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Cheap winter getaways

Here are 12 places where a fun weekend costs $100 or less.

High-school skiers practice at Giants Ridge.

A high-school ski team trains at Giants Ridge on Minnesota's Iron Range.

What’s the mark of a true Midwesterner? Is it ice-fishing? An obsession with weather? Saying “you betcha’’ and calling soda "pop''?

No, what truly binds us is our love of a bargain.

We love finding good deals even in good times. But now that they're bad, we need those deals.

"We're getting calls from people who have already made reservations, but since then, people in their parties have lost their jobs,'' says Jeff Spolar of Giants Ridge ski resort in northern Minnesota. "They're looking for something cheaper, and if they can't find an opening, they cancel.''

At Giants Ridge's Sports Dorm, guests spend the night for $20 apiece and save more by preparing meals in a common kitchen. They also get discounts on lift tickets.

That makes skiing at Giants Ridge one of 10 weekend trips you can take for $105 or less per person, based on at least two people.

You can also go shopping in southwest Wisconsin, visit the famous ice caves near Bayfield, snowshoe with your kids, and, at the tail end of winter, indulge in an adult getaway weekend in southeast Minnesota that includes yoga, maple-syruping and all meals, featuring a gourmet dinner with five courses and wine.

For more outdoors ideas, see Cross-country Skiing, Alpine Skiing, Snowshoeing or Winter Fun stories. For general getaway ideas, see Plan a Trip.

For the rest of the year, see Cheap spring getaways, Cheap summer getaways and Cheap fall getaways.

Ski cheap in Duluth

Spirit Mountain's Ski and Stay special is a perennial best bet. Stay at one of 20 lodgings and you'll get two four-hour lift tickets, a $64 value, good Sunday through Friday. It's $5 to upgrade to an eight-hour ticket.

You could stay at the popular Canal Park hotels, at Fitger's or the A.G. Thomson House B&B, but the best value may be the homey Willard Munger Inn, at the foot of Spirit Mountain in West Duluth.

Under the Ski and Stay package, rooms start at $80, $84 weekends, and a big continental breakfast is included. If you want to cross-country ski instead, on the nearby Magney-Snively or Western Waterfront trails (see Cross-country in Duluth), rooms start at $56-$60.

If you want to do other things in Duluth — say, watch the start of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon — you can use the Northland coupon book to get a hotel deal. They're best Sundays-Thursdays — on Canal Park, $59 at the Suites at Waterfront Plaza, $64 at the Comfort Suites, $74 at Inn on Lake Superior — but only about $20 more for weekends. Get the book at 800-438-5884, but before reserving, also check the Hot Deals at Visit Duluth.

Snowshoeing in the Porkies

Three yurts are available year-round in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has everything you need for great snowshoeing — 100 miles of trails, guaranteed snow and a cheap place to stay.

This park on Lake Superior gets piles of lake-effect snow from November through April. In winter, you'll need snowshoes, or skis, to get to its three year-round yurts, which have wood stoves but no running water. The yurts sleep four in bunk beds and cost $60. For more, see Afoot in the Porkies.

Ski out the door at Giants Ridge

This resort on Minnesota's Iron Range is a great place for nordic as well as alpine skiers. Near the bottom of the ski hill, next to the lodge and cross-country trails, four people can stay in a room at the Sports Dorm for $65 and fix meals in the common kitchen. Guests also get discounts on lift tickets, $48 for two days downhill, $20 cross-country.

Call Jeff Spolar at 218-865-3020 for availability and information on inexpensive group lodgings nearby, including the YMCA in Virginia, the community center in Biwabik and two camps south of Eveleth. Cost at those places comes out to about $80 per person for two nights and downhill lift tickets, he says.

For more on skiing, see A Giant advantage (cross-country) and King of the hills (alpine).

Shop in southwest Wisconsin

Need some new warm clothes? Land's End donates its catalog returns to five Bargain Nooks in Spring Green, Mineral Point, New Glarus, Platteville and Darlington, run by the Hodan Center, a non-profit that helps adults with disabilities. Expect to pay $25 for a goose-down parka and $5-$10 for pants and shirts.

This is a good girlfriend getaway, so split the cost of a two-bed room at the Chalet Landhaus in New Glarus, which has an indoor pool and hot tub, $89-$99 including a very nice breakfast buffet.

For more, see Power shopping in Wisconsin.

Family fun in Minnesota lake country

In Minnesota lakes country, Deep Portage Learning Center hosts Winter Weekends.

Deep in the heart of forest north of Brainerd, Deep Portage Conservation Reserve near Hackensack holds two Family Winter Weekends, Jan. 15-17 and Feb. 26-28. The center has 18 kilometers of ski trails on its 6,300 and calls itself Minnesota’s largest outdoor classroom. In the 54,000-square-foot lodge, there's a climbing wall, 70-ton granite fireplace and nooks for reading and playing board games.

Cost is $100 per person, $300 for a family of four, including lodging, five meals and gear for snowshoeing, skiing and ice-fishing. The center opens on other weekends when 20 or more people reserve. 888-280-9908.

For more, see Playground in the woods.

Play in Itasca State Park

The headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota's Itasca State Park are a must-see destination in summer. In winter, the park grooms 32 kilometers of cross-country ski trails, many of which wind through old-growth pine forest, and there's ice-fishing right outside the Mississippi Headwaters Hostel, in the 1923 former park headquarters.

It sleeps 31, and there's a wood-burning fireplace. Rooms are $27 per person, $15 for children 14 and younger, but renting a family bedroom, wing or whole hostel brings the cost down to $20 a person.

For more, see Itasca in winter.

Culture in Northfield

In this two-college town an hour south of the Twin Cities, the entertainment is free. St. Olaf College, whose music program is renowned, regularly brings in professional musicians, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; check the calendar for other free concerts.

At Carleton College, the Friday-morning Convocation lectures are free and open to the public.

There are many other free or inexpensive events around town. Stay at the 1877 Archer House, which includes restaurants and shops under its roof. Rooms start at $80, and several have two beds or sleeper sofas, good for girlfriend getaways.

For more, see Scrappy Northfield.

Get away to Lanesboro

This burg in southeast Minnesota bluff country, so popular with bicyclists in summer and fall, is very quiet in winter. In recent years, however, it's been dumped with snow, allowing skiing on the Root River State Trail. On Feb. 6, there's a candlelight ski from Whalan.

There's shopping and Amish tours, too. In Lanesboro, stay inexpensively at the Cottage House Inn, where rooms are $50-$60, or the Green Gables Inn, $65-$75.

See ice caves in the Apostles

The mainland ice caves of the Apostles are a big draw once the lake ice permits passage.

Snowshoeing or hiking over Lake Superior to see the magnificent ice caves at Mawikwe Bay is the coolest thing you can do in winter (aside from mushing your own sled-dog team for a day, which costs about $300). And it doesn't cost a thing.

The lake doesn't always freeze hard enough to allow access. But 2009 was a banner year, with the national-park service giving the green light for visits from late January to mid-March. Stay at the Village Inn in nearby Cornucopia, where rooms go for $60-$75, including a continental breakfast.

For more, see Ice caves of the Apostles.

Tracking wolves in central Wisconsin

Twenty minutes west of Wisconsin Rapids in Sandhill State Wildlife Area, the Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center offers Timber Wolf Winter Tracking & Ecology workshops Jan. 23-24 and Feb. 20-21. Cost is $75 and includes instruction materials, dorm lodgings and two meals.

It also offers a Snowshoe Weaving workshop March 6-7; it's $180, but it includes a snowshoe kit as well as lodgings and two meals. 715-884-6331.

Wine and yoga in bluff country

On a bluff high above the Root River, near Lanesboro, Minn., Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center hosts schoolchildren during the week but offers public programs on weekends. Its annual Adult Getaway Weekend is Feb. 6-7, featuring yoga, guided star gazing, skiing, snowshoeing, a high-ropes course on the bluff and a winter-survival seminar.

The center has made a point to offer superb food since it became a residential campus in 1992.

"We're more traditional during the week, but we like the opportunity to get all fancy-pants at our adult getaways,'' says public-program coordinator Megan Duffey.

Cost is $100 per person, including a multi-course dinner prepared by French-born chef/cooking-school proprietor Monique Hooker. Call 507-467-2437 to reserve.

For more, see Escape to Eagle Bluff.

Snowshoeing with kids

In the woods of northern Wisconsin near Tomahawk, Treehaven environmental learning center offers a Snowshoe Weekend for Kids & Parents Jan. 23-24, for children 6-13 and their parents or guardians. Cost is $85 for adults and $53 for children, including meals and use of snowshoes, plus $35 for a private room for four.

More ideas

Treehaven offers two Wolf Ecology Workshops, with tracking and howling surveys, Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 27-28. They're $140, including lodgings and three meals.

Guest houses, cabins and yurts in state parks are a great deal year-round, though they're in great demand on weekends. Camper cabins in Minnesota sleep five or six, and mini-cabins in Michigan sleep four; they're $45. For more, see A roof in the woods.

The four cabins on Mic Mac Lake in Minnesota's Tettegouche State Park rent for $65-$120 in winter, and even though they have no running water and guests have to haul everything over a 1¾-mile trail, they're very popular. For more, see Heirs to a hideaway.

Minnesota rents several modern guest houses, including one in Bear Head Lake State Park that sleeps 10 and rents for $150. For more, see Lodgings in Minnesota state parks.

In Wisconsin, Black River State Forest near Black River Falls rents a two-bedroom cabin that sleeps 12, $40. There are good ski trails nearby.

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

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

Last updated on January 25, 2010

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