Have you heard about any of the passport programs that happen around Nebraska every summer?  For the past several years, both Nebraska Tourism and Nebraska Game and Parks have decided to feature places across the state.  By Nebraska sites and getting either stamps in your Nebraska passport or getting nature rubbings for the Nebraska Great Park Pursuit, you have the opportunity to win prizes and even better yet, discover great places across the state of Nebraska.  As I look back on our travel experiences from the last several years, many of my favorite stops have been at locations that I may not have gone to visit without finding out about them through the passport.

This year they switched up the prizes for the Nebraska passport – all you have to do is visit 10 out the 80 possible places across the state to automatically get a reward for your efforts.  By going to additional places, you can earn more substantial prizes.  Since they have the places spread out across the state, getting to just 10 places is not especially challenging.  As for the Great Park Pursuit, you are eligible for different prize drawings based on the number of parks that you visit – 20 possibilities.

When I am determining the destinations that I want us to visit, I like to see what places are in the same general area.  Although you can go on to both sites and see all of the places mapped out, I wanted to organize the places specifically by region.  A few years ago in the Nebraska Tourism booklet, they divided the Nebraska Counties into seven regions.  I have continued to use these designations because I think that visually being able to divide the state helps me when I am ready to explore.  This year I took the time to separate out the destinations regionally.  If you click on the document below, you can print out the regional sheet before you go to visit that part of the state.  All 100 locations are linked on the document below – you should be able to go to the websites to learn more about each of the locations.  To help you in planning, I have included a map that shows the regions.

2016 Nebraska Passport and Great Park Pursuit Places

P.S. If you live in the Lincoln area or are planning on visiting for the day, you will want to check out the Be a Tourist program that includes prizes for Lincoln area restaurants and attractions.

 

 

Author: neodyssey

My name is Gretchen Garrison. I started this blog about Nebraska in 2013. So far, I have written three books about Nebraska and Lincoln.