Why We Love the Wilderness for Our Family Reunions

by Lisa H., a guest of the Wilderness

Three years ago, our large family of over 60 people, gathered at the Wilderness Resort to celebrate our mom’s 90th birthday.

It was a remarkable weekend for so many reasons and upon our departure, one of the 22 great grandkids said, “Let’s do this again in ten years when Great Grandma turns 100!”

Time is precious and my family quickly decided that ten years was too long to wait to get together again for some serious fun and memories.  So we all agreed, since my mom is still able to travel, we should plan another reunion for the last weekend in July 2026 to make more lasting memories together!

We really feel that the Wilderness Resort is the best place for our large family to meet. We love the Frontier Condos for housing, because each of my mom’s adult children rents a four-bedroom condo unit so they can be together with their own children and their children’s children.

Once everyone is settled into their condos, we love that there is literally something for everyone in our group (ages 17 months to 92) to keep busy. In addition to the indoor and outdoor waterparks, our family takes advantage of the great golf options at The Woods Executive Course and Wild Rock, spa services at Sundara, ziplining, Aquavia Lumina, as well as good hiking and shopping nearby, various eateries and the nearby green space for the big and little kids to play.

We really try hard to keep our reunion weekend simple so more fun can be had. We do organize a golf outing and a hiking trip for those that are interested in participating. Other than those two organized events, we leave the day’s activities up to each individual family. For breakfast and lunch, each family is on their own. In the evenings everyone gathers for family dinnertime together. Our evening meals are simple and kid friendly. This year we hosted a taco bar one night, burgers and brats another, and for our final night we had pizza delivered to one of our condos.

Surprisingly, the evenings have turned out to be where some of our best memories have been made. With everyone gathered, stories are shared across generations, little cousins get to know each other better, games are played and memories are made that we will laugh about for years to come.

When your family spans from coast to coast and all ages, it takes some planning and preparation to make our reunion easy and memorable.

• For starters, we announce our reunion date a minimum of a year in advance to get it on everyone’s calendar.
• Next, we collaborate with Shannon Timmerman in the Wilderness Group Sales Department to secure the dates, reserve the condos and cabanas for the waterparks (they are a must for a home base and poolside shade).
• Finally, tee-times are reserved on The Woods Executive Course for our family golf outing and at Wild Rock for the serious golfers.
• For those wanting to use the Sundara Spa, we also book their services several months in advance for the days of our stay.

This year, after 2 ½ days of family fun, everyone departed a little tired with a big smile on their face declaring another successful family reunion. The reunion weekend truly provided a time to celebrate the end of summer together before we change gears and get in the back-to-school mode.

As school resumes back into session, the kids will be asked to write and share stories about their best summer experiences.  I know many of the great grandkids will talk about their trip to the family reunion at the Wilderness Resort in the WI Dells.

Family time is precious and so are the memories we make together! We are all so grateful for this fun tradition. We will be back soon to the Wilderness to celebrate our precious family!