TBD Travel with April

My family recently went to the Wisconsin Dells for the second time for a baseball tournament and while the waterparks are huge and the kids love them (more on that later), I was determined to find the beauty of the Dells.

The first time we went to the Dells, we went on a boat ride through the Upper Dells. We went on the Dells Boat Tour, which had a 2-hour tour through the Upper Dells. It was $40 for an adult and $20 for a child, over the age of 4. They had a fun boardwalk that we walked on halfway through the tour and we got to see the famous jumping dog!

This time around, we decided to head to Devil’s Lake State Park on a morning that we didn’t have a baseball game until 8pm. The state park cost $16 for an out of state daily pass but you could easily spend all day at the state park. If we did it again (and we had a kid who liked hiking) I would do a few hikes in the morning, bring lunch to eat by the water, and then swim in the afternoon. Entering through the North Entrance, you can do the East Bluff hike…..does not seem long as it’s listed at 1.7 miles but it was a very difficult trail. It was very steep and you had to walk on/climb on rocks. We only made it 1 mile before we turned around. We did make it to the highest point in that 1 mile hike (2 miles roundtrip) so there were some beautiful viewpoints, even without going on the entire trail.

Once we got back to our car, we decided to drive to the South Loop to do the balanced rock trail. This trail is listed as .7 miles but rated as difficult and it definitely was difficult. The trail is straight up, climbing on rocks. There was a good path on the rocks but I would not personally take small kids as the hike down was actually more difficult than the hike up. The picture below is from the Balanced Rock Trail.

Devils Lake Tips:

-When you enter through either of the gates for the first time, ask for directions to the other of the park. They gave us a printed out directions sheet to get to the South loop, which was really helpful since we had to leave the park to get there and our phones didn’t have much service.

– Make sure you walk with water and a snack. We thought it was going to be a quick hike so we didn’t take either but wished we had

-Pack lunch and make a day out of the park! There was also a concessions stand listed as well as an ice cream shop, but we didn’t make it to either

-It was only 20 minutes from the Dells so you can also make a quick trip there if you don’t have lots of time.

Waterpark Options

The first time we went to the Dells, we stayed at the Mt Olympus Resort. The hotel itself was not my favorite. Much more of a motel and still quite expensive. The hotel room itself was clean but very basic. The big perk to this hotel was that it included passes to the Mt Olympus Theme Park, which was an amusement park with roller coasters and a big indoor and outdoor waterpark. We had to drive to this theme park/water park but it was only 5 minutes away from our hotel and was really fun. I would highly recommend this theme park, even if you just purchase a day pass and don’t stay at Mt Olympus.

The most recent time we went to the Dells we stayed at the Wilderness Waterpark Resort. This resort was HUGE. It has three indoor and three outdoor waterparks and the best part is that you can walk inside through the resort to all the waterparks. They also have lots of restaurants, gift cards, candy shops throughout the resort as well. The room we had, had two queen beds and an additional seating area with a pull-out couch, which was very nice. We also had a nice size balcony facing the waterpark. If you like to golf, there is a beautiful golf course just behind the resort, within walking distance.

Comparing the two resorts, it was super nice to have the waterpark right at our resort. Our son is a teenager and he could go off with his baseball friends, moving on their own from one waterpark to another without us, which was super convenient. I did miss the roller coasters at the resort we were at, so if you want a variety of waterslides and roller coasters, Mt Olympus would be the better option.

Dells Takeways:

-The downtown Dells and surrounding area is VERY touristy. It’s full of waterparks, restaurants, and a million other museums/stores like Ripley Believe it or Not. You can spend a lot of money quickly if you plan to be there a few days and leave the waterpark

-If you wanted to go on the cheaper end, you could book a regular hotel and pay for day passes to the waterparks.

-Make sure to have enough time to go to a state park or do a boat ride through the Dells. It’s definitely worth getting out of the busyness of the downtown area to see the beauty of the Dells!

-On our last night, we stayed at the Vue Hotel downtown Dells. The hotel was a bit older but had very comfortable beds and we had a beautiful view of the lake. This hotel came with passes to the Land of Natura Waterpark, which is normally $45 per ticket. It was 8 minutes from the hotel and had a huge inflatable waterpark in a man-made lake. We only had about 30 minutes there but we had a great time! Would highly recommend.