🌎🚗 EVERY DAY IS A HOLIDAY! 🚗🌎
September 27 is World Tourism Day!

Pack your bags!

Find your passport!

Head to the airport!

Or…

Maybe just get in the car. 😂

Today is World Tourism Day, a day recognized by the United Nations to highlight tourism and the role it plays in communities around the world.

And when we hear the word TOURISM, it’s easy to picture:

✈️ Airplanes
🏖️ Beaches
🏰 Famous landmarks
🏨 Hotels
🗺️ Big vacations

But here’s the thing…

You can be a tourist 20 minutes from home.

Actually, sometimes those are the BEST adventures. ❤️

🚗 TODAY’S CHALLENGE: BE A TOURIST IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD!

Pick a nearby town you normally just drive THROUGH…

and stop.

Explore the downtown.

Visit a park you’ve never been to.

Check out a little museum.

Find a hiking trail.

Stop at a farm stand.

Try a local restaurant.

Browse a small shop.

Take a picture with the weird roadside attraction you’ve driven past approximately 4,000 times. 😂

And ask yourself:

“If someone were visiting here for the FIRST time, where would I take them?”

🌾 THAT’S ONE OF THE REASONS RURAL EXISTS.

There is SO MUCH hiding throughout Rural Northeast Wisconsin.

Events.

Farm stands.

Small businesses.

Parks.

Festivals.

Community celebrations.

Food.

History.

And those wonderfully random little places you don’t discover until somebody says:

“WAIT. You’ve never been THERE?!”

That’s what we’re trying to find. ❤️

So before today’s adventure…

📅 Check the RuralNEWfamilies Event Calendar and see what’s happening.

🌽 Check our Farm Stand Guide and add a local stop along the way.

Then…

GO SOMEWHERE YOU HAVEN’T BEEN BEFORE.

It doesn’t have to be expensive.

It doesn’t have to take all day.

It doesn’t even have to be very far away.

Sometimes an adventure starts by simply taking a road you don’t normally take. 🚗

👇 AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Pretend someone just told you:

“I’m visiting Northeast Wisconsin for ONE DAY. Where should I go?”

What ONE place are you sending them?

🏞️ Park?
🍔 Restaurant?
🌾 Farm?
🛍️ Shop?
🏛️ Museum?
🥾 Trail?
🍦 Ice cream stop?
📸 Weird roadside attraction?
❤️ Something completely different?

Local businesses and attractions — you can answer too!

Tell us why somebody should add YOU to their next little road trip.
Even better — sign up for the Business Directory so they can find you whenever they happen to be in the area!

Let’s turn the comments into a giant Explore Local list. 👇

🌎🚗 Happy World Tourism Day!

You don’t always need to travel hundreds of miles to discover something new.

Sometimes you just need to explore your own backyard. ❤️

If we REALLY want to Explore Local – in addition to adding them to the comments section – nominate them for the Rural Route Awards!