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Cheap spring getaways

Here are 14 spots where a fun weekend costs $100 or less.

A bicyclist pedals the Root River State Trail in spring.

In spring, lilacs bloom along the Root River State Trail near Lanesboro, Minn.

Even in a dismal economy, there's no need to stay home.

If you're on a budget, you'll have to look beyond fancy resorts, spas and bistros. Try the western Minneapolis suburbs, where you can rent a cabin for eight for $115, firewood included.

Watch prairie chickens courting on the central Wisconsin sand plains or go up north to Ely for a spring paddle. Ride a zip line at a Missouri camp or go bicycling on the Munger Trail from a lodge in eastern Minnesota.

Each weekend costs $100 or less per person, based on double occupancy. Here are 14 great spring trips for 2010.

For later in the season, see Cheap summer getaways.

Spring break in the Ozarks

Late March and April often is warm and sunny in Missouri, where the YMCA Trout Lodge offers spring-break rates at its 5,200-acre lake resort near Potosi, an hour and a half south of St. Louis.

From March to Memorial Day weekend, a family of one adult and up to three children can get a room for $99-$199 or a cabin for $249 per night; an extra adult is $69. The rate includes three meals a day and use of the gym, archery range, trap-shooting range, trails, adventure activities and boats.

Daily programs during such theme weekends as Spring Break Beach Party and Trout Lodge Adventure Getaway include geocaching scavenger hunts, sailing, soccer, horseback trail rides, rocketry and pontoon water-cannon fights. It's a little extra to use the two zip lines, alpine swing and a 50-foot alpine climbing tower. Call 573-438-2154.

For more, see On the rocks in the Ozarks.

Prairie-chicken courtship in central Wisconsin

On the sand plains between Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point, prairie chickens conduct a goofy courtship, complete with booming and stomping, that draws bird watchers from around the region. Reserve a space in a blind during Prairie Chicken Festival April 16-18 and you'll get to see the whole thing.

For more, see Playing the field in Wisconsin.

A photographer shoots marsh marigolds in Whitewater State Pa

A photographer zooms in on Whitewater State Park's marsh marigolds.

Cost of $25 includes blind space, a Dutch-oven breakfast, bird-banding and guided birding tours, 715-343-6215. Stay in Coloma at the Coloma Hotel, an 1876 inn where the most expensive room has a king bed, gas fireplace, cable, fridge and sofa and costs $55, including breakfast.

Bring a group and rent all eight rooms for $320.

St. Patrick's Day in the big city

Lately, Southwest and other airlines have been offering round-trip fares between Midwest cities for as little as $99. Snap one up to St. Louis on March 13, when the St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown draws a quarter-million spectators. There's also an Irish Village with food and entertainment.

In Chicago, see the river dyed green from the Michigan Avenue or Columbus Drive bridges, then watch the noon St. Pat's parade through Grant Park March 13.

On March weekends, hotel rates are low. Or, stay in Chicago's Loop at Hostelling International's J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Hostel ($29-$38 per person). Cook at the hostel or eat at the adjacent Panera.

For more, see Cheap Chicago.

Cabin camping in a Minneapolis suburb

At the Baker Park Reserve Near-Wilderness Settlement in the western Minneapolis suburb of Maple Plain, groups of up to eight family or friends can rent one of eight rustic log cabins for $115.

The cabins have wood stoves, and firewood is provided. and cooking/eating utensils is provided. All eight cabins and a nearby log lodge with modern restrooms and an institutional kitchen can be rented, but individual groups can rent a cabin during eight weekends that include naturalist programs.

In spring 2010, rent a cabin April 10-11 or May 8-9 for Mother's Day weekend, when the fee includes brunch for the whole family. Reserve up to a year in advance at 763-694-7724.

For more about camper cabins and yurts in state parks, see A roof in the woods.

Spring break in canoe country

Near the northern Minnesota town of Ely, YMCA Camp du Nord rents out its cabins to groups in fall, winter and spring and also offers programming on some weeks and weekends.

It offers Spring Break Camps and a Mother's Day/Fishing Camp May 6-9, with guided hikes and paddles, nature programs, campfires, family saunas and arts and crafts.

There are 21 heated cabins, some with gas fireplaces, in three villages. Rates depend on size of cabin; 16 people sharing Thor's Cabin pay $68 apiece for the Mother's Day weekend, and seven people sharing Jack's Cabin pay $93. Reserve early to get your choice of cabins, 612-465-0568.

For more, see Dreaming of Ely.

Maple syrup, birding and bicycling in eastern Minnesota

Near Sandstone and the 75-mile Willard Munger State Trail, the Audubon Center of the North Woods holds an annual pancake brunch and maple syrup program where families can learn how to tap trees and turn sap into syrup, $15, $10 for children 5-12. Then they can spend the night in one of the environmental-learning center's lodges, $40 for a room that sleeps four adults or a family of eight.

In 2010, it's March 27. Guests can make a weekend out of other programs, too. The lodges also can be rented by groups who want to ride the Munger Trail or go birding around the 535-acre campus, 320-245-2648.

Treasure hunt in southeast Minnesota

May is a fantastic time to explore the bluffs on southeast Minnesota. Spring ephemerals bloom all month, and morel mushrooms pop out around Mother's Day.

Two male prairie chickens try to impress a hen on the booming grounds.

Whitewater State Park, along with the state wildlife area surrounding it, is considered the best morel-hunting grounds in Minnesota; stay at its heated camper cabin, $50. It's also known for carpets of marsh marigolds, false rue anemone and hepatica. In early May, it offers a wildflower and morel walk, and an orchid walk later in the month; they're very popular and book up quickly. Call 507-932-3007.

Carley State Park, just west of Whitewater, is known for its masses of Virginia bluebells, and it celebrates Bluebell Festival May 8. Eat inexpensively in nearby Plainview, which celebrates with a pancake supper and barbecue contest.

Beaver Creek Valley State Park, just west of Caledonia, is known for lots of trout lilies and has a heated camper cabin, $50. The cabins sleep up to five people; reserve up to a year in advance online or at 866-857-2757. Reservation fee is $8.50.

See Chasing wildflowers and Out of the forest and into the frying pan.

Theater weekend in Lanesboro

In this southeast Minnesota bicycling hub, Commonweal Theatre opens its 2010 season in April with Ibsen's play about the money- and power-obsessed "John Gabriel Borkman.'' Tickets are $25; stay across the street at Cottage House Inn, $60 on weekends through April, and bicycle the paved, 42-mile Root River State Trail for free.

This part of bluff country also is great for fly-fishing, and several companies give tours of Amish farms. See Amish country and Lodgings in Lanesboro.

Farther down the trail, Old Barn Resort opens in April and has a three-season heated pool, 18-hole golf course and canoe and kayak rentals. Its hostel has three rooms with up to 16 bunks, $23-$25 per person, and one with two beds, $44-$50 for one or two. Tent sites are $24-$28 for two people and camper sites are $32-$40, $3-$5 each additional person.

Go to Maifest in Iowa's Amana Colonies

There's always something going on in the Amanas, a group of once-communal villages southwest of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Maifest festivities include the Taste of the Amanas food fair, Maypole dancing, German music and a parade May 1-2.

The Guest House Motel in Amana is in the middle of everything and rents rooms with one bed for $59, two beds for $65; call 877-331-0828. Or, stay in one of four family cabins, $50, at beautiful Palisades-Kepler State Park, just east of Cedar Rapids. They can be reserved up to a year in advance, online or at 877-427-2757. Admission to all Iowa state parks is free.

For more, see Truly Amana and Eating in the Amana Colonies.

Sprucing up the Gunflint

In far northeast Minnesota, be a do-gooder while enjoying a spring weekend in the north woods.

The annual Gunflint GreenUp tree-planting festival is May 7-8, and $45 buys you not only the right to release pine seedlings into the wild but also guided nature walks and talks, a picnic with live music, a box lunch, a thank-you dinner and a dance.

Local resorts are offering discounted lodgings. At the luxurious Gunflint Lodge, they’re $59 per person, per night May 6-9, including breakfast, and the first to reserve gets the best digs (all include a fireplace and either sauna or whirlpool).

The Gunflint Lodge also offers its own Spring Chores Weekend April 30-May 2. Guests put in about five hours of work, then get the rest of the weekend free. Cost for the weekend is $99 per person, including Saturday dinner buffet, in the best available cabin.

Backpack in Iowa's Yellow River State Forest

Backpacking always is cheap. But if you first need to learn the basics, go on the Beginner's Backpacking Trip May 14-16 with Crawdaddy Outdoors outfitters and store in Waverly, Iowa.

You'll hike in the beautiful Driftless Area, in the state's northeast corner. Hint: It's not flat. Cost is $75.

Listen to reggae and blues on the Mississippi

In the Wisconsin town of Trempealeau, the 1871 Trempealeau Hotel still includes eight of the original "working-man'' rooms, $40-$49. They don't have private baths, but most have river views.

Guests are right in the middle of the fun during the hotel's annual Reggae Fest, May 15, and Blues Bash, May 29. Watch river traffic while drinking beer, eating the hotel's renowned walnut burgers and listening to well-known musicians; tickets are $15.

Festival-goers enjoy Blues Bash at the Trempealeau Hotel on the Mississippi.

The hotel also is a good base for hiking up to Brady's Bluff in adjacent Perrot State Park, paddling the 4½-mile Long Lake Canoe Trail through the river sloughs and bicycling on the 24-mile Great River State Trail, which slices through town.

For more, see Hitting the trails in Trempealeau.

Ride the Badger State Trail in southern Wisconsin

The new Badger State Trail slices south through cheese country from the Madison area to Illinois, where it meets the Jane Addams Trail. Together, these crushed-limestone trails have 46 miles; from the Madison suburb of Fitchburg, the Badger heads 33 miles south to the Illinois border; from there, the Addams heads 13 miles south to Freeport.

Stay in Monroe, Wis., at the Super 8, two blocks from the trail (and Brennan's Farm Market, a great spot to pick up picnic supplies). Rooms are $70 on weekends, including breakfast, $63 with an AAA card, 608-325-1500.

On one day, ride 20 miles to Freeport; on the next, ride 26 miles to Paoli, or branch off onto the Sugar River State Trail and ride to New Glarus. Trail pass is $4 daily.

For more, see A slice of cheese country.

A sampler of outdoors sports

Every spring, the Minnesota Rovers Outdoors Club puts on an Outdoors Extravaganza to introduce prospective members to the club. It's always held in mid-May in a state park not far from the Twin Cities.

Cost of $15 includes camping, Saturday supper, Sunday breakfast and guided hikes, paddling trips, rock-climbing and bicycling. This year, it's May 15-16 at Afton State Park.

For planning travel on a nickel, the Rovers and other outdoors clubs are unparalleled.

To find out about outdoors clubs, which offer many great trips for $100 or less, see Join the club.

More ideas

Minnesota rents several modern guest houses that are very affordable for groups. For more, see Lodgings in Minnesota state parks.

To find out about other inexpensive places for groups to stay, see Cabins for a crowd.

Last updated on April 13, 2010

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