Courtesy Green Bay CVB
Green Bay
When you hear Green Bay, you probably think football, and that’s perfectly all right with the people of this city. The citizens of Green Bay, collectively, own the resident professional football team, and you’ll find Packers pride everywhere you go around town.
Groups can get a feel for the fandom with a tour of legendary Lambeau Field.
“We welcome visitors all year long,” said Brenda Krainik, director of marketing and communications for the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They can take a tour of the stadium, which includes the players tunnel where they come out onto the field. You see some of the boxes where special guests watch the games. It’s kind of a behind-the-scenes tour.”
After a tour and lunch at Curly’s, the on-site restaurant, visitors can take a spin through the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, a museum inside the stadium. From there, a football tour of Green Bay takes them out into the city on the Packers Heritage Trail. Along the way, groups see spots associated with the team, such as the building where Vince Lombardi attended church and the train station where the fans used to greet players returning from away games.
Although it’s notoriously difficult to get tickets to home games, groups that visit Green Bay in August can have an interesting football experience by visiting the team’s training camp.
“People come from all over the country because you get to see the players up close,” Krainik said. “When new players come into camp, everyone is clapping for them and taking pictures. They sign some autographs before they go in.”
Fox Cities
Comprising Appleton and 19 other communities in central Wisconsin, the Fox Cities promote themselves as a destination that blends city amenities and small-town charm. Groups that visit the area can enjoy shopping, arts, museums and other urban experiences in peaceful settings.
“A brand that we’ve been going with for two years now is Wisconsin’s Shopping Place,” said Mary Hirvela, marketing and communications manager for the Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have phenomenal downtown shopping in Neenah, Appleton and Menasha.”
In Appleton, the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center brings fine arts to the region. Visitors can attend a Broadway Across America production at the theater or catch a performance by the resident Fox Valley Symphony.
A trio of museums adds to the cultural options in the area. The History Museum at the Castle includes exhibitions about longtime resident Harry Houdini, with stories of his life and some of his famous tricks. The Trout Museum of Art has a collection of 150 works from 400 years of art history and hosts traveling exhibitions. And in Neenah, the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum displays one of the world’s largest collections of paperweights.
Madison
An inventive dining scene and a growing farm-to-table movement are making Madison one of the state’s pre-eminent culinary destinations. The neighborhoods surrounding the state Capitol have become known for their gourmet, inventive restaurants.
“Around our capitol square we have a number of really high-end dining restaurants,” said Judy Frankel, public relations manager for the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They’re high-end in quality but not necessarily in price. They represent every end of the budget spectrum, but they all share the same commitment to farm-to-table. Many of them have arrangements with local farmers for their produce, meat, eggs and milk.”
From the capitol district, visitors can wander down State Street, a pedestrian mall that leads to the University of Wisconsin campus. Group leaders can turn their travelers loose to explore this eight-block avenue, which features numerous, shops, cafes, ethnic restaurants and bars.
If you have serious foodies in your group, they’ll enjoy a visit to Madison’s farmers market, which takes place every Saturday.
“That institution is 41 years old, and it’s the largest producer-only market in the country,” Frankel said. “That means that the person who is selling you a carrot, a turnip or a beet is also the person who grew it. That creates an amazing atmosphere between the seller and the buyer. They can give you recipes for these ingredients because they make them at their own houses.”
