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Embrace the Elements with a Winter Meeting

When choosing “winter destinations,” most people automatically think of warm-weather places to escape snowdrifts, icy roads and those dreaded “polar vortexes.” But winter doesn’t have to mean running away from — or hibernating in — cold-weather destinations.

After the last leaves fall from the trees and before spring buds take their place, the winter months can be a boon for meeting planners. Wintertime in cold-weather locales often means lower hotel rates, more venue availability and, sometimes even, more CVB incentives for their winter meetings.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

“We really embrace winter here — we have to,” Stephanie Herbert, group sales manager for Visit Eau Claire, said with a laugh.

Part of that means making the best out of what gets a bad rap: snow and cold. Snow can be a good thing, especially for people who aren’t used to seeing it, she said.

Every Thursday evening at Boyd Park, near downtown, locals and visitors alike enjoy Winter After Hours, a free “snow social.” The weekly event features ice skating complete with warming hut, snowshoeing along a torch-lit trail, snow sculptures, hot drinks, live music and a giant fire pit. There are also games of winter kubb (pronounced “koob”), a type of Swedish lawn game typically played in the summer.

“It’s just picturesque winter all over the place around here,” Herbert said.

Beaver Creek Reserve also does candlelight snowshoe hikes, and the local curling club offers team-building curling lessons. The three-day Northwest Wisconsin Winter Fest in January will bring softball games, disc golf, winter kubb, ice fishing, hot-air balloons, fat-tire-bike races and snowmobiles to Lake Wissota.

“I say softball, you think summer at the park,” Herbert said. “We just play it on a frozen lake.”

During the winter, meeting planners enjoy more affordable room rates and more venue availability, and the CVB is considering new ways to market Eau Claire as a wintertime meeting destination, Herbert said.

Leinie Lodge is home to the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. The rustic lodge is ideal for receptions, and groups can tour the brewery, sample beers in the tasting room and warm themselves by the lobby fireplace. About 20 miles outside the city, Cabin Ridge Rides takes groups deep into the Wisconsin woods on horse-drawn wagons to a gas-lit retreat center for a dinner or a meeting. The lodge can seat about 120 people for dinner, and the attached chalet can hold about 30 people for small meetings.

www.visiteauclaire.com

Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts

Winter in New England immediately calls to mind thick forests covered in deep, quiet snow, and Massachusetts’ Merrimack Valley delivers the “romance of that,” said Deb Belanger, executive director of the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Winter is a bit slower, which means lower room rates and better value for planners, but the valley is “really a four-season destination,” Belanger said. “You have access to outside activities all the time.”

In Westford, about 25 miles outside of Boston, the Nashoba Valley Ski Area is marking its 52nd year. With 17 trails, all lighted for nighttime skiing, the ski area also has a snowboarding terrain park and a tubing park, along with a restaurant that could be used for a small meeting or a private dinner.

Great Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle is a historic 1,000-acre park that is also a working dairy farm. Groups can tour the dairy operations and rent snowshoes and cross-country skis to explore more than 20 miles of trails.

The valley has 40 hotels with more than 4,000 rooms, ranging from major flags to restored historic inns. The 21-room Inn at Hastings Park in Lexington is a preserved-historic-property-turned-boutique-hotel just steps from the Lexington Battle Green, considered the birthplace of the Revolutionary War.

The 30-room Stonehedge Inn and Spa in Tyngsboro sits across from the Merrimack River. The inn has done a “ton of renovations,” Belanger said, and features a bar and lounge with a four-sided fireplace. The inn’s Left Bank Restaurant seats up to 180 people, and the library, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a fireplace, can accommodate groups of 10 to 80. The Derby Room overlooks the surrounding forest and can also hold about 80 people.

www.merrimackvalley.org