What we do for you!

We get this question (or some version of it) all the time - especially during these tough economic times - how much are you charging us for your time and what do I get for it?

Sometimes folks think that all we do is reserve campgrounds. We do so much more than that!

We have been planning RV road trips for over 10 years and know the best places to stay at the right time of year and customized to your family's wants and desires. We work with over a dozen different RV rental companies, over 400 campgrounds and over 300 outfitters so that we can create an amazing once-in-a-lifetime vacation for you and your family.

Above all, we listen. In the planning phase we take into account who you are and what are your interests. Behind the scenes we discuss what would be the best route and what will be the fun experiences you will want along the route. All that information ends up in your Adventure Kit. You'll get tips about traveling by RV, a detailed day-by-day custom itinerary, vouchers for all the components of your trip, hand-traced maps of your route with highlights of things to see and do, and folders of each major destination with our proprietary More Abouts (detailed mini-travel guides) including brochures and magazines of the area (we have tested and researched this extra material so that it is not only informative but relavant to your trip).

Many of our clients have told us that their Adventure Kit is their "bible" on their trip. That's a great compliment and tells us that between the planning efforts and the Adventure Kit, that we more than earn our extra charge. A Tracks & Trails road trip adventure is self-guided and we do our best to provide you with all that you'll need to have a great trip to a National park, state beach or other amazing destination.

If you have any questions, don't give it a second thought and call 1-800-247-0970 and talk to one of our trip consultants to find out if a Tracks & Trails custom road trip is for you!

Happy June! Summer is here!

As Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, we're knee deep in the summer vacation season. May was another great month for Tracks & Trails and now we get to the time when most of our clients are hitting the road! Over the next three months we'll be shipping out our client's Adventure Kits, checking road conditions, looking at weather reports and providing assistance to our clients as they embark on their self-guided driving adventures.

We have a number of websites that we check regularly for road closures, construction delays and wildfire updates. While they are too numerous to list here, it's safe to say that we can get the latest information at short notice for our clients while they are in the midst of their trips. Also, each and every RV rental company that we work with provides 24-hour road assistance. So that way, someone is there to help with any problems with the RV along the road.

We also provide assistance with re-routing when necessary. Many of the destinations have remote roadways that can be impacted by weather, rockfalls, flooding and other natural impacts. We can help with changing routes, checking availability with campgrounds or help with notifying excursion outfitters with new information. One thing that is difficult once trips have started is to cancel stuff mid-trip. Cancellation policies kick into effect. This is why we strongly recommend trip insurance for all of our clients. We just had one client who had a child break an arm and this caused a major restructuring of their trip. If it wasn't for trip insurance, they would have lost much of the cost of their trip.

So, as we say to many of our clients (and to those on the road this summer!), "Happy Trails" and we hope to be able to help out if you run into troubles while on a Tracks & Trails road trip adventure this summer!

Tracks & Trails on MSNBC.com!

Our friends at WeJustGotBack.com wrote an article titled "Of Geysers and Grizzlies: The Best of Yellowstone for Families" and we were mentioned prominently throughout the article. It also showed up on Frommers.com and MSNBC.com. Here are the direct links - all the articles are the same so pick your favorite:

http://www.wejustgotback.com/default.aspx?mod=yellowstone_bestof
http://www.frommers.com/trip_ideas/family
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30563277/

A big thank you to Suzanne Kelleher for writing the article and getting it published on great websites. Our web traffic doubled yesterday!

It's been a little crazy around here!

Just thought I'd let y'all know that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth - we're just very busy right now. It seems that many of our clients have waited to book their summer vacations. So April was a very busy booking month! We are very happy with the additional business and we are getting to the point in the season where we are building Adventure Kits for our clients. These 2 inch thick, 3-ring binders have travel tips, custom itineraries, vouchers for all components of the trip, hand-traced maps with routing and points of interest, our More Abouts (custom mini-travel guides), hand-picked brochures and other destination information.

We'll be back with some more tips, travel ideas and road information in the coming weeks as we get a chance to come up for a breath or two. In the meantime, there is plenty of availability for that great summer vacation that we can help create and make affordable for you and your family. Great destinations like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite await!!! 800-247-0970!!!

Happy New Year!!!

I'm sure that we could all use a better 2009 than 2008. With all the bad news out there, here's some good news - Tracks & Trails had another record year! Thank you so much to all of our clients, especially the ones that took second, third or fourth trips with us and those that referred new clients. It's your experiences and word-of-mouth that helps us continue to create exciting, fun-filled and affordable vacation packages.

Another big thank you to all of our suppliers (and I mean ALL of them)! From hotels to RV rental companies to campground owners to outfitters, the staff at Tracks & Trails thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. You took great care with our clients and went the extra mile to make sure that they not only had their expectations met, but many times they were exceeded!

And a huge thank you to our staff! We can do so much for you because we have a great team that works fabulously together and truly enjoys working with you. It's you that benefits from their extensive experience and knowledge of the itineraries we recommend. We know this is true because we received many surveys that touted their skills and care in helping you.

Here's to a good year in 2009 for everyone! Keep an eye on Tracks & Trails because we will have more to offer including new modes of travel, new starting cities and a new website with new functions that will help you select that Western Driving Adventure that will be a "trip of a lifetime"!

Sheri's Favorites (Part 3)

by Sheri Ballard

Many of our clients are families and many are traveling with children under 6 years old. Just like adults, kids can be just as different with a wide array of interests, levels of activity and attention spans. We have found that having many choices is a good thing since you don't know sometimes from moment to moment what will work for everyone. Here are some of our favorite destinations to visit for families with little ones and older ones as well!

You can get a little of everything when you visit Tucson, Tombstone and the Sonoran Desert. There are great short trails around the giant saguaro cacti, pretty Sabino Canyon, the wonderful Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the touristy, hokey Old Tucson Studios which little kids seem to love and the Air & Space Museum. Plus, the weather is generally nice in the winter and spring, with few bugs. When the small ones start having a meltdown, it’s not too far back to the campsite, and you don’t have to be moving to a new site every couple of days either.

Active kids over 5? For your choice of picks of activities, Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks are hard to beat. Great hiking, rafting, kayaking, canoeing, horseback riding, mountain biking and some other more extreme adventures like rock climbing will keep the family busy, and the scenery and wildlife are great bonuses too. Yellowstone has the highest concentration of geo-thermal features in the world. (We’ve checked out the New Zealand one and it’s not even close to the scale of Yellowstone in terms of size and wilderness/natural experience; and Siberia has yet to have their area accessible to those other than scientists. That leaves Iceland on our travel wishlist). You can choose your level of excitement too in all the activities, which makes it a winner for everyone.

For water based activities, check out the Florida Keys where you can snorkel, sail, kayak and body surf. Seeing manatees, dolphins and sea turtles along with alligators and crocodiles, all in the wild, along with all the sea life at the reefs makes this a huge step up from the typical aquarium & theme park visits that are normally associated with Florida. Way better than standing in line to try out a ride.

Hope all of this information has helped! If you want more, just give us a call at 800-247-0970 and ask to talk to a friendly trip consultant who can put together a custom trip proposal just for you! Or check out our website to find an affordable, fun "trip of a lifetime"!

Sheri's Favorites (Part 2)

by Sheri Ballard


We do get a ton of questions each year, especially about our favorite campgrounds (see the last post) and our favorite places to visit. We so much to see and the great variety of outdoor experiences that are possible in the Western US and Canada, this is not an easy question to answer, but here's my best shot!


We live on the edge of Canyonlands and the Rocky Mountains, so we can visit either region within a two hour drive. Depending on the season, we can hike in the high alpine meadows around Ouray or Aspen, or mountain bike or jeep tour in the canyons and desert around Moab. They’re all great. But when friends come to town and have choices of these great destinations, here’s their take: You can see mountains, beautiful lakes and walk through lovely patches of forest in Europe, Canada and the eastern United States. The really amazing stuff is the vastness of wilderness and red rocks of Canyon Country. And the stillness and quiet you can experience, along with spectacular sunrises and sunsets, make it magical. Canyonlands and Arches National Parks definitely have the “wow”, as do Bryce, Zion and even the Grand Canyon (although it is hard to really get a feel for the size unless you get down off the rim).

Next week I'll tell you about fun trips to take with children under 6! Stay tuned!

Sheri's Favorites (Part 1)

by Sheri Ballard, co-owner of Tracks & Trails

Our family does a lot of traveling and camping (in fact we’ve spent close to 10 weeks away in 2008). We take our two boys along on almost every trip, even if one of us is attending a conference (heck, the hotel room is already paid for, and there is always plenty to see and do, even before or after the conference). Chase’s first road trip was at 6 weeks old, Gabe’s at 4 weeks of age, and we’re still taking trips. So when people ask us questions like “Where’s your favorite place?” or “What is your favorite campground?” or “Where are you going next?” it gets really hard to pick. Each place has its own unique features that are great for the time of life you are in. Some places are easier with small kids (toddlers at the Grand Canyon require extra parental vigilance), and other parks and areas are a lot of fun for adults too when the kids are old enough to participate in most activities, or take that longer hike. As our boys grow older, develop more interests and are able to take longer hikes or excursions, our list of places changes too.

Favorite National Park campground: Zion National Park, Utah. With the great red rocks towering above you, the Virgin River flowing by the campsite and bike trails leaving from the campgrounds, it’s a pretty great spot. The scenery in Zion is amazing and we never get tired of it, even though we’ve been there several times. The Virgin River in the summer and early fall is slow and low, which means there are great sand beaches to dig and relax on, and the water isn’t deep enough or fast flowing enough to worry about the kids getting in too much trouble. The adjacent town of Springdale is just across the bridge and has fun rock shops to poke around in. There’s also some surprisingly good restaurants with creative southwestern cuisine. And you can leave the vehicles set up at the campground, then bike or take the shuttle into the Zion Canyon area for some great short hikes and sightseeing.

--- Look for more tomorrow from Sheri on her favorite place to vacation with their kids ---

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!

Staff experience and how it pays off!

One thing that we want to tell you about when considering using Tracks & Trails - the vast experience of our staff. When you look at the area where we offer itineraries, it's pretty big.

Sometimes our clients have no idea how big it is. Just to give you a basic idea - from Seattle to San Diego is 1,255 miles, from San Francisco to Rapid City is 1,395 miles and Vancouver to Calgary is 970 kilometers (or about 600 miles). Now we usually recommend to keep daily travel to about 100 miles a day. This allows for plenty of time to sightsee, take an excursion, set up camp, maybe get in a hike, get your meals together and just have some time to relax - remember it's your vacation! When you have your list of "must-see's", it sure helps to get some assistance from our staff. If they haven't been there, someone in the office has. We've either camped there, driven through there or even lived in some of the places you'll visit. And the best part is that we listen to what you, your family or group want to do, see and experience before we make any recommendations. We'll probably start with some of the itineraries from our website and then customize it to meet your needs.

And we get all kinds of folks traveling the Tracks & Trails way - the traditional 2 adult families, older couples without kids, one parent families with children, multiple families, family reunions, friends traveling together and business people extending business trips to vacation with their families. All have the same idea in mind - get outdoors, see the National and state parks and enjoy great times together.

So, bottom line, take advantage of our personal experience along with all the experiences of our clients. Our vast knowledge will help you short-cut the planning and worry in planning a great vacation!

Summer time staff picture!

We thought we'd get at least a partial staff picture here so that you could put a name with a face. I'm taking the picture and Dan & Sheri are out and about, so we're not in this one. And that's okay, since most of our clients will be interested in who they talk to the most. From the left, it's Nancy, Karen, Shannon, Lisa and Ann.

Nancy is currently performing product development and trip consulting. If you traveled with us this past year, chances are that Nancy had a big say in how the itinerary was planned.

Karen and Shannon are both trip consultants. Shannon is also known as a "Travel Guru". Their primary function is to be the main contact for our clients. They do their best to make sure that your trip is fun and exciting!

Lisa fills two roles in that she is an "Adventure Advisor" and "Reservations Diva". In addition to providing clients with trip consulting, she makes sure that everyone's travel plans actually happen when and where they are supposed to happen.

Ann is our office manager and bookkeeper. She has been filling two roles as well. First and foremost, she pays all the bills and there's a ton of them in the course of a year. She also has been very instrumental in creating each Adventure Kit. For more on the Adventure Kits, check out our website.

We'll put more pictures up on the blog soon! Including a big group shot from our company trip to Moab last April!

My first blog entry

Well, here it goes...

At Tracks & Trails, we're trying to find out how to best set up a blog so that we can post a variety of information that while separate from our website, will compliment it. We plan to put staff ideas and information on the blog as well as client pictures and comments, and a bevy of other things that we haven't even considered.

If you don't know who we are, check out our website at http://www.tracks-trails.com/ or call us at 1-800-247-0970. We create custom driving adventures that focus mostly driving RV's to the National and state parks in the Western United States and Canada.

New things to look for in the next few months:

• New itineraries in our new Florida region starting in Orlando and Miami
• New modes of transportation and lodging to our most popular destinations - SUV's and lodging as well as RV's and campgrounds
• Great vacations to the Black Hills and Colorado that start in midwestern cities such as Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis.

If you are a client of ours, we hope that you'll give us feedback on some of the fun details of your trip, including pictures.

If you have questions, post them here and we'll do our best to answer them so that everyone can benefit. Remember that this is new for us and we'll continue to make it better for you!