388 great spots for a family reunion
Hand-curated parks, cities, lakes, and outdoor destinations for groups of 20–80. Real things to do, lodging logistics, and organizer tips. No AI fluff.
Showing 313 of 313 spots
30A (South Walton), Florida
Scenic Highway 30A runs 24 miles along the South Walton coast between Destin and Panama City Beach - a string of 16 plan…
Acadia National Park
Acadia is the Northeast's signature national park: granite headlands, pink sunrise summits, and a working harbor town (B…
Adirondack Park
The Adirondacks are 6 million acres of mountains, lakes, and forest in upstate New York - the largest publicly-protected…
Albuquerque
Albuquerque sits on the Rio Grande at 5,300 feet, ringed by the Sandia Mountains and an hour from Santa Fe. For a reunio…
Amelia Island, Florida
Amelia Island is a 13-mile barrier island at Florida's northeast corner, just 4 miles south of Georgia - the northernmos…
Anna Maria Island, Florida
Anna Maria Island is a 7-mile barrier island on Florida's Gulf Coast just north of Sarasota, connected to the mainland b…
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
The Apostle Islands are 21 Lake Superior islands scattered off the Bayfield Peninsula of northern Wisconsin - a National…
Arches National Park
Arches packs more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches into 76,000 acres just north of Moab - the densest concentration o…
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville sits at 2,134 feet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, anchored by the Biltmore Estate (the…
Assateague Island National Seashore
Assateague Island is a 37-mile barrier island stretching from Ocean City, Maryland, down into Virginia - protected as a…
Atlanta
Atlanta is the most-connected reunion city in the Southeast - Hartsfield-Jackson is the busiest airport in the world, an…
Austin
Austin packs a lot into a compact downtown built around Lady Bird Lake - a 10-mile hike-and-bike trail loop, the Texas C…
Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park protects 244,000 acres of striped, eroded buttes, spires, and mixed-grass prairie an hour east of…
Bald Head Island, North Carolina
Bald Head Island sits at the southern tip of North Carolina's Cape Fear peninsula — a 12,000-acre barrier island accessi…
Baltimore
Baltimore is an underrated reunion city - a walkable Inner Harbor anchored by the National Aquarium, a thriving food sce…
Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier protects more than 33,000 acres of canyon-and-mesa country in northern New Mexico, including hundreds of ances…
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor is the gateway town to Acadia National Park - the most visited national park in the northeastern US and a gen…
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Bay St. Louis sits on the western end of the Mississippi Gulf Coast — a small artsy town of 9,500 on Bay St. Louis (the…
Bayfield, Wisconsin
Bayfield is a 500-resident Lake Superior village on the Chequamegon Bay - the gateway to the Apostle Islands National La…
Bemidji, Minnesota
Bemidji is a 15,000-resident city at the north end of the Brainerd Lakes region in north-central Minnesota - billed as t…
Bend, Oregon
Bend sits at 3,623 feet on the dry east side of the Cascades, where the Deschutes River cuts through the high desert and…
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake sits at 6,750 ft in the San Bernardino Mountains, about two hours from Los Angeles. It's a 7-mile-long alp…
Big Bend National Park
Big Bend is one of the most remote national parks in the lower 48 - over 800,000 acres along a deep curve of the Rio Gra…
Big Sur
Big Sur is not a single national park but a 90-mile stretch of California Hwy 1 between Carmel-by-the-Sea and San Simeon…
Biloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi sits on a peninsula jutting into Mississippi Sound on the Gulf Coast - a resort city that has reinvented itself s…
Birmingham
Birmingham has quietly become one of the more affordable and meaningful Southern reunion cities. The Birmingham Civil Ri…
Biscayne National Park
Biscayne National Park sits just south of Miami and is 95% water - 173,000 acres of mangrove shoreline, shallow turquois…
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the narrowest, deepest, and most dramatic canyon in the Lower 48 - at one point only 40…
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a 469-mile scenic drive along the spine of the southern Appalachians, running from Shenandoah…
Blue Ridge, Georgia
Blue Ridge is a small mountain town (pop. 1,400) at the southern tip of the Appalachians in Fannin County, Georgia, set…
Boone, North Carolina
Boone sits at 3,333 ft in the North Carolina High Country - the highest small city east of the Mississippi - 90 miles no…
Boston
Boston is the most walkable big-city reunion in the country. The Freedom Trail connects 16 historic sites in 2.5 miles,…
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman sits at 4,820 ft in the Gallatin Valley of southwest Montana - a college town (Montana State University, 16,000…
Branson, Missouri
Branson sits in the Missouri Ozarks at the south edge of the state, ringed by three lakes (Table Rock, Lake Taneycomo, B…
Breckenridge, Colorado
Breckenridge is a genuine year-round mountain resort town at 9,600 feet in Summit County, Colorado - the highest incorpo…
Brevard, North Carolina
Brevard sits in Transylvania County at 2,230 ft elevation - 35 miles south of Asheville, 100 miles north of Atlanta, and…
Broken Bow Lake
Broken Bow Lake is 14,000 acres of clear emerald water in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma - one of the c…
Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon is the smallest of Utah's Mighty 5 by acreage but among the most striking - a series of natural amphitheate…
Bryson City, North Carolina
Bryson City sits at the confluence of the Tuckasegee River and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park boundary in Swain…
Buffalo
Buffalo is the affordable Great Lakes / Niagara reunion city - 25 miles from Niagara Falls, with a downtown that's seen…
Buffalo National River
The Buffalo National River was the first stream in the US to be designated a National River (1972) - a 135-mile free-flo…
Bull Shoals Lake
Bull Shoals Lake is a 45,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the White River, straddling the Arkansas-Mis…
Caddo Lake
Caddo Lake is a 26,000-acre natural lake and bayou system on the Texas-Louisiana border - the only naturally occurring l…
Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Canyon de Chelly is unlike any other NPS site: it sits entirely on the Navajo Nation, and the canyon floor is still home…
Canyon Lake
Canyon Lake is an 8,240-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in the Texas Hill Country, about 35 miles north of S…
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands is Utah's largest national park - 337,000 acres carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers into four distinct d…
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is the 70-mile-long hooked peninsula that defines southeastern Massachusetts - Hyannis, Chatham, Wellfleet, and…
Cape Cod National Seashore
Cape Cod National Seashore protects 43,500 acres along the Outer Cape - 40 miles of Atlantic-facing beach, dramatic 100-…
Cape May, New Jersey
Cape May sits at the southern tip of New Jersey - America's oldest seaside resort, with the entire downtown a National H…
Cape San Blas, Florida
Cape San Blas is a 17-mile peninsula on Florida's Forgotten Coast — the stretch of Panhandle between Panama City and Apa…
Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef is the least-visited of Utah's Mighty 5 and the one that quietly delights every reunion that stumbles into…
Captiva Island, Florida
Captiva is the quieter northern sister of Sanibel Island — a 4-mile barrier island off Fort Myers, accessible only by th…
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad Caverns is the rare reunion park where the main attraction is underground, air-conditioned by nature, and equal…
Catalina Island, California
Catalina is a Channel Island 22 miles off the Los Angeles coast - 76 sq mi of mountainous terrain (Mt Orizaba reaches 2,…
Center Hill Lake
Center Hill Lake is a 18,220-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Caney Fork River in middle Tennessee - k…
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Canyon was the political, ceremonial, and trade center of the ancestral Pueblo world from roughly 850 to 1150 CE -…
Channel Islands National Park
Channel Islands protects five islands off the Southern California coast - Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, a…
Charleston
Charleston is the most-visited small reunion city in the South - pastel Rainbow Row, the Battery, the cobblestone Histor…
Charlotte
Charlotte is a workhorse Southeast reunion city - Charlotte Douglas (CLT) is the seventh-busiest airport in the world an…
Chattanooga
Chattanooga sits in a U-bend of the Tennessee River at the foot of Lookout Mountain - once the most polluted city in Ame…
Cherokee Lake
Cherokee Lake is a 30,300-acre TVA reservoir in northeastern Tennessee - one of the least-crowded major lakes in the TVA…
Cherokee, North Carolina
Cherokee, NC is the capital of the Qualla Boundary - the 57,000-acre sovereign land of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indi…
Chicago
Chicago is a Midwest reunion anchor: a flat, walkable downtown wrapped around an 18-mile lakefront with two airports a C…
Cincinnati
Cincinnati straddles the Ohio River with one of the more underrated downtowns in the Midwest - restored 19th-century Ita…
Clearwater Beach
Clearwater Beach is a 3-mile barrier-island beach on Florida's Gulf coast - sugar-white sand, calm warm Gulf water, and…
Cleveland
Cleveland packs a lot of reunion-friendly venues into a small, affordable downtown. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grea…
Cloudcroft, New Mexico
Cloudcroft sits at 8,663 feet in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico - a tiny mountain village (population ~…
Cloudland Canyon State Park
Cloudland Canyon is Georgia's most dramatic state park - a 3,485-acre preserve cut into the western escarpment of Lookou…
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene sits on the north end of 25-mile-long Lake Coeur d'Alene in the Idaho panhandle, 35 minutes east of Spokan…
Columbus
Columbus is the easy Midwest reunion pick that few outside Ohio consider. It's flat, affordable, and growing fast - anch…
Congaree National Park
Congaree protects the largest intact old-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States - 27,000 acres of t…
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village of 1,800 at the southern foot of Otsego Lake in central New York - the lake James Fenimore Coop…
Coronado Island, California
Coronado isn't actually an island - it's a tied-island (tombolo) connected to the mainland by the 7-mile-long Silver Str…
Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States - 1,943 feet - sitting inside the collapsed caldera of an ancient v…
Crater of Diamonds State Park
Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas is the world's only diamond-producing site where the public can…
Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte sits at 8,885 ft in west-central Colorado, 30 minutes north of Gunnison and 4.5 hours from Denver. The tow…
Custer State Park
Custer State Park is South Dakota's flagship park - 71,000 acres of Black Hills granite, ponderosa forest, and rolling o…
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Cuyahoga Valley is the surprise: a 33,000-acre national park sandwiched between Cleveland and Akron, with a working scen…
Dahlonega, Georgia
Dahlonega is a historic gold-rush town in the north Georgia mountains - site of the first major US gold rush in 1828, pr…
Dale Hollow Lake
Dale Hollow Lake is consistently recognized as one of the clearest lakes in the entire TVA system - its deep blue water…
Dallas
Dallas works for a reunion when your group wants polished downtown logistics, a strong arts district, and easy access to…
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States - 3.4 million acres straddling the California–…
Deep Creek Lake
Deep Creek Lake is Maryland's biggest lake - 3,900 acres in the western Maryland highlands at 2,462 feet elevation. It's…
Denali National Park and Preserve
Denali is six million acres of subarctic Alaska wilderness centered on the highest peak in North America (20,310 ft). It…
Denver
Denver sits at exactly 5,280 feet - the Mile High City - and works unusually well for family reunions because nearly eve…
Destin
Destin sits on Florida's Emerald Coast - the Panhandle stretch where the Gulf turns electric green over white quartz san…
Detroit
Detroit has quietly become one of the more affordable big-city reunion picks in the country. The downtown core - wrapped…
Devil's Lake State Park
Devil's Lake is Wisconsin's most visited state park - a 10,000-acre natural treasure where 500-foot quartzite bluffs ris…
Devils Tower National Monument
Devils Tower is a 867-foot stone monolith - the country's first national monument, designated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1…
Door County, Wisconsin
Door County is a 70-mile peninsula jutting north into Lake Michigan, separating Green Bay from the open lake. The landsc…
Dry Tortugas National Park
Dry Tortugas is one of the most remote national parks in the system: 100 square miles of open water and seven small keys…
Durango, Colorado
Durango is a Victorian-era railroad town in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, and it is one of the best-k…
Edisto Island, South Carolina
Edisto Island is the un-resort island — 45 miles south of Charleston, no chain hotels, no traffic lights for most of its…
Emerald Isle, North Carolina
Emerald Isle sits at the west end of Bogue Banks — a 21-mile barrier island anchoring North Carolina's Crystal Coast (th…
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park sits at 7,522 feet at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, surrounded by 14,000-ft peaks and on…
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Eureka Springs is the most architecturally unique small town in the Ozark Mountains - a Victorian hill town of 2,000 res…
Everglades National Park
The Everglades is a 1.5 million-acre wetland - "river of grass" - covering the southern tip of Florida. For a family reu…
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are eleven long, narrow glacial lakes in central New York - Seneca and Cayuga are the longest at nearly…
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff sits at 7,000 feet in northern Arizona's Ponderosa pine forest, in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks (the…
Folly Beach, South Carolina
Folly Beach is Charleston's beach - a 6-mile barrier island 12 miles southwest of downtown Charleston, connected by the…
Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Fort Myers Beach occupies Estero Island on Florida's southwest Gulf Coast - a 7-mile barrier island that for decades was…
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the 13th-largest U.S. city and the cultural counterweight to Dallas - "Where the West Begins," the Stockya…
Galena, Illinois
Galena is a perfectly preserved 19th-century Mississippi River lead-mining town in the extreme northwest corner of Illin…
Galveston Island, Texas
Galveston is Houston's island - a 32-mile barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles southeast of downtown Houston,…
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Gatlinburg is the undisputed gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park - the most visited national park in the US w…
Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio
Geneva-on-the-Lake is a 1,300-person Lake Erie summer resort village in Ashtabula County, 1 hour east of Cleveland - bil…
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Glacier Bay sits in southeast Alaska's Inside Passage, a 3.3-million-acre marine wilderness 50 miles west of Juneau. It…
Glacier National Park
Glacier sits on the Canadian border and packs over a million acres of glacier-carved peaks, more than 700 lakes, and the…
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Glen Canyon NRA is 1.25 million acres of red-rock canyon country built around Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir…
Grand Canyon National Park
The Grand Canyon is 277 river-miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and over a mile deep - and almost everyone in your reunio…
Grand Lake O' the Cherokees
Grand Lake O' the Cherokees - universally called 'Grand Lake' by locals - is a 46,500-acre reservoir in northeastern Okl…
Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton sits just ten miles south of Yellowstone and offers a more concentrated, less sprawling reunion experience.…
Great Basin National Park
Great Basin is the least-visited national park in the lower 48 west of the Mississippi - and that's precisely why it wor…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The Smokies are the most-visited national park in the United States - and for a multi-generational reunion, that's a fea…
Greers Ferry Lake
Greers Ferry Lake is a 40,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in Cleburne County, Arkansas - one of the clea…
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Guadalupe Mountains contains the four highest peaks in Texas, including 8,751-ft Guadalupe Peak - the state high-point.…
Gulf Shores
Gulf Shores and its neighbor Orange Beach sit on a 32-mile stretch of sugar-white-sand barrier island in southern Alabam…
Haleakalā National Park
Haleakalā protects the dormant 10,023-foot summit volcano that defines East Maui, plus the lush Kīpahulu coastal section…
Hartford
Hartford is Connecticut's capital and the insurance industry's historic American hub - a compact downtown set on the Con…
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes is a 335,000-acre showcase of two of the world's most active volcanoes - Kīlauea and Mauna Loa - on th…
Helen, Georgia
Helen is one of Georgia's most unusual towns: a former lumber village that was transformed in 1969 into a replica Bavari…
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Hendersonville sits 25 minutes south of Asheville at 2,200 ft elevation in Henderson County, NC. Population 15,500 in th…
Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island is a 12-mile-long Lowcountry barrier island on South Carolina's Atlantic coast, with hard-packed sand…
Hocking Hills State Park
Hocking Hills State Park is Ohio's most dramatic landscape and its most visited state park system - a series of Black Ha…
Hocking Hills, Ohio
Hocking Hills State Park is Ohio's most visited state park - a dramatic landscape of sandstone gorges, waterfalls, and a…
Holland, Michigan
Holland is a 35,000-person Dutch-heritage city on Lake Macatawa in West Michigan, 8 miles inland from Lake Michigan beac…
Honolulu
Honolulu - and Waikiki specifically - is the most family-reunion-friendly Hawaiian destination because the airport (HNL)…
Hot Springs National Park
Hot Springs is the most unusual national park in the system: 5,500 acres of forested ridge that wraps around the histori…
Houston
Houston is the most diverse big city in America and the reunion options reflect that - Space Center Houston, the Museum…
Indiana Dunes National Park
Indiana Dunes is a 15-mile stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline 50 miles east of downtown Chicago. The headline is the bea…
Indianapolis
Indianapolis works for a family reunion because it's been built for groups: a tight, walkable downtown organized around…
Isle Royale National Park
Honest assessment first: Isle Royale is not a typical family-reunion destination. It's a remote 45-mile-long island in n…
Itasca State Park
Itasca is Minnesota's oldest state park (1891) and the birthplace of the Mississippi River - a 32,690-acre Northwoods pr…
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Jackson Hole is the 48-mile-long valley between the Tetons (west) and the Gros Ventre Range (east) in northwest Wyoming,…
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is the under-the-radar Florida reunion city - the largest city by area in the contiguous U.S., with 22 mile…
Jekyll Island, Georgia
Jekyll Island is a 4,000-acre barrier island off the Georgia coast - and unlike most of Georgia's Golden Isles, it is al…
Jordan Lake
Jordan Lake is a 14,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in Chatham County, NC - the primary recreation lake…
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree was elevated from national monument to national park status in 1994 and protects 795,156 acres where the hig…
Kansas City
Kansas City has more fountains than any city in the world except Rome and a barbecue tradition that anchors most reunion…
Kelley's Island, Ohio
Kelley's Island is a 2,800-acre island in Lake Erie - Ohio's largest inland island, reached by a 20-minute ferry from Ma…
Kenai Fjords National Park
Kenai Fjords sits on the southern coast of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, two and a half hours by road from Anchorage. It is…
Kerr Lake (Buggs Island)
John H. Kerr Reservoir - known locally as Buggs Island Lake - is a 50,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on…
Kiawah Island, South Carolina
Kiawah Island sits 25 miles south of Charleston on a 10-mile barrier island fronting the Atlantic, hemmed in on the back…
Killington, Vermont
Killington is the largest ski resort in eastern North America - 1,509 skiable acres across 6 mountains, the highest lift…
Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon was established in 1940 and has been jointly managed with Sequoia National Park since 1943. It protects 461…
Knoxville
Knoxville sits in East Tennessee at the foothills of the Smokies - 35 miles from Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountain…
Lake Arrowhead
Lake Arrowhead is a 5,100-foot mountain lake in the San Bernardino National Forest, about 90 minutes from Los Angeles. T…
Lake Burton, Georgia
Lake Burton is the highest and oldest of Georgia Power's six-lake Tallulah River chain, sitting at 1,867 ft in Rabun Cou…
Lake Conroe
Lake Conroe is a 21,000-acre reservoir on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, 45 miles north of downtown Houston on…
Lake Conroe
Lake Conroe is a 21,000-acre reservoir on the West Fork San Jacinto River in Montgomery County - Houston's lake, 50 mile…
Lake Cumberland
Lake Cumberland is a 65,000-acre reservoir in southern Kentucky - the largest lake in the eastern US and the country's h…
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Lake Geneva sits on the north shore of Geneva Lake in southeast Wisconsin - a 7.6 mile spring-fed glacial lake whose sho…
Lake George
Lake George - 'the Queen of American Lakes' - is a 32-mile-long, glass-clear lake in the southeast Adirondacks, three ho…
Lake Granbury
Lake Granbury is a 8,310-acre reservoir on the Brazos River 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth - the center of one of Texa…
Lake Guntersville
Lake Guntersville is a 69,000-acre TVA reservoir on the Tennessee River in northeastern Alabama - the largest lake in th…
Lake Hartwell
Lake Hartwell is a 56,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Savannah River, straddling the Georgia-Sout…
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Lake Havasu City is one of the most unlikely urban success stories in Arizona - a planned resort city on the Colorado Ri…
Lake James
Lake James is a 6,500-acre reservoir nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Burke County, NC - the westernmo…
Lake Lanier
Lake Lanier is the Southeast's most-used Corps of Engineers reservoir - 38,000 acres of blue Georgia water 35 miles nort…
Lake Lewisville
Lake Lewisville is the DFW Metroplex's primary recreational lake - a 30,000-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir 30 miles n…
Lake Lure, North Carolina
Lake Lure sits in the Hickory Nut Gorge in Rutherford County, North Carolina - 27 miles southeast of Asheville, 65 miles…
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume, formed by Hoover Dam in 1935 and managed by the Natio…
Lake Michigan Shores
Michigan's Lake Michigan shoreline runs nearly 300 miles from the Indiana border up past Sleeping Bear Dunes - long stre…
Lake Murray
Lake Murray is a 50,000-acre reservoir west of Columbia, South Carolina - one of the most popular reunion lakes in the s…
Lake Norman
Lake Norman is North Carolina's largest man-made lake - 32,475 acres, 520 miles of shoreline, 30 minutes north of Charlo…
Lake Oconee, Georgia
Lake Oconee is Georgia's second-largest lake - 19,050 acres, 374 miles of shoreline, sitting 75 miles east of Atlanta in…
Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks is a 54,000-acre reservoir in central Missouri with 1,150 miles of shoreline - more than the Californ…
Lake of the Woods
Lake of the Woods is one of the largest lakes in the United States - 950,000 acres straddling the Minnesota–Manitoba–Ont…
Lake Ouachita
Lake Ouachita is a 40,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in the Ouachita Mountains west of Hot Springs, Ark…
Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid is the resort heart of the Adirondacks - a Main Street wrapped around Mirror Lake (the smaller, walkable lak…
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is the dramatic outlier of US reunion lakes - a 186-mile-long reservoir on the Colorado River, ringed by ver…
Lake Rabun, Georgia
Lake Rabun is the middle of Georgia Power's six-lake Tallulah River chain - 1,690 ft elevation, 835 acres, 25 miles of s…
Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire
Lake Sunapee sits in the Dartmouth-Sunapee region of west-central New Hampshire - 9 miles long, 1,100 acres, and ringed…
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a 191-square-mile alpine lake straddling the California-Nevada line, the largest alpine lake in North Amer…
Lake Tahoe (Nevada Side)
Lake Tahoe straddles the California–Nevada border at 6,225 feet in the Sierra Nevada - North America's largest alpine la…
Lake Texoma
Lake Texoma is a 93,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Red River, straddling the Texas-Oklahoma bord…
Lake Travis
Lake Travis is an 18,930-acre Colorado River reservoir that serves as Austin's primary recreational lake - 30 miles nort…
Land Between the Lakes
Land Between the Lakes (LBL) is a 170,000-acre National Recreation Area on the narrow peninsula between Kentucky Lake (T…
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is the most underrated reunion city in America: a major airport (LAS) with cheap flights from anywhere, huge r…
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Lassen Volcanic is the most underrated of California's national parks - and one of the rare places on Earth where all fo…
Letchworth State Park
Letchworth is the "Grand Canyon of the East" - a 17-mile-long, 600-ft-deep gorge cut by the Genesee River through wester…
Lewisville Lake
Lewisville Lake is a 29,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir 20 miles north of Dallas - the closest major lak…
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is the maximum-options reunion city: every cuisine, every activity, every age range, all year round. The tra…
Louisville
Louisville is a compact, river-anchored reunion city that offers more than the Kentucky Derby. The Louisville Slugger Mu…
Luray, Virginia
Luray is a small Virginia town in Page County, nestled between the Massanutten Mountain to the west and the Blue Ridge (…
Mackinac Island Family Reunion
Mackinac Island sits in the straits between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, a 4.35-square-mile limestone island w…
Mackinaw City, Michigan
Mackinaw City is the mainland gateway to Mackinac Island - a small resort town at the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula…
Maggie Valley, North Carolina
Maggie Valley sits in Haywood County, North Carolina, at 3,000 ft elevation in a long flat valley along Jonathan Creek -…
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world - over 426 mapped miles of passages - and a UNESCO World Heri…
Manchester, Vermont
Manchester sits in the Battenkill Valley of southern Vermont - a 4,000-person village at the base of Mount Equinox (3,84…
Marco Island, Florida
Marco Island is the largest of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands — the chain of mangrove islands that fades into the Evergl…
McCall, Idaho
McCall sits on the south shore of Payette Lake at 5,030 ft in west-central Idaho, 2 hours north of Boise. The town is a…
Memphis
Memphis is a music-history reunion city with a downtown core organized around two anchors: Beale Street's blues clubs an…
Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde is unlike any other Western park - it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving more than 5,000 archaeologica…
Miami
Miami is the international reunion city - direct flights from across Latin America and Europe, a vibrant Cuban-American…
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the underrated alternative to a Chicago reunion: same Lake Michigan shoreline, far less traffic, half the h…
Minneapolis
Minneapolis works for a family reunion because it punches above its size: a compact, walkable downtown threaded by the M…
Mohican State Park
Mohican State Park sits in the heart of Ohio's covered bridge country - a 1,110-acre park carved by the Clear Fork of th…
Mount Rainier National Park
Mount Rainier is a 14,410-foot active stratovolcano two hours south of Seattle, surrounded by some of the largest old-gr…
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Mount Rushmore is the iconic 60-foot granite portrait of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln carved into the B…
Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach is the most-popular Southeast beach reunion destination - 60 miles of white-sand Grand Strand coastline, a…
Mystic, Connecticut
Mystic sits on the Mystic River in southeastern Connecticut, 2 miles up from Fishers Island Sound - a 4,000-person villa…
Nashville
Nashville built its reputation as Music City and a reunion now organizes naturally around live music - but the city has…
Natural Bridges National Monument
Natural Bridges protects three of the world's largest natural sandstone bridges - Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo - carved…
New Buffalo, Michigan
New Buffalo is the westernmost Michigan beach town - 75 minutes from downtown Chicago and the literal gateway to Harbor…
New Orleans
New Orleans is one of the most distinctive U.S. reunion cities - a 13-square-block French Quarter that feels foreign, th…
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
America's newest national park (re-designated in 2020) is built around a 1,000-foot-deep sandstone gorge and one of the…
New York City
New York City is the easiest big-group reunion city in the country: five boroughs, three major airports, the densest hot…
Niagara Falls State Park
Niagara Falls State Park is the oldest state park in the United States - designated in 1885 and built around the America…
Norris Lake
Norris Lake is TVA's first reservoir - completed in 1936 - and remains one of the clearest, cleanest lakes in the entire…
North Cascades National Park
North Cascades is the wildest of Washington's three big national parks - over 300 glaciers, jagged granite peaks, and tu…
North Conway, New Hampshire
North Conway is the resort village at the heart of the Mount Washington Valley - a four-mile main strip with the iconic…
Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City is Maryland's classic Mid-Atlantic beach resort - a 10-mile-long barrier island with a full 3-mile wooden boa…
Ocean City, New Jersey
Ocean City, NJ bills itself as 'America's Greatest Family Resort' - and that claim has real substance. The city is offic…
Ohiopyle State Park, Pennsylvania
Ohiopyle State Park is western Pennsylvania's outdoor destination - a 20,500-acre park built around the spectacular Youg…
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City has been quietly transforming since the 1990s - what used to be a one-and-done flyover has become one of t…
Old Forge, New York
Old Forge sits at the southwestern doorstep of Adirondack Park, anchoring the eight-lake Fulton Chain that stretches nor…
Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is three parks in one: glaciated mountains, temperate rainforest, and 73 miles of wild Pacific coa…
Omaha
Omaha sits on the Missouri River across from Council Bluffs, Iowa - a flat, walkable city of 500,000 with a remarkably s…
Orlando
Orlando is the all-time most-popular family reunion destination in the U.S. - Walt Disney World (4 parks), Universal Orl…
Outer Banks
The Outer Banks (OBX) is a 200-mile chain of barrier islands off the North Carolina coast - the East Coast's most establ…
Ozark National Forest
The Ozark National Forest is a 1.2-million-acre expanse of rugged Arkansas highlands - clear spring-fed rivers, sandston…
Panama City Beach, Florida
Panama City Beach is the Florida Panhandle's largest and most accessible beach resort - 27 miles of sugar-white quartz s…
Park City, Utah
Park City sits at 7,000 feet in the Wasatch Mountains, 35 minutes from Salt Lake City International Airport - making it…
Pawleys Island, South Carolina
Pawleys Island is one of the oldest summer resort communities on the Atlantic Coast - families from South Carolina's Low…
Payson, Arizona
Payson sits at 4,900 feet on the southern edge of the Mogollon Rim - the escarpment that defines the divide between the…
Pensacola Beach, Florida
Pensacola Beach sits on the western end of Santa Rosa Island — a 40-mile barrier island in the Florida Panhandle, 15 min…
Pequot Lakes, Minnesota
Pequot Lakes is a 2,400-resident village in central Minnesota's Brainerd Lakes area - the dense lake-and-pine country wh…
Percy Priest Lake
J. Percy Priest Lake is a 14,200-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir just 10 miles east of downtown Nashville -…
Perdido Key, Florida
Perdido Key sits at the westernmost tip of the Florida Panhandle, straddling the Florida-Alabama state line, with Gulf I…
Petoskey, Michigan
Petoskey sits on the southeast shore of Little Traverse Bay in northern Lower Michigan - a 6,000-person resort town with…
Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest is the only U.S. national park that protects a stretch of historic Route 66, and it is one of the easie…
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is the rare big city where a major reunion can stay almost entirely on foot inside a one-mile radius. The I…
Phoenix
Phoenix is the country's biggest winter-reunion city. From November through April the weather is dry and 65–75°F most da…
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Pictured Rocks is a 73,000-acre National Lakeshore along 42 miles of Lake Superior's southern shoreline in Michigan's Up…
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Pigeon Forge sits at the doorstep of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most-visited national park in America (14M…
Pinnacle Mountain State Park
Pinnacle Mountain State Park is Little Rock's urban wilderness - a 2,000-acre park at the edge of the Ouachita Mountains…
Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles is the smallest and youngest of California's national parks (redesignated in 2013), about two hours south of S…
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh punches well above its weight as a reunion city - three rivers, 446 bridges, two historic inclines climbing M…
Point Pleasant Beach
Point Pleasant Beach is a classic Jersey Shore town at the northern edge of the Barnegat Peninsula - about 70 minutes fr…
Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes was established as a national seashore in 1962 and protects 71,028 acres of coastal Marin County, an hour no…
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park
The Porcupine Mountains - 'the Porkies' to Yoopers - is Michigan's largest state park at 60,000 acres, and one of the la…
Port Aransas, Texas
Port Aransas ('Port A' to Texans) sits on the north tip of Mustang Island on the Texas Gulf Coast - a small, charming be…
Portland
Portland is the most underrated west-coast reunion city: small enough to feel intimate, with one of the country's best f…
Possum Kingdom Lake
Possum Kingdom Lake is a 17,000-acre reservoir on the Brazos River in Palo Pinto County, Texas - 90 miles west of Fort W…
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott sits at 5,374 feet in the Bradshaw Mountains of central Arizona - a city of 45,000 with a remarkably intact Vic…
Providence
Providence is the underrated New England reunion city - a walkable, college-town-feeling capital with a downtown small e…
Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island)
Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island is Lake Erie's most festive destination - a small Ohio island village with a storied nav…
Raleigh
Raleigh is the budget-friendly Triangle reunion city - the North Carolina state capital, anchored by a free downtown mus…
Red River Gorge, Kentucky
Red River Gorge is a geological area of the Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern Kentucky, characterized by dramatic…
Red Top Mountain State Park
Red Top Mountain State Park sits on a 1,950-acre peninsula jutting into Lake Allatoona - a 12,000-acre Corps of Engineer…
Redwood National and State Parks
Redwood is a single jointly-managed complex - Redwood National Park plus three California state parks (Jedediah Smith, D…
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Rehoboth Beach is the self-described '#1 family beach on the Mid-Atlantic coast' - a compact, walkable beach town of 1,5…
Richmond
Richmond is the under-the-radar Mid-Atlantic reunion city - Virginia's capital, with a vibrant downtown anchored by the…
Ricketts Glen State Park, Pennsylvania
Ricketts Glen State Park is one of the most spectacular state parks in the eastern US - a 13,050-acre old-growth forest…
Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain is the easiest major Western park to reach - Estes Park sits 75 minutes from Denver International. The 41…
Ruidoso, New Mexico
Ruidoso sits at 6,900 feet in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico - a mountain resort town in the Lincoln Na…
Sacramento
Sacramento is California's capital and the original Gold Rush boomtown - a flat, walkable, tree-shaded city at the confl…
Saguaro National Park
Saguaro National Park protects the largest stand of saguaro cacti in the United States - those giant, multi-armed silhou…
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is the cleanest, easiest, and most affordable mountain-city reunion option in the West. The airport (SLC)…
Sam Rayburn Reservoir
Sam Rayburn Reservoir is a 114,500-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Angelina River in Deep East Texas…
San Antonio
San Antonio is the easiest reunion city in Texas: the River Walk threads 15 miles of pedestrian path through downtown, w…
San Bernardino National Forest (Big Bear Lake)
San Bernardino National Forest covers 823,816 acres of Southern California mountains and is anchored by Big Bear Lake -…
San Diego
San Diego has the most reliable weather of any reunion city in America: 70°F and sunny most of the year, with the cool P…
San Francisco
San Francisco delivers more iconic photos per square mile than any other US city: Golden Gate, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wha…
San Jose
San Jose is the 10th-largest U.S. city, the largest in Northern California, and the heart of Silicon Valley. The reunion…
Sanibel Island, Florida
Sanibel Island is Florida's premier shelling destination and one of the few beach communities in the state that has deli…
Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake is the lived-in, working town of the Adirondack High Peaks - a counterpoint to the tourism-village vibe of…
Savannah
Savannah is the most-photographed small-city reunion in the South - 22 manicured squares lined with live oaks and Spanis…
Seattle
Seattle works for reunions because the icons are clustered: Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, the Seattle Aquarium, M…
Sedona, Arizona
Sedona sits at 4,350 feet in northern Arizona's red-rock country, where the high-desert mesas meet the Mogollon Rim and…
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia is the second-oldest U.S. national park (1890) and is jointly administered with neighboring Kings Canyon. It pro…
Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah is the closest big national park to the Washington/Baltimore/Philadelphia metro corridor - about 75 miles wes…
Show Low, Arizona
Show Low sits at 6,412 feet in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona - the gateway to Arizona's most accessible mountai…
Siesta Key, Florida
Siesta Key is an 8-mile barrier island off Sarasota that has been consistently rated the #1 beach in the United States i…
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is the stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline that Good Morning America voted 'Most B…
Smith Mountain Lake
Smith Mountain Lake is a 20,000-acre Appalachian foothills lake in southwest Virginia, anchoring the Mid-Atlantic versio…
South Haven, Michigan
South Haven is a 4,500-person Lake Michigan beach town at the mouth of the Black River - 35 minutes south of Holland, 2…
St. Augustine Beach, Florida
St. Augustine Beach sits on Anastasia Island, 4 miles across the Bridge of Lions from the oldest continuously occupied E…
St. Louis
St. Louis is one of the great free-attraction reunion cities in America. Forest Park (1,300 acres, larger than Central P…
St. Simons Island, Georgia
St. Simons Island is the largest of Georgia's Golden Isles - a 12-mile-long barrier island connected to Brunswick by a f…
Starved Rock State Park
Starved Rock is Illinois's most visited state park - a compact 2,600-acre gem two hours southwest of Chicago where 18 ca…
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Steamboat Springs sits in northwest Colorado at 6,732 ft, 3 hours northwest of Denver in the Yampa Valley. The town has…
Stowe, Vermont
Stowe sits in north-central Vermont in the shadow of Mount Mansfield (4,395 ft, the state's highest peak), 35 minutes ea…
Sun Valley, Idaho
"Sun Valley" refers to a region (the Wood River Valley) more than a single town. The geographic core is three towns: Sun…
Table Rock Lake
Table Rock Lake is a 43,100-acre Ozark Mountains lake straddling the Missouri-Arkansas line, just south of Branson. It's…
Tampa
Tampa is the most underrated Florida reunion city - Busch Gardens for the thrill-seekers, the Tampa Riverwalk for evenin…
Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
Taos Ski Valley is a separate incorporated municipality 19 miles north of Taos town, sitting at 9,207 feet at the base o…
Taos, New Mexico
Taos sits at 6,969 feet in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico - a small adobe city with a remarkable…
Telluride, Colorado
Telluride sits in a dramatic 3-mile-long box canyon at 8,750 ft in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, surroun…
The Berkshires, Massachusetts
The Berkshires is a 50-mile stretch of rolling mountains in western Massachusetts - a cultural and natural retreat that…
The Catskills, New York
The Catskills are a 700,000-acre mountain region in southeastern New York, 2 hours from midtown Manhattan - making them…
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Theodore Roosevelt National Park preserves the painted badlands of western North Dakota where a young Theodore Roosevelt…
Toledo Bend Reservoir
Toledo Bend Reservoir is a 185,000-acre reservoir on the Sabine River, forming the border between Texas and Louisiana -…
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City is Michigan's premier resort destination - a city of 15,000 at the foot of Grand Traverse Bay that has bui…
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Truth or Consequences is the most unexpectedly compelling small town in New Mexico - a former health resort on the Rio G…
Tucson
Tucson sits in the Sonoran Desert at 2,400 feet, ringed by five mountain ranges and home to the largest concentration of…
Tulsa
Tulsa is the second-largest city in Oklahoma and one of the country's densest concentrations of Art Deco architecture -…
Tybee Island, Georgia
Tybee Island is Savannah's beach - a 3-mile barrier island at the mouth of the Savannah River, 18 miles east of downtown…
Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach is the Mid-Atlantic's most accessible beachfront reunion city - 35 miles of Atlantic coastline, a 3-mile…
Voyageurs National Park
Voyageurs is unlike any other park in this list - it's a water park. About 40% of its 218,000 acres are interconnected l…
Washington DC
Washington DC is the highest-value big-city reunion in America: the entire Smithsonian (20+ museums and the National Zoo…
White Mountains, New Hampshire
The White Mountains of New Hampshire encompass 800,000 acres of national forest, including the Presidential Range - the…
White Sands National Park
White Sands protects the world's largest gypsum dune field - 275 square miles of pure-white waves of sand in the Tularos…
Whitefish, Montana
Whitefish sits at 3,030 ft on the south shore of Whitefish Lake in northwest Montana, 30 minutes from Glacier National P…
Wildwood, New Jersey
Wildwood, NJ is the Jersey Shore's loudest, most exuberant beach town - and its most distinctive reunion destination. Th…
Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave is one of the longest and most complex caves in the world, with more than 160 mapped miles of passages packed…
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Dells is officially the "Waterpark Capital of the World" - a 5-mile stretch of the Wisconsin River in south-ce…
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve
Wrangell–St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States - 13.2 million acres, larger than Switzerland, with…
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Wrightsville Beach is a 4-mile barrier island 12 minutes east of downtown Wilmington — the rare reunion destination wher…
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is America's first national park, established in 1872 and spanning more than 2.2 million acres across three…
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite is the granite-and-waterfall heart of the Sierra Nevada, established in 1890 and protecting just under 760,000…
Zion National Park
Zion is the most-visited park in Utah and one of the most concentrated reunion settings in the West - almost everything…