Recommend July 2011 - (Page 39)

Opposite page: Canoeing in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park with Adventures by Disney. Below: Tauck offers several national park itineraries, including one that visits Yellowstone National Park. Hiking and biking are very much a part of the experience with Backroads, but the adventure tour operator also offers much more in terms of imparting information on the locale. “Our guests are constantly learning on these national parks’ trips— without even realizing it because knowledge is never shared in the form of a lecture or canned talk,” says Prioreschi. “Our leaders deftly weave park history, interesting tidbits about the flora and fauna, informative regional anecdotes and personal stories into every conversation and activity throughout each day.” the ken burns effect with tauck The 2009 PBS series by documentary filmmakers Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” took viewers inside the beauty that lies within the U.S. and spurred a rise in visitors. The impact of Burns is instrumental in Tauck’s seven “national park itineraries.” Each itinerary features exclusive “Stories By Ken Burns” filmed vignettes shown while aboard the motorcoach en-route to various destinations and attractions. These are a series of short (10 to 15 minutes) original films featuring Ken Burns that highlight the places guests are seeing. The vignettes include never-before-seen interviews with Burns, excerpts from his films, and other information that add context and perspective to guests’ experiences in the parks, explains Tom Armstrong, spokesperson for Tauck. Burns and Duncan even designed Tauck’s new 10-day Spirit of the Desert: The National Parks of the Southwest itinerary, which features the landscape of six national parks as well as putting a focus on both the local Native American culture and the culture of the people who helped preserve these places as national parks. One of the goals of the tour, says Duncan, is, “To relate the deep significance that the parks have to everyone who encounters them—from Native Americans to newcomers—and discover a deeply personal, often spiritual connection to the land we inhabit.” To achieve this goal, the tour includes appearances by some of the experts who contributed to the film. This revolving group of guest experts includes Alfred Runte, a national parks expert who appeared in all six episodes of the national parks series; John Cook, a third-generation National Park Service employee who discusses the issues facing the national parks today; and Ryan Paul, a curator of Frontier Homestead State Park Museum and an expert on the early days of the national parks. There is also a lecture by a local Navajo who discusses the strong spiritual connection that Native Americans feel with the landscapes they regard as sacred. Guests on this itinerary experience the parks from a variety of perspectives—during dawn and dusk sightseeing, from a river raft, along scenic hiking trails, and on two flightseeing excursions that reveal the region’s unique topography. Another plus to this itinerary is that guests stay in the only in-park lodging when visiting three of the parks including the Lodge at Bryce Canyon (National Park), Zion Lodge (Zion National Park), and the Grand Canyon Lodge—North Rim (only property on the north rim of the canyon). Starting rates are from $4,390 pp dbl plus air. Craig Hodges, director of Adventures by Disney operations. “Some of the reasons tours are so popular is we’ve planned out an itinerary of the best things to see and do. Essentially we’ve made all of the advance arrangements and made the parks easier to experience.” ABD tours incorporate the culture of the destinations they are visiting through “...private entertainment, experiences of storytelling, music and dance,” says Hodges. Examples include a Native American dance performance as part of Grand Canyon National Park visits and a private storytelling session with a Native American Blackfoot Indian who tells stories about the creation of the mountains and the streams while in Glacier National Park. Physical activity is a big part of most of ABD itineraries and one that really gets the whole group moving is the 7-day Wyoming Family Adventure, which visits Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Families go horseback riding with local cowboys, white-water rafting down the Snake River and hiking to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point and around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone among tour activities. Accommodations include the dude ranch Brooks Lake Lodge and Old Faithful Snow Lodge near its namesake geyser. Rates start at $3,129 for adults and $2,829 for children, land only. “Our tours are tailor-made with families in mind,” says Hodges. “It’s our mission to take our guests into authentic immersive experiences to experience the emotion, grandeur and culture of the regions we visit.” n Archived related articles (available on recommend.com): Riding North America’s Rails (March 2011) contact information Adventures By Disney: (800) 543-0865; abd.disney.go.com Backroads: (800) 462-2848; backroads.com Tauck: (800) 788-7885; tauck.com july 2011 39 family fun The national parks provide an excellent natural playground for families, and Adventures By Disney (ABD) prides itself on being able to “take our guests on an immersive experience that they could not easily do on their own” as part of its four itineraries that include a national park, says http://www.recommend.com http://abd.disney.go.com http://www.backroads.com http://www.tauck.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend July 2011

Editor's Notes
Design Hotels
Gap Adventures
Spiritual India
Experiencing the Not-So Familiar Vietnam
Sailing the Seas
New World Adventures in Food
Little Whale Cay, The Bahamas
Into the National Parks
Journeys Beyond the Ordinary
Heritage Tours to Europe
Grand Solmar at Land's End Resort & Spa

Recommend July 2011