New Florida Itineraries!

In our first blog entry, we told you that we would have new itineraries in a brand new region soon. Well, today we've loaded on our website two new trips in our Florida region. After extensive research, recent travel to central and south Florida and staff experience in personal travel to these areas, we have created what we think are great trips that incorporate tons of fun and activities.

These Florida RV vacations are ideal for a fun, affordable winter getaway! Dan and Sheri (the owners of Tracks & Trails) spent three weeks this summer combing the areas around Orlando and the Florida Keys. While the theme parks are a great destination for many families, they found that there is so much more to see and do. After their fact-finding mission, they worked with the rest of the team to create two great trips that deliver the outdoor family adventures that Tracks & Trails clients expect but with plenty of kicking-back-on-the-beach time.

The first Florida itinerary is called "Central Florida & the Space Coast". This 7-10 night route starts in the Orlando area and takes you to St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the United States, Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. And yes, we can help you with making this trip what you want it to be by either making the trip a little longer (closer to 10 nights) or by having you spend a little more time in one location that has something you want to see.

The second Florida itinerary is called "Florida Keys and the Everglades". This trip is also 7-10 nights and starts in either Miami or Fort Lauderdale. This trip will take you down the Florida Keys' Overseas Highway to Key West. If you love the water, this is the trip to take! From sailing and snorkeling to swimming with dolphins and walking in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, there is plenty for the family to do including building a sandcastle or two.

So why visit Florida in an RV? We think that you'll see much more than you would from a fixed base at a hotel or condo. Another is the Florida State Parks. These magnificent gems include John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo and Blue Spring State Park in Orange City. And these are just two of the great state parks that we've discovered! And let's not forget Everglades National Park, one of the few places where you can walk the boardwalks over alligators!

Now, where to get started? Click on any of the links above to find out more or just give us a call at 800-247-0970 and ask to talk to one of our fabulous trip consultants. We'll take out the mystery and make your trip easy and effortless. Better to call sooner rather than later, particularly if you are thinking about traveling to either of these locations this winter.

Review of our excursion outfitters

As a staff, we just spent some serious time reviewing the performance of many of our excursion suppliers. These are mostly mom-&-pop companies that provide great activities for our clients while they are out visiting the National and state parks. They provide excursions such as horseback riding, whitewater rafting, whale watching, guided hikes, fly fishing, surfing lessons, ATV & jeep tours, jet boat river trips, guided kayak trips and much, much more.

We understand that each and every one of these outfitters has our clients' families in their hands during their fun and exciting activity. We listen to our clients, read their surveys and review their emails for good and bad comments. We also consider how easy or difficult it is for us to work with them as well.

With that, we specifically looked at the new outfitters that we added last year. With these new outfitters (at least new to our clients), we paid particular attention to every client's experiences to ensure that our future clients have the best vacation possible. We also look at outfitters that we stopped using in 2008. Some went out of business, some areas had less travelers than others and some simply weren't requested by our clients.

On each trip in our catalog, we list optional excursions on our website that we think our clients will want to add to their vacation plans. Unfortunately, due to extreme specialization or their location being more out of the way than most, we do not post every outfitter on our website. So if you are thinking of taking a road trip by RV with Tracks & Trails and you don't see a favorite activity associated with a trip on our website, just ask. You never know what we may have up our sleeves!

It's time for a break!

Sorry that there haven't been too many posts to the blog in the past week or so. We're all taking a deep breath after another record setting season! And some of us have been out traveling doing research on new locations as well as some of our most popular destinations. Dan & Sheri have been in Florida, the Atlantic Maritime provinces of Canada and Yellowstone. Karen has been in Montana and Wyoming, while Nancy has been to Bryce Canyon National Park. Early next month, some of the staff will be traveling to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah for a long weekend of hiking and relaxation!

We've been receiving many surveys from our clients that have traveled this summer. We take the many constructive comments and praises to heart. Every fall and winter we work on making our processes and information even better than the previous year based on everyone's feedback. Thank you to all who take the time to help us make future vacations for our clients the best they can be!