Since we were little, my parents always made family vacations a priority. So many of our favorite memories were made on these vacations and we still laugh about all the crazy adventures that we have had on vacations together. We thought that it would be fun to start a new series on our blog about the vacations that we take with our family and the ways that we do it on a budget. We hope that some of our ideas will help make vacationing with your family a little easier and a little more fun. These aren’t sponsored post, just our honest opinions of what has worked for our family.
There were times that we didn’t have a lot of money while we were growing up and traveling with 6 kids gets pricey, so many times we would just stick close to home. One of our favorite vacation places is a beautiful lake in Northern Utah: Bear Lake.
We have been going to this lake at least once each summer for as long as we can remember and now that we are grown and many of us have kids of our own, we still try to make it up to the lake with as many sisters and their families as possible.
This year, we were actually able to have every sister come to the lake and we had so much fun. We wanted to share with you some of our favorite things that we were able to do as a family and share some ideas for traveling with a large group.
Without further adieu, here are 5 Fun Things To Do in Bear Lake (Garden City), UT:
1. Find a cabin to fit your entire family.
This year, we had 20 people that were coming and so we needed to find a place large enough to fit everyone. We used a website called VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) and happened to find a big cabin that we could rent for a couple days that had more than enough room for everyone (you can see the cabin that we rented by clicking HERE). We love having everyone together under one roof and it was actually cheaper than getting hotel rooms for each family, plus it gave us a kitchen so that we could prepare our own meals. One night we made our Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole and woke up to breakfast all ready for us. We also made Chicken Salad sandwiches and took them down to the lake with us . . . we saved a lot of money and ate really well by being able to make our own food.
We loved the open floor plan of this cabin and the fact that it slept all of us. The other killer feature was the huge deck that overlooked the entire lake- we loved eating our meals out there all together with the gorgeous views!
2. Rent a RZR from Max ATV Rentals.
We have seen and heard all about these RZRs . . . so we decided to put it to the test. The cabin that we were staying in was on a mountainside and there were a ton of trails all around us. We called up Max ATV Rentals and picked up a 4-seater Polaris RZR. These machines are amazing!! They gave us training on how to use it and we were off! This was seriously the best part of the vacation to the kids (and their dads!!!!). We were so impressed with the service from Max ATV Rentals – a trailer is included with the rental, so you just have to hitch it to your car and you can take it wherever you go. Utah has some amazing placing to ride these fun things all around, so if you need a fun family activity that will keep kids (and adults who like to have fun) entertained for hours! Everyone loved this – even the 2 year olds!
3. Eat at LaBeaus
This restaurant has become a family tradition for us and it’s an iconic landmark at Bear Lake! They are most famous for their thick raspberry shakes (Bear Lake is notorious for it’s delicious raspberries!) and they are so good, I literally dream about them in my sleep. I recommend adding hot fudge to your raspberry shake and also try the chicken cordon bleu sandwich. It’s heavenly.
4. Go to the lake!
Obviously, the reason you would visit Bear Lake is to actually head down to the lake. The water in the lake is seriously such a gorgeous blue, which is a rare find in Utah! There is actually a combination of minerals in the lake that give the water it’s incredible blue color, which is how it earned the title of “The Caribbean of the Rockies”.
At the lake, we love to rent wave runners, paddle boards, skimboards, kayaks, and other fun things to do on the water. The kids are usually content with a shovel and a bucket to play with on the sand. We packed our lunches and spent all day playing in the sun!
5. Bike around the lake.
We took the kids’ bikes up to Bear Lake with us (plus a bike trailer for our younger kids) and biked around the trail that goes around the the entire perimeter of the lake (it’s 52 miles long total!). The trail is easy to ride, even for kids, because it is so flat. The lake is beautiful and the surrounding mountains and valleys are absolutely breathtaking. You can also walk and jog the trail if you don’t have a bike.
Also, it’s not something that we did this trip, but if you want something fun to do, head over to Pickleville Playhouse. You get an amazing chuckwagon dinner and an incredible family-friendly theater show for a great price. I would highly recommend it.
Have you been to Bear Lake? If so, is there anything else that you would recommend?
Happy vacationing!
If you are looking to get the best price on your next vacation, we highly recommend GetAway Today. We just booked a Disneyland vacation with them and they got us an amazing deal on the hotel and park hopper passes! They have great vacation packages for not only Disney vacations, but also cruises, Legoland, Hawaii, Mexico, Vegas, San Francisco, and so much more!
Click HERE to look into your next vacation!
All opinions in this post are completely my own . . . we weren’t sponsored to write this post, we just honestly love Bear Lake and it is a family tradition to go there and we wanted to share it with you!
Our friends at MaxATVRentals did give us the RZR for our time up there and all reviews of their company are 100% honest and my own.
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