Ultimate Baseball
Road Trip Blog

Topics: stadium tours, Milwaukee, baseball tours, baseball stadiums, baseball vacation package, Brewers, Chicago, Reds, MLB road trips

April 5, 2011 - Don't you love to head out on vacation? You get time to explore a new destination, take in new sites, and enjoy the company of your friends and family without all the pressures of being at home or work. That's especially true when you allow someone else to handle all of the details for you when you purchase a baseball vacation package!

You can rest assured that our baseball road trip planners will assemble a vacation for you that won't just be a trip, it will be an experience! We'll make sure you stay in great hotels, sit in great seats, take behind the scenes baseball stadium tours, and get up close and personal to the game we all love so much.

The baseball season has arrived and our tour vacations are filling up - so don't wait too long to sign up for the premier sports travel package that you've always wanted!

Topics: explore, group travel, baseball vacations, baseball road trips, baseball tours, baseball vacation package, big league tours, sports vacation, group tours, MLB road trips

April 1, 2011 - After a long, cold, miserable winter, Opening Day finally arrived. And none too soon. We made our way to Cincinnati yesterday for the parade, ceremonies (aren't fly-overs one of the coolest things on the planet??), and ball game at Great American Ball Park. The weather was a little iffy yesterday but it didn't deter the 42,000+ fans from taking in the festivities celebrating the first game of the season of the oldest franchise in the Majors.

As a Reds fan, the game started a little, ok, very rough. If I remember right, Volquez had given up three runs before he recorded his first out. Not the way you want to start off the regular season. But after that, he seemed to settle down for several innings.

The topper of the day, though, was the 2-out, 3-run walk off home run by Ramon Hernandez! The Reds had 40 some come from behind victories last year and started off the same way they finished the regular season last year. Here's the box score from the game.

Heading to the ballpark yesterday just made us more excited for baseball road trips that we have planned for the 2011 baseball season. If you are looking for baseball vacation packages that are done the way you want 'em, make sure you check out our site for the details on all of our upcoming tour vacations. You'll be glad you did!

Topics: Opening day, baseball road trips, baseball vacation package, Reds, Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati

March 26, 2011 - If you've browsed through our blogs over time, you'll know that we enjoy discovering new restaurants and trying new food items when we're visiting major league cities on our baseball tour vacations. For us, if it's not the MLB Network or ESPN on the tube, it's most likely going to be a cooking show on Food Network or Bravo. So we've started making our plans for our upcoming road trip to Atlanta and Augusta.

My daughter has clued me in that Chef Richard Blais, a finalist in this year's season of Top Chef, has a restaurant called FLIP Burger Boutique with a couple of locations in Atlanta. I'm always up for a burger, especially when you take a gourmet approach to it and bring something new to the table. And looking at the menu, there appears to be some fantastic selections.

The lead off their menu with a local burger: local organic grass-fed beef, tomme cheese, beef bacon, lettuce, yellow tomato, red onion, coca cola ketchup (it is Atlanta, after all), pickled peach & pecans. Or how about this combination for a mushroom and swiss burger: caramelized onions, roasted mushrooms, horseradish mayo, swiss cheese foam? Okay, I'm hungry just thinking about it!

We're definitely going to have to save room for the shakes, too. An apple pie milkshake? Or how about the Krispy Kreme shake? Yep, I'll be diving into one of those for sure.

We'll definitely be heading over to FLIP when we're in Atlanta but we'll have plenty of time to make some other stops. For you locals, where would you recommend that we go? Or for those of you who have been through Atlanta on sports travel and tours, what have you found that's worthy of a visit? We'd love to hear your suggestions!

Topics: Atlanta, sports travel and tours, baseball vacation package

February 2, 2011 - The first of our baseball road trips in 2011 will begin with two days at Augusta National, taking in a practice round and a competitive round of The Masters Tournament. Our guests will be able to walk the hallowed grounds with their favorite pro-golfers in search of the illusive green jacket.

After a free day in Atlanta (can you say golf anyone?), we'll enjoy a couple of baseball games including the Opening Day ceremonies for the Braves as they kick off their first weekend homestand of the year against their Eastern Division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Friday's game is an evening game and Saturday's game is in the afternoon. That's a great way to see Turner Field at different times of the day. We'll have the evening free in Atlanta with plenty of time for dining or entertainment in this great southern city.

By now, you've come to know Big League Tours as the premier provider of baseball vacation packages. Check out all our 2011 tour vacations to see which one suits you the best.

Topics: Opening day, Atlanta, Braves, Turner Field, baseball road trips, Phillies, baseball vacation package, big league tours

January 28, 2011 - Pitchers and catchers can report to Spring Training in a little over two weeks which means that it won't be long until we have Major League Baseball! That also means that it's almost time for MLB road trips!

In December we announced a package that we're offering in partnership with the Cincinnati Reds Community Fund. It's a weekend in Chicago to see the Reds play the Cubs for three games at Wrigley Field. Baseball fans will enjoy the series at Wrigley from great, lower-level seats as well as great hotel accommodations in Chicago, meet & greets with an MLB player, transportation to the stadiums, and a Big League Tours host on the tour.

We'll be out promoting the baseball tour this weekend at a few of the stops for the Reds Caravan. We'll also have information about all of our baseball vacation packages. So whether you're thinking of taking family tours or group travel tours, stop by and chat with us about the 2011 baseball season and see which of our tour vacations are for you.

Topics: baseball tours, baseball vacation package, Wrigley Field, big league tours, sports vacation, Chicago, Reds, MLB road trips, Cubs

Topics: baseball tours, baseball vacation package, big league tours, Chicago, Reds, Cubs, Cincinnati

November 26, 2010 - Thanksgiving break is serving as a great chance to catch up on some Food Network shows. One of my favorite shows is Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The show is a great way to learn about some local restaurants to visit while we're hosting our baseball vacation packages.

Here's the latest place that we will have to visit: Sam La Grassa's in Boston, Massachusetts. This sandwich shop, which is just a few blocks from our hotel and just off the Freedom Trail, makes sandwiches that are unbelievable. One of the sandwiches that they featured on the show is pictured to the right, a chipotle pastrami grilled sandwich. I can't wait to try it!

If you check out the itineraries for our baseball vacation packages, you'll notice that we give you time to explore the cities that we visit. Why shouldn't we? After all, we feel that getting the flavor of the city is just as important as getting to explore the ballparks that we visit.

We have several tours that will be stopping in Boston this year, giving you a chance to see Fenway Park, the oldest ballpark in America, and stop at local attractions like Sam La Grassa's. You know where we'll be eating!

Topics: Boston, baseball vacation package, Fenway Park

July 23, 2010 - I think it was Woody Allen who said that, "90% of life is just showing up." That certainly seems to be the case for my son. As we walked of the "El" and into Wrigley Field for the Sunday afternoon game between the Cubs and Cardinals, he was stopped by a young woman who asked if he would be interested in watching batting practice from the field. She was wearing a shirt that said Chevy on it so I asked if I had to buy a car or something to make it happen. After all, things like that just aren't free, are they?? She assured me that I didn't and gave everyone in our group passes to get down to that section with him.

Since it was a Sunday, and hotter than blue blazes, I didn't think either team would take batting practice. As it turns out, the Cardinals did. (This might have proven beneficial as they went on to crush the Cubs that day and Sir Albert hit three dingers himself...) A few of the Cardinals were also kind enough to visit the on-field section and sign autographs for the kids on the field. My son received signatures from Tony LaRussa, Mark McGwire, and Albert Pujols. He was pretty stoked about starting his day at the ballpark on the field.

There are never any assurance of events like this happening when you show up at the baseball stadium, but we've found that showing up early, whether it's on one of our baseball vacation packages or just one of our family tours, is key to being in the right place at the right time. It doesn't hurt to have on team gear and demonstrate that you are a true fan, either.

Feel free to share with us the cool things that have happened to you when at the ballpark! Many times those are the things that make your sports vacations truly memorable.

Topics: baseball stadiums, baseball vacation package, Wrigley Field, sports vacation, family tours, Cardinals, Cubs

May 22, 2010 - We've had a chance to see most of the stadiums in the major leagues either on our family tours and on the baseball vacation packages that we offer. This trip was to Atlanta and Turner Field (or "The Ted") for a two-game stand. It was great to get to see the stadium for a night game and a day game. Sometimes the stadiums have two completely different personalities based on the time of the game.

We stayed in downtown Atlanta so the stadium was only a 1.5 - 2 miles from our hotel. The concourses were really wide and made getting around the stadium very easy. Here's a photo taken from right inside the centerfield gates. As you can see, there is a ton of room for getting people in and out of the stadium.

The Ted also has plenty for kids to do at the park. The Cartoon Network Fun House offers a break for the kids as does the many different batting cages and pitching booths that they have all along the third base side. They also offered face painting which seemed apprapos given the team's mascot.

The concourses around the outside of the stadium reminded us of Jacob's Field in Cleveland. (I'm sure that should be said the other way around based on when the stadiums were built but we were at the Jake first...) They were easily maneuverable but, they do cutoff your sight lines to the field.

We weren't knocked out by the food, either. We were sitting in the premium seats so we were able to order and have it delivered to us. The menu was your basic ballpark food but nothing that really stood out. We've grown accustomed to local restaurants or foods being incorporated into the ballparks like the Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh or the Montgomery Inn in Cincinnati. Or the other thing parks have done is include former players into the mix like Boog's Barbeque in Baltimore, El Tiante's Cuban Sandwiches in Boston, or Bull's Barbeque in Philadelphia. All great features that represent the team well. We didn't find this at The Ted.

All in all, we had a great experience. It would be hard to beat the southern hospitality that everyone working at Turner Field displayed. So if you are looking for a place for one of your baseball road trips, I would definitely recommend Turner Field.

Topics: Atlanta, Turner Field, Jacob's Field, Cleveland, baseball vacation package, Pittsburgh, family tours, Cincinnati