Many families these days are headin' over to the ol' corral for dude ranch vacations, to enjoy a holiday in great outdoors plus horseback riding, which is fun for youngsters and parents too.
What can I expect from a dude ranch vacation?
Amenities:
Many guest ranches are real cattle ranches that accept paying guests, so style is "rustic"; still, the level of comfort and amenities offered has been steadily rising. Some ranches keep it simple but others aim to be more of a "ranch resort", with pools, hot-tub, spa etc. Rancho de los Caballeros, for example, in Arizona, has both spa and golf.
Even with some modern amenities, however, most places still put the emphasis on the Great Outdoors plus old-fashioned hospitality and home-cooked meals. guests enjoy: rustic lodges with big fireplaces, cookouts under the stars, family dances, country western dance lessons, hay rides. Sometimes sports out of the saddle are offered, such as volleyball, tennis, mountain biking.
some dude ranches are open year-round, but many are summer-only in areas where winter means cold and snow. In Arizona, meanwhile, the winter is prime-time, and ranches are closed during the hot summer months.
Pricing generally includes meals and some activities, and quite often does not include horse-riding, though packages with horse-riding are typically available and bought by most guests.
If you're after kids programs, a handy chart at Ranchweb shows what's offered at many places. Ranchweb.com also makes it easy to zoom in on places with kids' camps, resort-style amenities, or other features.
Finding a Dude Ranch
- Ranchweb.com, noted above, lists dozens of places by region and is also good for focussing on type of dude ranch vacation, i.e. with kids programs
- if you're hankering for the "Centennial State", see Colorado Dude Ranch Vacations
- not all dude ranches are "out west": see Rocking Horse Ranch in NY state
- more sites for finding dude ranch vacations
- If you're driving, get detailed directions on how to find the place. We once visited a dude ranch in BC; would've been nice to know that the last 30 miles would take an hour and a half over a washer-board road.
- Ask about the meal schedule; don't expect round-the-clock eats, as at an all-inclusive. Consider if you need to bring some snacks. (On the trip mentioned above, we arrived late (--see "washer-board road"), right when dinner was being served; our young boys were too excited to eat. Naturally, by 9 p.m., they were starving.)
- Check what's included. Snacks? Drinks, outside mealtimes? Horse-riding?
- Check the thermometer. Even in summer, temperatures can be cool at night at higher altitudes, on a mesa or in the mountains. Ask what temperatures to expect.
*photo © Teresa Plowright
