New National Park Vacations in Yosemite, Bryce & Zion and Arches Designed for Active Families with Children Seven and Older
Billings, MT – Award-winning tour operator Austin-Lehman Adventures (ALA - http://www.austinlehman.com/), the active travel company setting adventure tour standards in The Americas, Europe, Africa and beyond, has launched three new family adventures to iconic national parks this year. The trips embrace “the best of” Yosemite, Bryce & Zion and Arches National Parks.
“National Park vacations have always been a major part of our offerings,” said Dan Austin, founding director, noting that his company first began offering trips into Yellowstone decades ago. “Year after year it’s our Yellowstone Park vacation packages that outsell all others, however we have seen interest in all of our national park vacations grow at an astounding rate.”
Following are details on the three new National Park vacations for families. All are six-day / five-night itineraries.
Yosemite Family Vacation
http://www.austinlehman.com/trips/yosemite_national_park_family/34.php offers departures July 10-15, July 17-22, July 31-Aug. 5 and Aug. 7-1. The per person double rate is $2,398 ($780 single supplement); and from $1,918 to $2,158 for children ages 7 and up. For 2011, Austin-Lehman Adventures’ Preserve a Park Program recipient will be Yosemite National Park, with $100 per guest booked on all Yosemite vacations going to the Yosemite Conservancy. This California adventure gets up close and personal with a 2,425-foot waterfall, a soaring 8,842-foot granite dome, a 3,000-year-old, 300-foot-tall Giant Sequoia tree, with hiking, rock climbing, swimming and rappelling to complete action-packed days.
Utah’s Bryce/Zion Family Vacation
http://www.austinlehman.com/trips/utah_family__bryce_zion/86.php offers departures June 26-July 1, July 3-8 and Aug. 21-26. The per person double rate is $1,998 ($580 single supplement); and from $1,598 to $1,798 for children ages 7 and up. Guests hike past waterfalls, natural springs and hanging gardens in Zion's Virgin River Narrows, ranked one of America's best adventures by National Geographic, ramble streamside in Kolob Canyon beneath sheer, 1,600-foot sandstone walls, take a sunset bike ride through Snow Canyon State Park and hike the magical hoodoo rock formations of Bryce’s Peek-a-Boo and Queens Garden trails.
Arches to Moab Family Vacation
http://www.austinlehman.com/trips//81.php offers departures June 12-17 and June 19-25, with additional adult departures May 29-June 3, June 5-10, Aug. 28-Sept. 2 and Sept. 4-9. The per person rate double is $2,398 ($680 single supplement); and from $1,198 to $2,158 for children ages 7 and up. This trip includes biking into Colorado National Monument’s burnt-orange sheer-walled canyons, rafting Westwater Canyon of the Colorado River beneath ancient granite walls dating back over 1.7 billion years, and studying petroglyphs and rituals of Fremont, Anasazi and Navajo communities of hundreds of years past.
Austin noted that in addition to high demand for Yellowstone vacation packages this year, demand for his Glacier National Park tours is also above average with a 35 percent increase in early season bookings.
“It is clear the national parks of the West continue to be those iconic destinations on everyone’s wish list,’ he said, adding that the “Canadian Rockies are experiencing a comeback this year as well.”
He attributed the interest in national park vacations in great part to the documentary work of Ken Burns ("America's Best Idea") and has announced plans to add a Yellowstone Luxury Safari Camp & Lodge trip in 2012 and National Parks of the Northeast in 2013.
Austin noted that because the 2011 season is filling up, people who want to travel with one of Travel + Leisure’s Best Tour Operators in the World should consider booking their plans now.