Cheap trips
Free for all
At festivals and attractions across the region, fun doesn't cost a thing.
It's amazing how many things are free around here.
We pay nothing to watch fireworks and water-ski shows, use trails and parks, visit zoos and museums and go to hundreds of outdoor festivals, art fairs and concerts.
Our children fill baskets at free Easter egg hunts and rake in armfuls of candy at summer and fall parades.
Cheap spring getaways
Here are 20 spots where a fun weekend costs $100 or less.
After a long winter, everyone deserves a spring getaway.
On a budget? No problem. Spring is the best time to find deals, and often the weather is stellar.
You'll have to pass on the fancy resorts and spas, but you don't have to give up comforts. Lots of lodgings offer great rates
between the Easter school breaks and Memorial Day weekend.
8 great travel tips
Planning a summer vacation? Here are a few good things to know.
We get a lot of questions at MidwestWeekends from people planning vacations.
We’re glad to help, because we believe in planning. Spontaneity is a wonderful thing, but it’s risky in summer, when the rest of the world also is on vacation.
Most common questions: When is the best time to take a summer vacation? Where can I get a deal in the Wisconsin Dells/Duluth/Minneapolis? What are the best places to stay? What should I bring to a rented cabin? How can I avoid bugs?
Cheap summer getaways
No money, no problem: Here are 35 great vacations that cost $125 or less.
In summer, it’s not as hard as you’d think to take a trip for $125 or less.
Many of the great travel experiences in the Upper Midwest can’t be bought, anyway — bicycling amid old-growth white pines, paddling in the sloughs of the Mississippi, volunteering in a lighthouse.
Sightseeing by bicycle
Join a rolling village, and you'll see the best of the Upper Midwest.
There's nothing like traveling the countryside on a bicycle.
From a bike seat, you hear the murmur of wind through field and forest, and you actually notice the sky and its clouds, as mesmerizing as a lava lamp.
You can ride on your own, but it's more fun to join one of the many cross-state rides organized by bicycle clubs and
charities.
Cheap Chicago
Here are 10 tips to make a trip to the Windy City easy to afford.
Chicago is on a roll. Millennium Park is wildly popular, and the city has been crowned the western White House.
But long before Barack Obama made Chicago cool by association, people had noticed that it's a whole lot of fun. These days, tourists have to compete with hordes of conventioneers and suburbanites fleeing back to the city. Prices, of course, have gone up.
But Chicago is a populist town, and there's lots to do for free. Here are 10 tips for making a trip affordable.
Mom-and-pop motels of Grand Marais
Cheapskates love 'em, but so do traditionalists and anyone who just needs a room.
In summer, when the cities start to sizzle, a lot of people suddenly realize they’d rather be in Grand Marais.
This village on Minnesota’s North Shore is awash in Lake Superior’s cool breezes, and it has everything else a tourist could want – restaurants, shops, galleries, nightlife and scenery.
But it doesn’t always have enough room for all of the escapees, especially on festival weekends.
Bargains for beginners
Free or cut-rate ski and snowboard packages make it easy to learn.
When you’re a beginning skier, it’s nice to catch a break.
Alpine ski areas want to foster lifelong skiers and snowboarders, so most offer great deals to first-timers. Places are limited, so reserve in advance.
In Duluth, Spirit Mountain offers free Learn a Snow Sport days on Sundays in January. Skiers 13 and older get free equipment, conveyor lift and a 1½-hour lesson, a $45 value.
Cornucopia of coupons
Sign up for online discounts, and you'll rarely have to pay full price.
These days, everyone wants to give you a good deal.
Sign up for the many online discount programs and you’ll get offers for lodgings, restaurants, theater tickets and spa services delivered to your in-box every day.
You can save the most on lodgings, and the best deals come in the off season, generally winter.
Table-hopping in bluff country
On a culinary adventure to Decorah, we tighten our belts, then let them out.
Lately, we’ve been traveling like kings . . . and paupers, too.
I suspect a lot of other people are doing the same thing. To get what we want, we save on something else.
Our favorite splurge is eating out, but a meal for two in a really good restaurant costs $60-$100, same as a hotel room. Our solution? We pitch a tent.
Listening for a deal
If you belong to public radio or another arts organization, check your benefits before traveling.
Before you head out the door, check to see what deals are waiting for you – because all you have to do is ask.
Many people know that their AAA card gets them a 10 percent discount at most hotels. But I suspect many members of public radio and other arts organizations have forgotten about the great deals they can get on inns, restaurants and entertainment.
If you’re a member of Minnesota Public Radio or Wisconsin Public Radio, you can get two nights for the price of one at Fitger’s in Duluth, which has downhill and cross-country skiing right in the city.
At home in a hostel
Feeling adventurous? The dorm-style lodgings are open to everyone, and you can't beat the price.
To get a bargain on lodgings, you can try Priceline or Hotwire. You can clip coupons or use AAA or AARP discounts.
You can try every angle, but a single traveler still won’t find a bed that’s cheaper than those at hostels.
Many Americans think hostels are used only by college-age backpackers in Europe. That’s how most of us discover them.
Cheap winter getaways
Here are 15 places where a fun weekend costs $125 or less.
In the Upper Midwest, finding a good deal is a sport second only to football.
Some of us need a bargain. Some of us just like them. But we all need to get away occasionally, especially when cabin fever
strikes in winter.
One of our favorite cheap getaways is the annual adult weekend at Eagle Bluff in southeast Minnesota, which features
tightrope-walking high above the Root River (plus four great meals).
Cheap fall getaways
Here are 20 places to enjoy autumn colors without going into the red.
Fall is the busiest travel season of the year — we all know the nice days are numbered, and we're going to try our darndest to make them count.
But with pretty much everyone heading out to look for fall color, especially on weekends, there are few bargains.
That's why those of us on a budget look to our old friends: the parks, the mom-and-pop motels, the environmental centers, the hostels, the outdoors clubs.
Ponies and putters
In the Minnesota River Valley, a state park makes golfing and horseback riding easy to afford.
Of all the fun things a person can do, riding a horse is not one of the cheapest. Unless you’re part of the country-club set, it’s an expensive hobby — kind of like golf.
But there’s one place where you can go on a trail ride and golf and stay overnight — for less than $100 per person.
My friend Debra knew about a Minnesota River Valley stables that offers scenic three-hour trail rides for $60. I knew about a guesthouse right on the golf course in Fort Ridgely State Park where five of us could sleep on the floor for $15 apiece.
A roof in the woods
In state parks, visitors love their camper cabins.
For people who love the outdoors, luxury is in the eye of the beholder.
Is it a Jacuzzi or a latrine? A four-course breakfast or a fire ring?
The answer is not so obvious. If the choice also includes starry skies, silence and snow-laden pines, many folks would take a camper cabin over a fancy inn, even if they have to use vault toilets and cook over a fire.
Quick break on a lake
A northern-Minnesota resort is a great place for a low-key, low-cost getaway.
In the Upper Midwest, there's nothing better than a week at the lake.
But summer — or vacation, anyway — doesn't last long. And while there's nothing better than a week, a few days can be almost as good.
My favorite escape is to Ruttger's Birchmont Lodge on Lake Bemidji. Like many of its guests, I first went after dropping off my son at the nearby Concordia Language Villages.
Cheap stays
In summer, college residence halls are a boon to budget travelers.
Until recently, my memories of college dorms mostly involved sloppy drunks, sloppier roommates and a bathroom shared by the whole floor.
Then my husband and I stayed at Marquette University in Milwaukee. It was as quiet as a cathedral, and we had a private bath and a panoramic view of the city from our 17th-floor picture windows.
We paid $28 apiece, which was nice because we like to save money. But mostly, we stayed at Marquette because it was so
convenient, three blocks from the special bus that takes summer visitors to the lakefront Henry Maier Festival Park and right
on the route that takes baseball fans to Miller Park on game days.
Happy deals
For rock-bottom hotel rates, learn how to use Priceline.
When reserving a hotel room, there are deals, and then there’s Priceline.
Five years ago, I tried the on-line bidding service, which has a big catch: You don’t know what hotel you’ve
reserved until you’ve paid for the room. We got a hotel in Miami’s South Beach that had a decent location but was
noisy, had an unfriendly staff and charged an extra "resort fee.''
After that, I’d had it with Priceline – until friends made me reconsider.
Braking for jelly beans
With the siren call of free samples, factories reel in visitors.
On the I-94 corridor between Chicago and Milwaukee, tourists get to go trick or treating all year-round.
In Pleasant Prairie near Kenosha, they get packets of jelly beans. In Chicago, they're handed chocolate and cheesecake. In Milwaukee, it's caramel corn and cheese pizza.
Everyone loves free samples, and factory tours are a fun way to spend an hour or two. But watch out: They usually end in an outlet shop, where you'll be sorely tempted to spend real money.
A cabin in Iowa
Spectacular scenery lies at guests’ feet in a resort-like state park.
What a way to spend a weekend: hiking up and down ravines, clambering on rock, admiring views of water from ridgelines.
“It’s like hiking on the North Shore,’’ my husband said.
But it wasn’t Lake Superior’s North Shore. It was Iowa. And everyone knows Iowa is one big, flat cornfield.
Playground in the woods
At Deep Portage, adults take a tip from the kids.
As adults, we sometimes forget how great it is to be a kid.
People give you toys to play with. They show you new games and explain things in interesting ways. They feed you freshly baked cookies and s'mores.
Kids take it for granted. But I didn't one January, when I got to stay at Deep Portage Learning Center, in the woods north of Brainerd.
Staying with Airbnb
Like meeting people? Like a deal? An online service makes travelers guests in private homes.
Apparently, hotels are so 20th century.
These days, people are staying anywhere but. They’re renting vacation homes through VRBO and HomeAway. They’re house-sitting at Caretaker.org. They’re staying for free at HomeExchange.com, Servas.org and Couchsurfing.org.
Now, we have Airbnb.com, whose slogan is “Travel like a human.’’
Camping out west
Not far from the Twin Cities, county parks provide easy access to beach life.
In Kandiyohi County, it's thanks to the last Ice Age that life's a beach today.
Near Willmar, a lobe of the last glacier came to a grinding halt 12,000 years ago, dumping massive blocks of ice that made big dents in the ground.
Now, they're lakes, popping up like mirages at the edge of soybean fields, behind screens of ash and cottonwoods. Farther north, they're hidden amid rocky meadows and rolling hillocks full of glacial rubble.
Swapping houses
For budget travelers, keys to a borrowed home open a lot of doors.
It’s a leap of faith, letting strangers stay in your house.
But if you take that leap, you can land in some pretty nice places.
The home-exchange concept is simple: You vacation in my house, I vacation in yours. It was pioneered in 1953 by teachers in Europe, and it got a big boost by the 2007 movie “The Holiday.’’
Follow the leader?
On a guided trip, drop a bundle or a bit — the choice is yours.
Want to save money on trips? Then, step away from the fancy catalog.
Glossy pages of snow-capped mountains and medieval castles are eye candy for travelers. But the prettier the brochure, the more eye-popping the prices.
Luxury excursions are like Jaguars and Jimmy Choo shoes. We covet them, we window-shop for them, but only a few of us can afford them.
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2013 all rights reserved
