Pioneer Family Campground

An hour’s drive from Chicago and Lake Michigan, this part of Indiana is a metropolis of a different kind. The LaSalle Fish and Wildlife Area (15 minutes’ drive) around the Kankakee is a magnet for hunters, fisherfolk and hikers but you can do the wilderness thing on a bigger scale if you head south to Kankakee Sands Bison Viewing (20 minutes), where as the name suggests you can see the reintroduced herds roaming across the prairies. The viewing point is the gateway to a vast area of prairie-savanna of marshes and lakes, grasslands and oak barrens; the cluster of State Game Reserves and Wildlife Areas around J.C. Murphey Lake are laced with trails for hikers and bikers and bursting with rare wildlife. For a break from the wilderness, take a trip to Fair Oaks Farms (20 minutes) to meet the cows, learn about the grass-to-glass process and get stuck into cheese and ice cream at the end of it. The slides, chutes and flumes of Deep River Waterpark (40 minutes) rarely disappoint the younger crowd either. An hour away, Chicago is supremely doable for day trips and a great city for families. You could hit the beach (there are 26 to try), cruise Lake Michigan, feed the sharks at the Shedd Aquarium... and finish off with a slice of the city's famed deep dish pizza.