A wilderness vacation could be the best possible choice for your family getaway. A natural setting is relaxing and gives you the opportunity to enjoy your surroundings without having to answer your e-mail or rush for the phone.

Vacations in the wilderness encourage your family to work together, whether it is setting up a tent, fishing for your dinner, or banding together to avert weather-related challenges. This type of bonding will bring your family closer together, and will probably also give you a funny story or two to tell back home.

You Don’t Have to Rough It on a Family Wilderness Vacation

Family wilderness vacations vary in their level of “roughing it,” so you can choose the challenge that suits you best. If you want the beauty of the wilderness without leaving the luxuries of home, then a wilderness lodge might be for you.

Resorts such as the Wilderness Territory in Wisconsin Dells offer breathtaking scenic views with a variety of lodging options that include traditional hotels, log-themed villas and condos, and cabins. At Wilderness Territory, you and your family can take a boat ride to one of the nearby waterparks during the day, and relax in your own private theater room at night.

Get the Wilderness Experience at Disney

Disney’s Wilderness Lodge combines the wilderness with a bit of history. The architecture, décor, and artifacts that characterize the Lodge hearken back to the Great American Northwest National Park lodges, which cropped up in the United States around the turn of the 20th century.

As with Wilderness Territory, the main attractions at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge are drawn from natural settings—pools, playgrounds, carriage rides, a health club, and watercraft rentals will allow you to experience the outdoors in a totally new way.

Hybrid Wilderness Vacations

If you're interested in something a bit more rustic, consider a Montana vacation plan from a getaway such as Paws Up. Here you can be entirely surrounded by nature in 37,000 acres of wilderness along the Blackfoot River. Your family can hike, ride horses or ATVs, go mountain biking, fly-fish, tube, kayak, raft, and watch the birds and wildlife surrounding you.

In the winter, you can go snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, ice skating, ice fishing, and dog sledding. Paws Up also offers a spa and homes or upscale tents to help you to relax after a day in the woods.

Roughing It

Of course, for the ultimate family wilderness vacation, your family can strap on a pack and hike and camp in any of the United States’s many national forests. You can plan a few days’ hike and camp in campgrounds, or camp along the trail. Setting your own route and carrying all your supplies with you into the woods can be an exhilarating experience, and will provide your family with a sense of accomplishment.

Whichever family wilderness vacation you choose, you will be sure to find yourself more relaxed as you trade in your cell phone for a walking stick—if only for a short while. The peacefulness of the wilderness will bring your family closer together