Where, Oh, Where?

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Aunt Mo

Choosing a family reunion location

One of the most difficult things about finding a family reunion is finding a location. If your family holds reunions at a hotel or on a cruise ship the process is pretty easy- just do an online search, but if you’re looking for someplace different, and perhaps cheaper, the task gets a little more daunting. The BIG challenge is finding a place large enough when you have a BIG family.

On one side of our family, we need to accommodate about 35 family members. We love holding our reunions in Bear Lake, Utah. It’s pretty easy to find a cabin that will accommodate 35, but as our family grows it will get more difficult.

Reunion locations for large family groups

My daughter has married into a family that plans for reunions of about 200 people. Many of them come from all across the country, many flying to the reunion. There are locations that cater to these large groups but the cost gets pretty high. This family has a lot of experience planning for these large reunions and they have a couple of great ideas for keeping costs as low as possible. Their reunion is held every other year and they schedule their reunion during the middle of the week when rates are cheapest. My daughter has been surprised at all the people that show up for these reunions considering that most have to take off work to be there.

This is Blacks Fork River Lodge in Wyoming. It’s a beautiful location that can accommodate large family groups.

Blacks Fork River Lodge is ideal for Family Reunions, Corporate Retreats, or any large group use, situated on 51-plus acres including a ½ mile of the beautiful Blacks Fork River. The lodge is located in Bridger Valley, Wyoming, less than 2 hours drive from Salt Lake City, Utah. The main lodge is a three-story 5,400-plus square foot lodge with 9 bedrooms, 8 baths, large kitchen, living, and dining rooms, oversized back deck, all with beautiful river views. The Lodge rental sleeps 50 with cabin and ranch house included. There is also a 3 bedroom ranch house and a 2 bedroom cabin.

https://blacksforkriverlodge.com/

The May Family Ranch in Idaho is an ideal location for your family reunion, retreat, camping, hunting or fishing trip. They can easily accommodate from 1 to 200 persons. We are in one of the premier recreational and hunting/fishing areas in Idaho. The mountains surrounding us have numerous hiking, biking, &ATV trails.

The Ranch is open year-round and they offer a variety of accommodations. The Lodge sleeps 28 and the Miners’ Cabin sleeps 14. Both are both self-contained units. They have 8-person family cabins, private loft rooms, a bunkhouse that sleeps 26, private rooms with baths, as well as many tent spaces and RV hookups. http://www.mayfamilyranch.com/

Roughing it is fun!

Image result for box elder campground

The Stewart side of our family has grown to over 100 members. We ALWAYS spend our reunions at a campground. This year we will be camping in Mantua, Utah. For our large family we reserve two group area and may soon need to increase that to three. For our reunions we need a location for both RVs and tents.

Our Favorite Family Reunion Location- Elwood Utah

We have the greatest little reunion site It’s called Hansen Park in Elwood Utah. It has a huge covered bowery with a kitchen, a fire pit, restrooms and even a baseball diamond and small basketball court.

Someone must have told the good people of Elwood what a treasure they have because they have now made it as difficult as possible to reserve the park and our family has just given up trying to get it- but if you can find a friend that lives in Elwood they may just be able to help you out.

Image result for rv parks

RV Camping

If your family loves RV’ing, there’s a new online resource for finding your perfect campground. As an avid RV’er, Mark McKinney, used to get quite frustrated with how slow and laggy many of the existing RV & campsite websites were, so he decided to create the website that he wished existed. His website is https://www.findrvparks.com. The site is great for finding a family reunion campground. I searched for the Mantua, Utah campground we’ll be staying in this summer and sure enough, there it was.

If you have an RV, this site is perfect for you. You can use the filters on the site to search for electric, water, waste and whether or not pets are allowed. You can also search for RV campgrounds that have Wi-Fi and laundry.

Mark even wants you to contribute to his collection of reviews and photos for your favorite RV Parks by submitting photos and experiences of your favorite campgrounds.

Space Camping

Related image

I’m glad we’ve locked down the reunion site for our Space themed reunion this year- now I just have to turn it into the “moon” or perhaps “NASA”. That’s one of many decisions I haven’t made yet.

Getting It Right– Choosing A Family Reunion Location

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Aunt Mo

This is a freelance article authored by Sally Fain

Getting It Right – Picking A Family Reunion Location

A family reunion can be great fun, but it can also be fraught with difficulties. Every family is different, and therefore likely to react differently to different situations. While some family reunions may work best if the family remains closely grouped and in proximity to one another at all times, other families may understandably feel that being around one another 24/7 is a high-speed route to irrevocable family breakdown! Choosing the right location for your reunion is therefore crucial to ensure that everything goes according to plan. Luckily, there’s an ideal place out there for everyone!

Reunion Locations- Consider The Kids

One major factor to take into consideration is how many children will be attending your reunion. If it’s not very many, or those that are attending are older teens, then finding somewhere with child-friendly activities is not so much of an issue. However, if a lot of attendees have young kids, then it is crucial to make sure that you book a place which will give the kids plenty to do.

While chatting, reminiscing, and catching up over a few beverages can keep adults occupied for hours, the same is not necessarily true of children. While many kids will, to a certain extent, play together and keep each other entertained, relying solely on the capacity of your children and the children of your relatives to play nicely together can be a recipe for disaster.

You don’t want to spend the whole of your reunion breaking up fights over toys etc, and dealing with bored, grizzly kids. You also would like your offspring to enjoy the reunion as much as you will. As such, it’s probably a good idea to plan ahead and book a place which gives the kids plenty of scope to run around, enjoy themselves, and be nicely tired out by the time the grown-ups retire to the bar for that all-important gossip. Many theme parks like Walt Disney World family reunion packages which are sure to delight both adults and children. If this is perhaps a little too child-centric, try picking a venue with a play-park, a crèche, or a toy-room attached.

Relaxation

Ideally, many people want to combine their family reunion with a vacation. Meeting up with the relatives can be stressful, so many people try and choose a relaxing location in order to ease the pressure a bit. There are plenty of spas and country retreat which offer a relaxing family reunion package, but smaller families could do a lot worse than to book themselves onto a cruise. While some may quail at the thought of being stuck on a boat with their extended family for days, others will be surprised at just how much scope for family fun and gentle, solo relaxation is provided by cruise lines these days. Even the kids will be happy, as plenty of cruise lines offer a considerable amount of child-centric activity. Most cruises make plenty of shore stops in diverse locations, meaning that you can cement your family bonds by experiencing new places and cultures together, or escape from them all in a foreign port for a couple of hours – whatever floats your boat (excuse the pun).

Accommodation Without Compromise

Most families, of course, do not fall neatly into any particular category. They are made up of diverse elements, all of which want different things out of a family reunion. Ideally, therefore, a family reunion venue should provide the opportunity both for teenagers (for example) to be alone with their phones, and for grandparents to spend a reasonable degree of time with their grandchildren without compromising either party too much. Parents will probably need a certain amount of space in which to corral their children and recover from familial overload, while at the same time having lots of facetime with relatives they’ve not seen for years.

A cabin vacation can accommodate a variety of such needs, without too much compromise. Retiring to individual cabins (or the beautiful countryside in which many such cabin facilities reside) gives those who need it some alone time, while those who wish to can gather and chat in one of the other cabins. Family can gather together at mealtimes, thus ensuring that time for connection and catch-up is given to everyone. A cabin vacation (or similar) gives individuals a degree of independence while ensuring that family connection still remains at the forefront of the reunion. Perfect for large groups with diverse needs!

Location, Location- What’s Your Favorite Family Reunion Location?

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Aunt Mo

A real estate agent will tell you- location is everything when buying a house and family reunion planners will heartily agree that when planning a reunion- LOCATION is everything!

Tell us about your favorite family reunion location- where is it at and why do you go there?

For many families, returning to a much-loved reunion destination has become an annual tradition. After several years that location may feel more like home than home itself.

Our Favorite Family Reunion Location

Family Reunion Camping

In the years before Hansen Park and the years after- we have spent many family reunions in group site C and D in Box Elder Campground. It’s a little more like “roughing it” then Hansen Park and the kids get dirtier because there is a lot more dirt. It’s true camping and all of us except the mom’s that have kids that crawl love it. There are lots of picnic tables, restrooms and beautiful shade trees. Parking can sometimes be a challenge but we’ve learned to adapt.

If you’re looking for a campground you can find a list of campgrounds in the US and make reservations at http://www.reserveamerica.com/

Family Reunion at the Lake

In the years that we had access to a boat we held our family reunions at Bear Lake. The water is some of the bluest I’ve ever seen but hold your reunion in June and it will be some of the coldest water you’ve ever jumped in. You can camp at locations such as Rendezvous Beach or rent a condo close by.

If you’re looking for a list of lakes in North America you could use http://www.greatlakesnorthamerica.com/ as a resource.

Of course, if I had unlimited resources I would probably choose a cruise for my favorite family reunion location, but since that isn’t an option, you’ll find my family campin’ out at good ole campsite C and lovin’ every minute of it!

Tell us about your favorite family reunion location

Tell us about your favorite family reunion location- where is it at and why do you go there? It may feel like you’re giving up your favorite fishin’ hole but please share- what works for your family?

Aunt MO

Family Reunion Helper

Your number one source for family reunion organization

Tag Archives: family reunion locations