National Parks and Coastal Wonders - Spring Break Travel Ideas Inspired by Vintage Poster Art!
Every season brings new opportunities for traveling, for adventure, and for seeing a corner of the world we've never seen before. Case in point, we're about to move into March, and that means Spring Break!
You might be wondering how best to spend this spring tradition. Maybe you have children in school, and you're looking to go on a trip during the break, or perhaps you're the one in school, and you can't wait to get out of Dodge for a week or two. Either way, the travel bug is starting to bite for many of us as Spring Break nears.
Motivated by the exhilaration of one of the best travel seasons of the year, we put together some exciting trip ideas for Spring Break, places we've personally been to and thoroughly enjoyed. And what's better still, since each place we've visited has inspired us as artists to create poster art, we've handcrafted vintage-styled travel art for each location discussed below. That way, your souvenirs and memorabilia are already handmade and waiting for you!
Destin, Florida
Of course, we can't talk about Spring Break travel ideas without talking about Destin, Florida. Destin is in the Florida Panhandle, just a seven-hour drive from our Nashville art studio. The Anderson family built a beach house in Destin many years back, using it as a vacation home 2-3 times per year and renting the cottage out for others to enjoy during the rest of the year.
Destin is a fantastic Spring Break destination because this small town offers the beautiful beaches, warm weather, emerald green waters, and all the sun-kissed beauty of a Florida vacation. Best of all, this town offers a great holiday without the immense crowds that other, more well-known Spring Break destinations tend to receive.
Destin holds a special place in our hearts, and it even inspired us to create the Coastal Collection, a series of more than 70 vintage-styled posters that feature sun, surf, sea life, and all the warm tones and beach-inspired sayings you could ask for. If you're planning a beach trip for this year's Spring Break, the Coastal Collection has the perfect souvenirs and home decor items to help you bring the beach home with you.
National Parks
For those of you who are looking for something different than the usual Spring Break beach trip, here's an undiscovered secret to the American National Parks. Want to have a more private experience on your next National Park adventure? Go during Spring Break! It might seem counter-intuitive, but the National Parks experience very low visitation during Spring Break. Why? You guessed it. Because everyone else is at the beach!
According to the National Park Service, total visitation for the National Parks topped 318 million people in 2018! That's almost the entire population of the United States! There's no doubt that the National Parks are becoming more popular, and that's a good thing. The more people who know about the parks and who appreciate them, the more support we'll have for the conservation and protection of the parks.
But if you enjoy a more private, more "just you and nature" experience with the parks, Spring Break is the perfect time to schedule a trip to your favorite National Park.
Our artist family here at Anderson Design Group has spent years traveling to the National Parks, exploring, documenting, taking reference photos, and seeking inspiration for our artwork. That led to the 62 American National Parks Collection, a series of over 250 travel posters inspired by the wonder and majesty of the National Parks. After you're done traveling to one of these beautiful parks this spring, be sure to check out our art collection for keepsakes, souvenirs, gifts, and home decor items!
The Best National Parks to Visit During Spring Break
Any National Park is worth the trip, but here are the five parks we feel you can get the most out of during Spring Break:
Arches National Park. Known for its high volume of visitor traffic during the summer and the intense heat during that same season, Arches National Park is a great park to visit during Spring Break. Visitation is a fraction of what it is during the peak season, and the temperature is pleasant. Furthermore, this park is the site of some of the most incredible rock formations in the world. Huge stone arches span great distances, seemingly created by the hands of giants from the very Earth itself.
Death Valley National Park. For many of the same reasons as Arches National Park, Death Valley National Park is another park to visit during Spring Break. It's the largest National Park in the contiguous United States, and it is unique in that this desert wonderland is one of the hottest places on Earth. It's also the driest place in North America, and it rests at an elevation of 282 feet below sea level. The park is worth visiting, but explorers who arrive during March avoid much of the summer crowds and the summer heat!
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Ah, the infamous Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A personal favorite of ours, being that the park is just a few hour's drive from our Nashville art studio. And we're not the only ones who cherish Great Smoky Mountains National Park either. This is the most-visited of all the National Parks in the nation. Traveling to Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the spring gives you a chance to see dozens of different plants, trees, and flowers in bloom, plus abundant wildlife celebrating the end of winter.
Yellowstone National Park. The first National Park ever created, Yellowstone is famous for its wildlife, its rivers, waterfalls, rock formations, and incredible geysers. Yellowstone hosts millions of visitors each year, with peak seasons occurring in the summer and fall. The winter months in this wild land can be quite harsh, but Spring Break season offers a beautiful, budding, awakening Yellowstone that is not often seen by visitors. All the more reason to head there this spring!
Art, Adventure, and Traveling in 2020
It's hard to believe that the first quarter of 2020 will be behind us in a matter of weeks. If you resolved to travel more in 2020, isn't Spring Break the perfect time to start making good on that resolution?
Whether you're heading to the beach or into the wilderness, we hope you have a fantastic Spring Break, and we hope you'll splash some color onto your walls with nostalgic, vintage-style posters of the places you traveled to. You can check out our 62 National Parks collection for all of our National Park-inspired artwork, and our Coastal Collection for all our beach, surf, summer, and sun-inspired artwork.
Happy Travels!
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Writing Staff
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