The Balsams™ Grand Resort Hotel

You’ve scrimped and saved and managed to put some money away in these difficult times, and now it’s time to plan your next family vacation; time to finally spend some “quality time” together!

But a family getaway today isn’t like it was when you were a kid.  Back then, everybody just climbed into the mini-van and headed off for the airport, or to the summerhouse by the water, or to the mega-glam theme park where everything was, well, just fantastic.

Today, for so many, getting away usually just means being in a different place and working anyway.

Granted, when you’re away you don’t put in a regular full day or give the work your full attention, but with all the gee-whiz technology that fits in our pockets or backpack these days, even if you can manage to steal away for some down time, everybody who’s important to you can still reach you, right?  And, let’s face it, today more than ever, everybody’s important to you.

That’s the dilemma of the 21st century intellectual worker.

To be sure, it’s always been a challenge to get away, but our folks never had to deal with all this uber-technology, so getting away back when you were a kid was really getting “away”.  Our folks had the freedom to shift their focus; they had the luxury to enjoy and immerse the family in that oh-so-essential leisurely “vacation” attitude; the opportunity to be truly free to relax and recharge.

But now that science fiction has become science fact and everyone has more freedom to be productive, the luxury of a real leisurely vacation seems to create just one more difficult challenge in an already over-scheduled life.

So, what’s a poor schlep to do?  Just walk away and cut off the world?  Risk blowing that hot, breakthrough deal that’s been in the works for months? …Or miss one more summertime fun time with the family?  One more special, irreplaceable, precious moment with the kids – the laughs and shrieks of delight at all the new discoveries that can be found only when you are truly “away”?

Not to fear, my harried and stressed out, tech-addicted friends!

Even today, there is still at least one remaining outpost of sanity: The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, in the tiny (and very remote) town of Dixville Notch in northern New Hampshire is a veritable wilderness getaway that really does have it all – even if you can’t find it on your GPS gadget. (It’s true, you really can’t!)

But don’t let that hinder your quest for a perfect getaway.  The Balsams is a place where you’ll find the leisure and peace you so deeply need but, though remote, a visit to The Balsams still allows you – if necessary – the occasional opportunity to slip away and get a signal on that high-tech, do it all phone, or on your laptop, with the available in-room Wi-Fi, so you can check in with that other life you lead.

You don’t have to take my word for it; there are scores of sites on the net where you’ll find comments about this throwback to the grand old age of America’s Grand Resorts.  A recent guest of The Balsams, scheduled to give a keynote presentation to the New England Telecommunications Association, remarked on his blog that one of the many things he loved about the resort “is that the rooms have no TV’s.”  A ten-year veteran employee told him “that he had observed many families connecting and relating in ways they might not do at home because there wasn’t the distraction of the tube.”

With its four-star dining room, friendly and outgoing staff, as well as the luxuriously appointed accommodations, this peaceful, remote getaway is peerless.

If you’re like so many today, you owe it to yourself and your family – for sanity’s sake – to check out of your uber-tech world, even if it’s only for a little while, and check in for a leisurely stay at The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, so you can get the only truly effective treatment for your techno-gadget addictions.

And then you’ll want to tell your friends and colleagues how you shook the monkey off your back!

Tim Hanlon
The Balsams Blogging Team

Image Credit: Tim Hanlon