Don’t worry — for all you do-it-yourselfers out there, I’ll be sharing tons of ideas on how to plan the best “Little House” vacation to suit your needs.  But for those of you who enjoy taking vacations but aren’t so crazy about all the planning involved, or who would prefer to have a knowledgeable person head up your tour, or who would just enjoy traveling with and getting to know other Laura fans, today’s tip is for you!

Little House Site Tours was founded by Barb and George Hawkins, who take groups of people every summer to the homesites.  “I started Little House Site Tours because of my love for the Little House Sites and my interest in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder,” Barb says. “We have had people come from 14 different states and 23 from other countries.”

Little House Site Tours offers several tour experiences with different options to best suit your taste. Most of the tours are caravan tours, where each family drives in their own vehicle, but the group stays together and all lodging, meals, and attractions are pre-planned for you.  Both camping and motel lodging choices are available to you, and each tour includes two group picnics.  A van tour is also available.  Check out their website for details on each tour, to book yourself on one, or to sign up to receive their brochure.

Barb and George take care to plan special activities for their tour groups. “Our caravan pageant tour group will be having dinner with John Miller in Brookings and finding out more about his latest book,” Barb reports. “On July 25, William Anderson will be in Walnut Grove. Our van pageant tour group will be there that day and we have front row center section seats at the evening pageant.  The sites have been wonderful to us. They know we are coming so they give us excellent guides.”

Taking people to the “Little House” sites isn’t just a job for Barb Hawkins.  It’s a passion.

“I love the groups we have and the challenge of every one,” Barb explains.  “All of our tours are different because of the people who come and all their wonderful interests. We have had pilots, custodians, computer analysts, social workers, nurses, landscapers, teachers – to name a few. Some people on our tours know a lot about Laura’s life. Others know only what they have seen on the tv series. However, by the time they have finished our tour, they are usually saying, ‘I want to read more about Laura.’”

To learn more about Little House Site Tours, check out their website at http://lhsitetours.homestead.com!

I’d like to be the second to welcome you to Beyond Little House!  You know the old saying, two heads are better than one, so it only stands to reason that four heads are better than two.  I think as a team we can provide a better online Laura experience than any one of us could on our own.  But we’d like to hear from you too.  Tell us what you’re looking for; we’ll do what we can to supply it.  We want this to be an interactive site where Laura fans of all levels can come to learn more about our favorite author.

On our “Go Beyond” page, you will see that one way you can go beyond the Little House books is to visit the homesites.  Perhaps you’re starting to think about your summer vacation.  Maybe you’re tired of going to the beach every single year, and you’d like to do something new and interesting with the kids.  Have you ever considered taking a “Little House” vacation?

I spent my entire childhood reading and rereading the “Little House” books. I was fortunate in that I had a mother and a sister who took an interest in Laura too, and a father who has enough of an interest in history and antiques that a Laura trip wasn’t out of the question.  So one summer, we decided it was time to experience the land of “Little House”. (The uninterested brother was bribed with other fun experiences along the way!)

Having grown up in the mountain state of West Virginia, the prairie was like a completely different world. We felt like small Laura must have felt in Little House on the Prairie, when after spending her life under the protective cover of the Big Woods, suddenly everything was exposed.  Everything for miles around in all directions could be seen — but there was little to see but waving grass and that big blue sky.

That first visit to the prairie changed the way I experienced the “Little House” books.  I will share more of the details in upcoming posts, on a site-by-site basis, but if you are looking for somewhere new to go this summer, let me encourage you to consider taking a “Little House” vacation.  Most of the midwestern sites can be easily worked into a driving trip, or if you live far away and don’t care for the lengthy drive out there, you could fly to a central location such as Minneapolis or Sioux Falls, SD, and do a driving trip from that point.

Check out the homesite links on our “Go Beyond” page and see if that doesn’t whet your appetite a little bit.  I will be doing a series of posts over the next several weeks providing vacation-planning information to help you have the best Laura experience possible.  I’ll even provide tips on other attractions along the way you may wish to include for those uninterested family members you may be dragging along!

And if a “Little House” trip this summer is out of the question, tuck this information away in the back of your mind for a future trip.  I guarantee it’s an experience you’ll remember for a lifetime.