. Collette also has a great tour up there,” she said. “Maybe you should look into that.”

JIM EDWARDS JEDWARDS@COLLETTE.COM

800-222-5679 GOCOLLETTE.COM

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S T A T E

o f

M I N D

take your time

BY PAULA AVEN GLADYCH

AUTHENTIC STOPS AWAIT GROUPS IN INDIANA

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he Hoosier State knows how to wow visitors.

Indiana has more to offer group travelers than vast plains and big cities. From one end of the state to the other, groups can tap into gourmet food experiences, enjoy custom tours and demonstrations at world-class cultural and historical attractions and learn more about one of the largest populations of Amish in the U.S. From farm country on the plains to hilly locales more reminiscent of the Great Smoky Mountains, Indiana takes groups by surprise.

NORTHERN INDIANA AMISH COUNTRY

Many people don’t realize that north central Indiana has the third-largest concentration of Amish residents in the U.S. The Amish are clustered around the communities of Middlebury, Shipshewana and Nappanee in Elkhart County, which is also considered the recreational vehicle capital of the world, as many of the largest RV manufacturers call the area home.

The Heritage Trail audio driving tour, produced by the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, is a great first stop for groups wanting to learn more about the Amish and why they settled in Indiana. The tour stops at the main attractions in the area, from Amish businesses to farms.

There are plenty of opportunities to interact with the Amish, from eating an Amish Haystack lunch prepared by an Amish family to tours of local Amish businesses that make baked goods, cheese, baskets, wind chimes and leather goods.

The Menno-Hof Amish Mennonite Interpretive Center in Shipshewana shares the story of the Amish and Mennonite peoples. Groups can schedule a backroads tour with different shopping experiences or visit the Barns at Nappanee, which offers an Amish house and farm tour, horse and buggy rides and farm table meals.

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ELKHAR T S HI PS HEWANA

N AP PAN EE

IN DIAN A PO LI S

N A S HV ILLE

CLARK S VI LLE CORYDON

Every year from May to September, the area hosts a Quilt Gardens and Quilt Murals exhibition that features 16 gardens planted in different quilt patterns and 14 mural sites. In 2022, the show will celebrate its 15th anniversary with 53 life-size sculptures by Seward Johnson. Groups can tour an RV manufacturing plant; have a meal at Artisan, a AAA Four Diamond French restaurant in downtown Elkhart; or enjoy Ruthmere’s historic home tour, finishing up with tea and sweets in the Game Room. visitelkhartcounty.com

INDIANAPOLIS

The largest city in Indiana, Indianapolis has plenty to offer group travelers, from trendy restaurants, bars and cultural attractions to the largest collection of war memorials in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C. A must-visit for groups is the Indianapolis Museum of Art and its Newfields campus. With more than 100 acres, beautiful gardens, a beer garden and art sculptures to explore, it is an excellent location for groups to spread out. Newfields recently rolled out “The Lume,” a buzzworthy exhibit that uses 150 state-of-the-art projectors to transform Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings into a three-dimensional visual experience.

Groups can start their tour of Indiana War Memorial Plaza Historic District with a stop at the Indiana War Memorial Museum. The district includes two museums, three parks and 25 acres of monuments, statues, sculptures and fountains, from the Veterans’ Memorial Plaza and American Legion Mall to the Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum and the USS Indianapolis CA 35 Memorial.

The Bottleworks District is centered around what was once the largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in the world, which has been transformed into a 139-room boutique hotel, food hall, movie theater and entertainment destination. The district sits on the north end of Indy’s original cultural district, Massachusetts Avenue. Through 2 Eyes Walk and Talk Tours leads walking tours of traditionally African American neighborhoods in the city, including Indiana Avenue, Irvington and Martindale-Brightwood.

Foodies will want to make a stop at St. Elmo Steak House, Indianapolis’ most iconic restaurant; Bluebeard, which was themed after a Kurt Vonnegut novel of the same name; or The Inferno Room, a tiki bar in the city’s Fountain Square neighborhood. visitindy.com

NASHVILLE AND BROWN COUNTY

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields houses an impressive collection of works and plays host to major traveling art exhibitions.

Courtesy Visit Indy

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Nashville is a small town in Brown County that is surrounded by state parks, national forests and several nature preserves, making it an outdoor lovers’ paradise. Indiana’s largest state park, Brown County State Park, is nicknamed Little Smokies because of its resemblance to the Great Smoky Mountains. Motorcoach groups can take a one-hour guided tour of its many features with a photo stop at the Ramp Creek Covered Bridge — Indiana’s only doublebarreled covered bridge — and a visit to the park’s nature center.

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One of the main group attractions in the area is the T.C. Steele State Historic Site. Groups can tour artist Theodore C. Steele’s painting-filled studio and home, the House of the Singing Woods, which has his original furnishings. The site sits on 211 acres, which include restored historic gardens, the historic Dewar Log Cabin, five hiking trails and the Selma N. Steele State Nature Preserve. For a day of fun, Explore Brown County offers zip lines, paintball, arrow tag, mountain biking, ATV and hill climb buggy tours of the area’s rugged terrain.

Other highlights include stopping at the welcome center at Hard Truth Hills, the home of Hard Truth Distilling, for tours and tastings, or visiting Bear Wallow Distillery, one of the first craft distilleries in the state, which uses only locally grown grains to make spirits in a copper pot still. Visitors can take a Farm-to-Fifth Tour and see how Bear Wallow’s corn whiskey is made or shop the distillery’s Eat Your Whiskey section for a special selection of whiskey-inspired edibles.

For a taste of history, many groups stop at Brown County History Center’s Pioneer Village, which is home to a twostory 1879 log jail; a two-story, dog-trot log building; and an authentically restored log cabin with pioneer period exhibits, a working blacksmith shop and an 1898 doctor’s office. browncounty.com

Indianapolis’ Bottleworks Hotel

Courtesy Visit Indy

Holiday decorations at the Ruthmere Museum in northern Indiana

Elkhart County’s Bonneyville Mill Courtesy Elkhart Co. CVB

Courtesy Elkhart Co. CVB

CORYDON AND HARRISON COUNTY

Thirty minutes west of Louisville, Kentucky, and two hours from Indianapolis, Corydon and Harrison County make a great jumping-off point to see southern Indiana and western Kentucky.

Indiana’s first state capital was in Harrison County. Groups can tour the original capitol, which was in service from 1816 to 1825. For a more hands-on experience, groups like to visit

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Brown County State Park Courtesy Brown Co. CVB

Brown County’s Hard Truth Distillery

Courtesy Brown Co. CVB

Zimmerman Art Glass, which offers free demonstrations of how to make blown glass objects like ornaments and vases.

When groups order in advance, everyone on the tour can get a glass paperweight or a glass art piece of their choice.

Downtown Corydon is full of boutique shops and antique stores. The restaurants in town are all locally owned. Groups like to be turned loose in the main square to find lunch on their own, as there’s no restaurant large enough to host bigger groups.

The county is known for its three cave systems: Indiana Caverns, which offers a partial walking tour and a partial underground boat tour; Squire Boone Caverns; and Marengo Cave, a historic landmark and one of the most-visited attractions in the area. Marengo offers the 40-minute Crystal Palace tour, which winds through formation-filled rooms and past huge flowstone deposits, and the 60-minute Dripstone Trail tour, which highlights delicate soda straws, totem pole stalagmites and the Penny Ceiling.

Turtle Run Winery offers a tour where groups can get into the production room to see how wine is made and paired with various foods and then taste the different wines made there.

Harrison County is also home to the Battle of Corydon, one of only a handful of Civil War battles fought north of the MasonDixon Line. Groups can learn all about the battle at the Harrison County Discovery Center before taking a tour of Battle of Corydon Memorial Park. thisisindiana.org

SOUTHERN INDIANA

New Albany, Clarksville and Jeffersonville in southern Indiana all sit across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. Groups visiting Louisville often stay in these Indiana towns because they are only about a mile from the city and its top attractions.

Outdoor dining at Hard Truth Distillery

Courtesy Brown Co. CVB

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Falls of the Ohio State Park is a top attraction on the Indiana side of the river. It has an interpretive center with hands-on exhibits that explore how the area has evolved over time. Groups can explore the 390 millionyear-old Devonian fossil beds — the largest find of its kind in the world — and visit the 26 waterfalls, the only natural obstructions on the river. Explorer Meriwether Lewis met his partner, William Clark, at the Falls of the Ohio, where he was staying with his brother, to recruit nine Kentuckians to join them on their expedition west. Because of this meeting, Clarksville is an official stop on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

One of the area’s newest group attractions is Mesa. Billed as “a live dining show,” this establishment offers groups a

Zimmerman Art Glass in Corydon

Courtesy Harrison Co. CVB

Squire Boone Caverns in Harrison County

Courtesy Harrison Co. CVB

Gourmet fare at Mesa in New Albany

chance to watch famous and aspiring chefs from the area prepare a meal for them. Each group gets to pick the menu and interact with the chef in an intimate setting while the chef prepares their meal. Mesa also offers cooking classes and cocktail competitions.

Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site is a 20,000-square-foot Victorian-era mansion that offers groups a unique dining experience. Staff will hide clues and murder weapons throughout the mansion, and visitors are invited to try and solve the Clue-style murder mystery as they sample cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and learn the history of the home. Other musts include the Derby Dinner Playhouse, which presents top Broadway shows, and participating in a tour and tasting at Huber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyards and Starlight Distillery. gosoin.com

Courtesy Clark-Floyd Counties CTB

VISIT INDIANA’S TOP GROUP DESTINATION Step into the heart of Northern Indiana Amish Country and experience Hoosier Hospitality at Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury, Indiana.

Das Dutchman Essenhaus’ beautiful campus features the world-famous Restaurant with family-style dining, live theatre productions at Heritage Hall, beautifully manicured walking paths, peaceful carriage rides, and more. Top off your Well Crafted group experience with a relaxing night’s stay at the Essenhaus Inn complete with luggage handling upon request, generously-sized guest rooms with stunning Amish-crafted furniture, in-room coffee, indoor pool, fitness center and a deluxe hot breakfast.

Celebrate 15 years of super-sized, award-winning Quilt Gardens in 2022!

Plan your group-friendly tour between May 30 - September 15 and experience quilt-inspired gardens and hand-painted, quilt-themed, super-sized murals. Returning in 2022 is Epic Art Adventures featuring Seward Johnson sculptures and highlighting talented local and regional artists.

Contact Sonya Nash, CTIS, CTP at 800.262.8161 and start planning your next great, group-friendly tour to Northern Indiana Amish Country / Elkhart County!

Learn more at VisitElkhartCounty.com/groups

CAPITAL I D E A S

Columbus’ Franklin Park Conservatory will celebrate the art of topiary this summer and early fall.

BUILD A WEEKEND TRIP AROUND THESE COLUMBUS FAVORITES

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BY BRIAN JEWELL here’s never been a better time to take your travelers to Columbus.

Ohio’s capital city has been a popular group destination for many years thanks to an innovative portfolio of interactive experiences that take tour customers beyond the typical sightseeing visit. And while the stream of tour groups slowed to a trickle during the worst of the pandemic, the city’s tourism community adapted and made the most of that time to improve their offerings for visitors.

In 2022, groups that travel to Columbus can experience a mix of

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All photos courtesy Experience Columbus

up-and-coming attractions, longtime favorite sites and special exhibits and other programs that have been relaunched.

“Some of the favorite attractions are still really popular among groups,” said Roger Dudley, director of tourism sales for Experience Columbus. “And many of our attractions rescheduled things, so there are a lot of special exhibits and things that got moved around.”

If your group is ready to travel this year, Columbus is ready to welcome them with dynamic experiences and upgraded attractions.

Here are four evolving sites around the city you might want to include on your next Columbus itinerary.

BUDD DAIRY FOOD HALL

Since 1996, Chef Cameron Mitchell has been the top culinary tastemaker in Columbus. Today, his restaurant group in the area comprises 36 establishments operating under 16 brands. Last year, Mitchell began helping a new generation of chef-entrepreneurs launch their own businesses with his newest endeavor, Budd Dairy Food Hall.

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“It’s a chef incubator space that has different food concepts,” Dudley said. “It has a few bars throughout the place so you can eat and drink and enjoy your lunch or dinner.”

Housed in a renovated milk processing facility, hence the name Budd Dairy, the food hall is located in Columbus’ Italian Village neighborhood. There are 10 kitchens in the hall, each staffed by an up-and-coming chef making a mark with unique culinary concepts.

The food hall offers group planners an opportunity to let travelers explore and pick the food that best suits their tastes. Tacos Rudos serves upscale Mexican street food with a lucha libre theme.

Cluck Norris specializes in fried chicken dishes “with a roundhouse kick of flavor.” Pokebap is a Hawaiian-inspired poke restaurant, and there’s a variety of grilled meats and sides to be found at Boni Filipino Street Food.

Other cuisines on site include barbecue, Southern specialties, pizza, and deli and bakery selections. The bars serve a variety of beverages, including a beer brewed specifically for the food hall by a nearby microbrewery.

Budd Dairy Food Hall is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday and for lunch Thursday through Sunday.

budddairyfoodhall.com

FRANKLIN PARK CONSERVATORY

One of Columbus’ favorite attractions, the 13-acre Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens centers around a conservatory dating back to 1895. The tropical plants and an arid desert room inside the conservatory are favorites of many visitors, as is the Blooms and Butterflies program, which features thousands of brilliantly colored butterflies circulating throughout the conservatory during the spring.

For 2022, though, an exciting new exhibit is coming to the conservatory’s outdoor spaces.

“They’re doing something called ‘Topiary Takeover,’” Dudley said.

“It will focus on topiaries in really cool animal shapes and different scenarios. It’s going to be a really big show.”

Topiary displays throughout the Franklin Park grounds blend the traditional artform of cultivated and sculpted shrubs with pops of brilliant color, added via flowers planted among and alongside the shrubs to create vibrant multidimensional images.

The conservatory offers docent-guided tours for groups, as well as a number of special immersive experiences, a gift shop, a greenhouse and a cafe. The “Topiary Takeover” exhibit will run from June 4 through October 2.

Other conservatory highlights for 2022 include an annual exhibition of orchids that runs through early March and an exhibition of work by artist Olga Ziemska that will be on display through the end of May.

time. Now visitors can interact with aquatic creatures at the new Adventure Cove.

The cove is a re-creation of a rocky Pacific Northwest coastline and serves as the habitat for the zoo’s sea lions and seals. The new area opened in summer 2020.

“A lot of people still haven’t been to it,” Dudley said. “It’s a stateof-the-art sea lion exhibit near the front gate of the zoo. It has underwater viewing and sea lion shows where guests can see trainers demonstrating sea lion behavior.”

Group leaders can contact the zoo in advance to reserve seats for a sea lion show, as well as for private meals with unparalleled views of the marine creatures.

columbuszoo.org

COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART

Among the chief contributors to the city’s cultural life, the Columbus Museum of Art showcases a wide variety of artwork from various places and times. This year, groups have two opportunities to see work of historic artists during special exhibitions at the museum.

From March 4 through June 5, the exhibit “Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948-1960” will investigate the work of Lichtenstein, who became one of the leading American artists of the 20th century. Lichtenstein went to school at Columbus’ Ohio State University, and the exhibit explores his ties to the city as well as his later career. It features about 90 works in a variety of media.

Later in the summer, the museum will welcome an exhibition that highlights the work of one of Europe’s greatest Old Masters. “Raphael — The Power of Renaissance Images: The Dresden Tapestries and Their Impact” features six 17th-century tapestries with images created by Raphael, as well as several of his drawings and other works.

Its Columbus exhibition, July 15 through October 30, will be the only U.S. stop on this exhibition’s global tour.

Group travel planners can contact the museum staff for guided tours, catered meals or other special touches.

columbusmuseum.org

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

fpconservatory.org

COLUMBUS ZOO AND AQUARIUM

With 10,000 animals representing 600 species spread out over 622 acres, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is one of the area’s largest and most popular attractions. It’s also the home of “Jungle” Jack Hanna, who made frequent TV appearances with animals from the zoo throughout his career. Now, when groups visit the zoo, they have opportunities for closeup encounters with some of the same animals that travel with Hanna and other zoo educators.

The zoo has offered immersive experiences for groups for some

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Columbus Museum of Art

Budd Dairy Hall

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Teddy’s town

Visitors feel the presence of Theodore Roosevelt throughout Medora, a town that inspired him during formative years of his youth.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IMMORTALIZED MEDORA

M

BY KATI HYER edora is the little town that built Theodore Roosevelt.

The destination, with a population of fewer than 200, is located in southwest North Dakota, where the Badlands meet the Great Plains. An 1800s cattle tycoon, the French Marquis de Morès, founded Medora to serve as the headquarters of his many businesses. At the same time, a young New Yorker named Roosevelt journeyed to North Dakota on a hunting expedition to escape personal tragedy. The two men’s friendship and, later, animosity marked the town then and still define Medora today.

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All photos courtesy Medora Area CVB

Medora immerses groups in cowboy experiences from eating steaks cooked on pitchforks to riding horseback among wild bison.

Travelers will taste the Wild West with Medora’s live entertainment, food, stunning wild places and historical attractions.

Roosevelt credited his strenuous Medora ranching experience with the leadership and talent growth he needed to later secure the presidency. Of Medora, Roosevelt said, “Here, in this country of hills and plateaus, the romance of my life began.”

SHOWS

“Medora is the Disney World of the North,” said Jim Bridger, chairman of the Medora Convention and Visitors Bureau, “and a cowboy heaven all in one.” The entertainment in North Dakota’s top visitor destination centers around multiple live performances. The most famous among these productions is the world-renowned Medora Musical.

Patriotic musical acts, horses onstage, Roosevelt himself — at least, the kids will think so — and an incredible fireworks display are

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just some of the many rootin’, tootin’ and boot-scootin’ elements of the Medora Musical. The show celebrating TR, the West and the American cowboy awes audiences of up to 3,000 a night in the Burning Hills Amphitheater. Performances are daily from June to September.

Tour groups will leave the Medora Musical singing and wanting more — and more they shall get the following morning. The Gospel Brunch provides audience members with a breakfast buffet and a musical show. This indoor revue features a full band, a gospel quartet and an inspiring message that will grace the audience with a warm gospel glow all day long.

FOOD

Right next door to the Medora Musical, on a bluff at Tjarden Terrace overlooking the Badlands, is the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. This famous eatery does not serve the typical French-inspired and melted fare. Instead, chefs in chaps and cowboy hats skewer steaks by the half-dozen on pitchforks and fry them in a colossal vat over an open fire. “Just like the cowboys used to do,” Bridger said. Accompanied by a full salad buffet, dinner is served on a tin tray, evoking firelit meals in front of a covered wagon. The Pitchfork Fondue is the best restaurant for larger groups seeking an experience with a view. For busy visitors with full agendas, Bridger said, “it’s the fastest place in town.”

Medora visitors have multiple restaurants to choose from for a new taste of the Old West. Among the dining options are the Little Missouri Saloon, the Boots Bar and Grill, TR’s Tavern and Theodore’s Dining Room inside the Historic Rough Riders Hotel.

HISTORICAL ATTRACTIONS

History buffs and leisure travelers alike will enjoy all the experiences highlighting the past that Medora has to offer.

For example, downtown’s North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame pays homage to the state’s Western heritage and culture. Groups can enjoy an interactive visitors center, activities, annual events and permanent and temporary displays honoring the area’s Native American, ranching and rodeo history, While the town’s character hearkens back to the past, a significant new development is on the horizon. The little town that could has grandiose plans for a new project in 2025: the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Construction will integrate the library within the town’s rugged landscape in the same way that Roosevelt understood man as an inseparable part of nature. Architects have chosen Medora’s multiuse Maah Daah Hey Trail for the build, an appropriate location considering that the trail’s name means “an area that will be around for a long time” and that it forms the same backdrop that Roosevelt so deeply loved.

Library planners are developing a space that will embody a worldclass visitor experience. Their aim is to inspire travelers to dare greatly, think boldly, live passionately and care deeply, just as Teddy Roosevelt did.

medora.com

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE

The chiseled landscape around Medora plays as much a role in the town’s atmosphere as any of the historic characters featured in its multiple shows. The Badlands, the beautiful and sometimes bizarre rock forms rising out of the prairie, captivate visitors all year long.

Visiting Medora in all four seasons is possible thanks to the town’s location in a unique weather area called a banana belt. That means Medora experiences much milder winters than the rest of the state.

Nestled in towering buttes and rocky gorges, Medora is the southern gateway to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Here visitors can hike, bike, horseback ride, camp, birdwatch and observe wildlife throughout the park. Winter travelers will also find cross-country snowshoeing and skiing, exciting ways to experience the park.

Access to Bully Pulpit, North Dakota’s peerless golf course, is available year-round. Visitors play golf in the spring, summer and fall.

In the winter, travelers can explore the course on fat bikes. “You’ll never find a golf course anywhere else with such stunning views,” Bridger said.

If there’s anything in the outdoors that brings to life the nostalgia of bygone cowboy days, it’s the image of a starry night and a warm campfire. “One of Roosevelt’s simple pleasures was to sit in his cabin and look at the stars at night and the blue by day,” Bridger said. With no light pollution from any nearby towns, travelers can see falling stars in all directions as far as the eye can see. The national park puts on stargazing activities and festivals in the summertime. Additionally, Medora event organizers plan kite festivals and hot air balloon rallies each year.

Whether it’s exploring the Badlands, teeing off from Bully Pulpit or viewing the skies, visitors will experience the wild places that changed Roosevelt for life and inspired him to create the national park system.

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The set of “The Medora Musical”

Pitchfork Steak Fondue

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going places W I T H

A S H L E Y

TAY L O R

THE BEST TRAVEL COMPANIONS FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES

Y

ou see a trip advertisement, call your bestie and say, “Let’s go!” Taking a trip with a close friend sounds great. So you choose a trip with your favorite travel club, sign up and send your payment. All that’s left to do is wait, right? Wrong!

Remember the last person you traveled with? That person was your best friend at the beginning of the trip. But was he or she your best friend at the end?

When you travel with a friend, you’ll quickly discover slight differences in your tastes and travel habits. One of you gets up early, and the other stays up late. One eats breakfast, and the other drinks coffee. One walks fast, and the other takes her time. One sleeps with the bathroom light on, and the other prefers complete darkness.

Whenever friends travel together, the experience of spending so much time together can put a strain on the relationship. But it doesn’t have to. Here are some tips from my travel experiences to help you make traveling with a friend as fun as it should be.

Keep these in mind next time you invite a friend on a trip, and share them with your travelers when they recruit their friends for your tours.

1) MENTALLY PREPARE

If you want to avoid having a falling out with your travel companion, the first thing you should do is start preparing mentally before you depart. Traveling successfully with others takes mental preparation, especially for people who don’t have laid-back, go-with-the-flow personalities.

You first need to tell yourself that no matter how much you and your friend have in common, you’re bound to envision the trip differently. These things you imagine the two of you doing might not be what she imagines. It’s essential to be open-minded and flexible.

You should also prepare yourself to share space with this friend. Remember to be mindful of your friend’s space. Even if

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you pack more than your travel pal, it doesn’t mean you should get more room.

Remind yourself that you’re traveling with a buddy, not your life partner. What does this mean? While traveling with your significant other, you may pack together, help each other with bags, put things in each other’s pockets, be at each other’s hip at every moment. But that’s not necessarily true with other travel companions. So prepare yourself that this experience will be different than traveling with a spouse.

2) TALK IN ADVANCE

You have mentally prepared for sharing space and traveling with your friend.

Now it’s time to talk.

Meet your travel pal for lunch or coffee to discuss the trip.

Make sure you bring the itinerary and your ideas of things you would like to do. Discuss sites that are most important to you both. Run through morning and night routines, and discuss what kind of traveler you are.

Your travel partner needs to know if you are fast-paced and detailed, or easygoing and up for anything. And you need to be flexible with the type of traveler your friend is. If there is something you want to do that your friend doesn’t, that’s fine. Remind each other it is OK if you’re not always together.

3) STAY FLEXIBLE AND POSITIVE

You have mentally prepared and discussed the trip with your friend. Now it’s time to go.

Keep in mind to be both positive and flexible. The morning rush, a traffic jam or the general stress of a travel day can set you in a sour mood at the outset of the trip. So keep your thoughts and words positive.

Remember to be accepting. Perhaps it’s been a long day, and your friend might want to take a nap during the free time. That’s OK; let your friend rest. You can have free time on your own.

When traveling with your pal, remember to be flexible, positive and willing to have some time alone.

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ashley taylor Ashley Taylor is a longtime bank and travel club planner.

She lives in Ironton, Ohio, with her two daughters.

Traveling with a friend can be an exciting and much-needed experience. Getting away with your friend creates memories the two of you can reflect on with a smile or a laugh. It’s great to have that special person at your side when traveling.

Your friends are your friends for a reason; they get you, and you get them.

There is no better way to build a friendship than by traveling together. So make sure you prepare mentally, discuss the trip in advance and stay flexible while traveling. You owe it to yourself and your friend to have a wonderful trip the two of you can discuss for years to come.

Ashley Taylor emphasizes communication and flexibility when bringing her friends on group trips.

PUT MEANING

Travel with Purpose Across North America.

As travelers, we all want rich, authentic, and meaningful travel experiences. As travel professionals, we want to ensure we use travel as a force for good. Through the

ON THE MAP.

Meaningful Travel Map of North America, visitors can connect to locally owned social and environmental impact experiences and opportunities, unique and hands-on cultural experiences, products, and services.

www.meaningfultravelplatform.org/main/map Pictured: Take a cooking class with The League of Kitchens, to build cross-cultural connection and access to traditional cuisine.

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Columbus is a city that’s made for sharing. Tour the stirring National Veterans Memorial and Museum. Explore Adventure Cove, the new sea lion exhibit at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Live it up at Schmidt’s Restaurant und Sausage Haus in iconic German Village. Start planning your next group adventure at ExperienceColumbus.com/tours.