The Wisconsin Dells

The Wisconsin Dells certainly has changed throughout the years and continues to evolve. Once known as the city of Kilbourn, the Wisconsin Dells was officially born in 1931, nearly 200 years after it was first discovered by French explorers. From its humble and rough beginnings, this once small town is now a vacation destination to over 2,000,000 people every year. Just 60 minutes north of Madison, the Wisconsin Dells offers year-round entertainment and some of the Midwest’s most beautiful scenery.

If you haven’t been to the Wisconsin Dells in awhile, you owe it to yourself to pay it a visit again. If you haven’t been there at all, you don’t know what you’ve been missing. Once known for a series of motels with pools, go-carts, and nature scenery, this bucolic town has turned into a mega-Midwest family getaway. There are now over half a dozen luxurious resorts featuring tens of thousands of feet of indoor and outdoor waterparks that can be used virtually at any time of the year.

Among the most popular resorts are what I like to call the “Big Four” – the African-themed Kalahari Hotel and Convention Center, the woodsy, family-favorite, Great Wolf Lodge (formerly known as the Black Wolf Lodge), Chula Vista Resort, and the outdoor-themed Wilderness Hotel and Golf Resort. Just because there is a foot of snow on the ground, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy taking a plunge down a 4-story tall waterslide at one of the resorts’ indoor waterparks that seem to grow larger each year.