The most wonderful time of year: holiday activities in Bend Oregon!

Snowshoeing Bend Oregon

Happy holidays from all of us at Wanderlust Tours! How will you be spending this special time, with family and friends, eating delicious food, baking things, watching Christmas movies…? Well, if you’re looking for the perfect Bend Oregon holiday activities or Bend Oregon family activities, we’ve got a great selection of suggestions to offer:

1. DRINK BEER! (OR CIDER!)

Bend Brewery Tours

Have you taken full advantage of the great craft beverage scene in Bend? There are 20+ breweries in our little town, and we’re home to the inestimable Avid Cider! Spend some time taking it in with the family, sipping on delicious suds, and bonding over special holiday-time brews, like the Jubelale from Deschutes Brewery! This festive winter ale has cocoa, dried fruit, and toffee notes, and is available for a limited time! Join us on a Bend Brew Bus tour to learn all about local seasonal beers, and to cross off some stops on your Bend Ale Trail Atlas!

2. PLAY IN THE SNOW!

Winter activities Bend Oregon

You can’t go wrong with snow! Downhill and Nordic skiing at Mt. Bachelor are obvious, must-do activities for everyone visiting Bend. Or, you can check out some of the snow parks in Bend if you want to venture off on your own!

Snowshoeing Bend Oregon

Snowshoeing with us on one of our daily tours is another great way to play around in the snow! This is one of the best ways to get up close and personal with Bend’s amazing wilderness. Our naturalist guides will show you all the beautiful sights, and share their extensive knowledge of the trees, animals, and history of Bend’s old-growth forests. You could even…

3. PLAY IN THE SNOW AND DRINK BEER (OR CIDER)!

Bend beer tours, snowshoeing Bend Oregon

That’s right— get the best of what winter in Bend has to offer with our Shoes, Brews, & Views Snowshoe Tour! There’s no better way to spend the holidays with family than snowshoeing through a gorgeous landscape, learning all about the nature and history of Bend, and sipping on the best local wares Bend has to offer. (Psst: we have rootbeer for those under 21!)

NEED KID-FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES IN BEND OREGON? SAY NO MORE!

4. ICE SKATING AT THE PAVILION

Kid-friendly activities Bend Oregon

This is a great option for the whole family! Strap on some skates and hit the ice for a night of fun! The Pavilion is Oregon’s only NHL-sized ice rink, with hockey, curling, free-skating, rentals, and lockers available right on-site. There’s even a viewing room, fire pit, and concession stand with hot drinks for those who might just want to watch!

5. EXPLORE AN UNDERGROUND CAVE!

Bend Lava Caves

There’s nothing cooler than strapping on a helmet and headlamp and heading into the earth to explore! For those little ones in your life that want to grow up to be an explorer or scientist, this is the best tour ever. They’ll get the chance to learn all about the ancient volcanic landscape of Central Oregon, crawl through small spaces (this is optional), and learn about bats and other creatures that depend on the unique ecosystems within our cave systems. Bend lava caves are absolutely a must-see for anyone visiting Central Oregon!

Looking for specific holiday events? We’ve got suggestions for those, too!

NEW YEAR’S IN BEND OREGON

Snowshoeing Bend Oregon

This is THE BEST WAY TO KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR! While we have unfortunately sold out of our special New Year’s Eve Bonfire on the Snow Tour, but we’ll be running this amazing tour every night for the last week of December, and the first week of January! We have all of the dates for this tour listed on the Bonfire Snowshoe Tours page, and if you have any questions about other dates, you can always give us a call at (541) 389-8359.

VALENTINE’S DAY IN BEND OREGON

If you’re one of those people that plans far in advance, we’ve got a couple of great things to throw on your radar for the BEST Valentine’s Day Bend Oregon activities! We’ll post more about these later, but for now, keep in mind that we’ll be running our ROMANCE ON THE SNOW BONFIRE TOUR on the nights of February 14, 15, 16, and 17! This is the perfect date night activity. We’ll also be running our special event: ART IN NATURE WITH BEND CAMERATA on Sunday, February 10, 2019! This will be a fantastic experience, and an excellent way to celebrate Valentine’s with that special someone.

Snowshoeing Bend Oregon

Winter Break in Bend with Wanderlust Tours!

Winter sightseeing at its finest!

Do you have a winter vacation planned in Bend, Oregon? Did you know we have a WHOLE BUNCH of fun stuff planned for the upcoming cold weather months? Well, now you do! And in this blog post, we’re going to talk about some of the awesome, family-friendly (and date-night friendly!) activities we’re planning this winter.

CAVE TOURS: STAY WARM UNDERGROUND!

Our Lava Tube Cave Tours are running daily this winter!

Did you know that the local Lava Tube Caves stay the SAME temperature year-round? It’s pretty amazing to feel that temperature change from the outside air once you descend underground. In the summer, we like to think of it as “natural air-conditioning,” whereas in the winter it could be considered balmy! Either way, we’re super lucky as the only guiding service that gets to explore these amazing caves year-round with our guests. There’s nothing like learning about the natural and cultural history surrounding these caves from a professional, award-winning naturalist guide!

NEW YEAR’S EVE BONFIRE ON THE SNOW:
2019, HERE WE COME!

This is one of our favorite events— our annual New Year’s Eve Bonfire on the Snow is an unforgettable, unique experience every year! Spend time with friends and family ringing in the New Year in one of the most beautiful locations Bend has to offer: the middle of an old-growth forest, with sweeping snow fields to explore, and a blazing bonfire to keep you warm. That’s not all, though— we’ll serve delicious warm drinks and dessert, and there will be bubbly available for a toast when midnight rolls around! We’re proud to offer this event to our guests every year. If you’re looking to have the best New Year’s Eve ever, look no further!

Snowshoeing in the Deschutes National Forest

Beautiful winter views in Central Oregon!

ART IN NATURE
WITH BEND CAMERATA

We are so excited for this upcoming special event with the ultra talented a capella group, Bend Camerata!

For this event, we’ll head out on a slightly different, earlier version of our Bonfire Snowshoe Tour. We’ll have all the wintry beauty of nature. AND the fun of snowshoeing!

Your naturalist guides will provide expert interpretation of Bend’s cultural and natural history, as well as warm drinks and desserts, served around a cozy bonfire in the middle of a winter wonderland.

There, the 10 stunning voices of Bend Camerata will perform a host of gorgeous melodies for you to enjoy. This event will pair the natural beauty of the landscape with the beautiful vocal performance— it’s not to be missed!

DAILY AND NIGHTLY SNOWSHOE TOURS:
BE A WINTERTIME ADVENTURER!

There’s nothing like exploring out in the snow!

It goes without saying that we’re SUPER EXCITED for our daily and nightly snowshoe tours this winter! We’ve gotten a bit of a late start with our snowfall, but that doesn’t mean we’re not dreaming of strapping on our snowshoes and heading out into the snow-covered wilderness. With Mt. Bachelor’s ski season starting last Friday, we’re expecting to be up-and-at-’em soon enough!

Our Daytime Snowshoe Tours are a fantastic way to see Deschutes National Forest at its finest. Gorgeous views, expert naturalist interpretation, and don’t worry if you’re a beginner— we’ll teach you how to snowshoe, too! This is a great tour for kids ages 8 and older.

Snowshoeing at night is the PERFECT outdoors date!

Our Nighttime Snowshoe Tours make an excellent date night for folks looking to put a little wanderlust in their evenings! This is essentially the same as our Daytime Snowshoe Tour, but with the added bonus of the perfect quiet of the old-growth forest, and the opportunity to share an unhindered view of the romantic starlit sky. It’s pretty epic, and we highly recommend checking out the nighttime tour if you’ve never tried it.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE WINTER SPECIAL EVENTS WITH WANDERLUST TOURS!

Thanksgiving with Wanderlust Tours!

This week is all about gratitude— well, gratitude, and eating delicious food with loved ones, of course!

This Thanksgiving weekend we’ll be running all of our available tours (psst… caving is a great family activity!) and sharing our love of the natural world with families on their holiday breaks. Fun fact: we’re expecting snow this weekend, so we might even strap on some shoes!

What are you most grateful for this Thanksgiving? We’re grateful that we get to be creative, think up special events for folks in the Bend, Oregon area, and play outside all day, every day.

What else are we grateful for? Well, a whole lot. Check out what our naturalist guides are saying about Thanksgiving:

The Wanderlust Tours staff on the Cascade Lakes Cleanup!

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to be surrounded by supportive friends and family!” — Bethany

Group shot of snowshoe guests enjoying some sunshine in Bend’s beautiful forests!

“I am thankful for all the people who spend time with Wanderlust Tours! This includes our guests, staff members, and our local partners.” — Dave

We partner with excellent local breweries, cideries, and distilleries to bring you tours like the Local Pour and Bend Brew Bus!

“I’m thankful for community, health, clean water, and space to roam.” — Danny

“I'm thankful for people working hard all over the world to protect our wild and natural places!” — James

The staff near Waldport, OR for the autumn retreat.

“I’m grateful that I have so many creative, passionate, conscientious people in my life!” — Brooke

Survivorman Les Stroud performing in a cave for last summer’s Art in Nature series. Check out our upcoming Art in Nature event with Bend Camerata!

“I am thankful to live in a state with such expansive public lands!” — Jeff

We love leading our special event tours from our office in Bend, Oregon! We especially love heading out to Crater Lake: Oregon’s National Park!

Remember to have fun outside with your family this weekend! And Happy Thanksgiving from Wanderlust Tours staff. Stay tuned for our Winter Break activities and events happening in and around Bend, Oregon!