Vacation Planner: Part 2 — Where Should I Go?

“I’m going on a Little House trip and was wondering which homesites I should visit?”  This is perhaps the most frequent — and yet the most difficult — question I am asked in regard to Little House vacation planning. The answer depends on many factors — where you live, your method of transportation, how much time you have, and your interest level. But here is some information to help you make your decision.

If you are passing through “Little House” territory and only have a short time, obviously you should choose the site you’re driving near. But if the purpose of your trip is primarily “Little House” oriented, my advice is to see as many of the sites as you possibly can.

Burke, New York, home of the Wilder family and setting for Farmer Boy, is the only site that is far removed from the others. It requires a trip of its own, unless you are traveling internationally and are planning to see most of the country while you’re here.

But all of the other “Little House” sites can be rolled into one vacation if you have the time — I’ve done it this way several times and it makes a great driving trip through the midwest. The other option many choose — and I’ve done both of these trips several times, as well — is to do all the northern midwestern sites as one trip, or to do the southern midwestern sites as one trip.

Here is a proposed schedule, allowing for the amount of time the typical family needs to feel like they’ve fully experienced a site. Note that you could switch things around a little, or do the schedule backward, depending on your location and situation, and that if you are short on time you could get away with spending a little less time at each site in order to fit them all in.  You could also lengthen the trip by adding sideline attractions as will be discussed in a future post.  There is enough information contained in the sample schedule to assist you in preparing your own itinerary and knowing about how much time to allot for various activities.

Day 1: Visit Pepin, Wisconsin (allow 2-3 hours); drive that evening to Burr Oak, Iowa. (approximately 2.5 hrs driving time)

Day 2: Spend the morning at Burr Oak (allow a couple hours), then drive to Walnut Grove, Minnesota, stopping at Spring Valley, Minnesota, on the way. (about 4 hrs driving time plus an hour or so to be spent in Spring Valley)

Day 3: Spend the whole day at Walnut Grove. If you go during pageant season (more on that in the next post!), see the pageant at Walnut Grove tonight. Otherwise, you may wish to get your drive to De Smet done during the evening hours to allow for more morning time spent there.

Day 4: Drive to De Smet (about 2 hrs; you may wish to stop for a half hour or so in Tracy, Minnesota, on the way). Spend the day here, and if it’s pageant season, see the pageant that night.

Day 5: You may need some more time in De Smet. If so, spend it.  Many people do De Smet in a day, but I personally think there are far too many activities here to cram into just one day, especially if you have children.  I would allow for at least a day and a half if possible. Whenever you’re ready to leave, start driving toward Independence, Kansas. The drive is a total of about 9.5 hrs.

Day 6: Finish your drive to Independence, visit the real Little House on the Prairie (allow about an hour here) and then drive on to Mansfield, Missouri. (about 3.5 hrs)

Day 7: Spend your day in Mansfield (most people will only need 3-4 hours here), then head for home. Depending on how far you got on Day 5 and how early you left Independence, you may be able to visit Mansfield during the afternoon of Day 6 and shorten your trip by a day.

As you can see, this tour requires a week plus the travel time you need to get to and from Wisconsin and Missouri, and if you’re dragging along those unwilling family members as I mentioned in a previous post, you may need to add another day or two for additional activities to appease them. (Fun family activities along the way will be the subject of a future post.) If you opted for a shorter trip, the northern trip would of course include Pepin, Burr Oak, Spring Valley, Walnut Grove, and De Smet; the southern trip would be Independence and Mansfield.

Some people balk at seeing the “smaller” sites. Yes, it is true, Mansfield, De Smet, and Walnut Grove definitely have the most “stuff” to offer visitors in terms of things to see and do. However, if you’re coming from some distance to see these bigger, more popular sites, we think it well worth the extra couple hours’ drive here and there to experience what the smaller sites have to offer. Each “Little House” site has its own charm, its own flavor, and to fully experience Laura’s life, you’ll want to visit them all if you possibly can.

To find out what each site has to offer, check out our Go Beyond page for links to each one. Figure out how many days you have available to travel, which sites you want to include in your trip, and stay tuned. Now that you know where you want to go, the next question you’ll need to answer before you can plan out the details is when should you go? I will address that in detail in my next vacation planning post!