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Cheap winter getaways

Here are 15 places where a fun weekend costs $100 or less.

The Sports Dorm at Giants Ridge is next to the chalet and across from a chairlift.

In the Upper Midwest, we tend not to brag — except when we find a great bargain.

My, do we love our bargains. We love them even when times are good. But now that they're bad, we need them, especially when cabin fever strikes in winter.

One of our favorite winter getaways is the Sports Dorm at Giants Ridge alpine ski resort on Minnesota's Iron Range. It costs less than $20 per person to stay there, but it's only yards from a chairlift.

In 2012, that's among 15 weekend trips you can take for $100 or less per person, based on at least two people.

You can also track wolves in Ely, walk a high-ropes course near Lanesboro, scoop up bargains in southwest Wisconsin, visit the famous ice caves near Bayfield and snowshoe in the Upper Peninsula.

For more winter getaways, see Near escapes in Minnesota and Near escapes in Wisconsin.

See our Girlfriend Getaways section and, for general getaway ideas, Plan a Trip.

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

For tips on finding deals and discounts, see Cornucopia of coupons.

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 with private bath at the Sports Dorm for $65-$70 and fix snacks in the common kitchenette, though it doesn't include an oven.

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).

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.

A cabin and gliding by candlelight

If you love to ski or snowshoe by candlelight in state parks but you have a hard time leaving the house in the dark, just make your home in the park for the night.

Minnesota has heated camper cabins in many of the parks that host candlelight events. They're a little expensive at $50 plus the $8.50 reservation fee, but they sleep six, so you can split the cost.

Or not — the cabins are rustic, but you can make them romantic with a roaring fire under the stars.

The Feb. 4 candlelight ski at Mille Lacs-Kathio is one of the region's best, and that state park has five camper cabins.

Other best bets: Jan. 14 or Feb. 14 at Wild River near Taylors Falls, (six cabins and a guesthouse); Jan. 7 or Feb. 3-4 at Lake Carlos near Alexandria, (four cabins); Feb. 4 at Afton near St. Paul, (four cabins); Feb. 4 at St. Croix near Hinckley (two guesthouses) and Feb. 11 at Lake Maria near Monticello, (three cabins).

For more, see Ski or snowshoe by candlelight and A roof in the woods.

High ropes 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.

A guest at Eagle Bluff's Adult Getaway Weekend braves the high-ropes course.

Its annual Adult Getaway Weekend is Feb. 4-5, featuring guided star gazing, yoga, snowshoeing, indoor climbing, a high-ropes course on the bluff and geocaching.

Cost is $100 per person, including a multi-course Dinner on the Bluff. 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.

For more, see Escape to Eagle Bluff.

The center also offers a Becoming an Outdoor Family Winter Weekend Feb. 11-12, including indoor rock climbing and ice fishing as well as skiing and snowshoeing. Cost is $80, $300 for a family of four.

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, Mount Horeb, 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 suite at the House on the Rock Resort in Spring Green. For more, see Drawn to Spring Green.

For more, see Power shopping in Wisconsin.

Play in Itasca State Park

The headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota's Itasca State Park are a must-see destination in summer.

Skiers in front of Mississippi Headwaters Hostel in Itasca.

The Mississippi Headwaters Hostel makes a cozy base for exploring Itasca State Park.

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.

And if that's too much togetherness for you, stay in the park's newer Itasca Suites near Douglas Lodge, which have kitchenettes and satellite TV. They're $99 in winter.

For more, see Itasca in winter.

Lutsen skiing on a shoestring

It's a lot of fun to ski at Lutsen Mountains on Minnesota's North Shore, though not cheap —the walk-up rate for a lift ticket is $61.

It's more affordable if you go with a group and buy a lodging package. But it's downright cheap if you stay nearby at Birch Grove elementary school in Tofte, also known as the Lake Superior Hostel on weekends.

The hostel serves only groups, and it charges $139 per person for two nights of lodgings, two lift tickets, three meals and a pass to the municipal pool complex in Grand Marais. Guests provide their own bedding and sleep on foam mattresses.

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 on the Bayfield Peninsula 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 shoreline ice doesn't always freeze hard enough to allow access, especially if there's a lot of snow to insulate it. In an average year, it will freeze by the end of February.

If it never freezes, you still can walk along the top of the cliffs on the Lakeshore Trail from Meyers Beach.

Stay at the Village Inn in nearby Cornucopia, where rooms go for $65-$75, including a continental breakfast.

For more, see Ice caves of the Apostles.

Get away to Lanesboro and Preston

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 groomed Harmony-Preston Valley and Root River state trails.

Skiing is excellent on the quiet and scenic stretch of the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail between Isinours Junction, five miles west of Lanesboro, and Preston. (To get to Isinours, turn south onto County Road 17 from County Road 8, halfway between Fountain and Lanesboro.)

On Jan. 21, there's a candlelight ski on the trail from Preston, with chili around a bonfire. On the Root River State Trail, there's a candlelight ski from Whalan on Feb. 4, with a soup supper in the village hall.

In Preston, stay inexpensively at the Trailhead Inn for $50-$60. Dogs are allowed, $20 per stay.

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

Culture in Northfield

The 1877 Archer House is the anchor of Northfield's Division Street.

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 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 River Inn, 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.

Downhill in Duluth

These days, nearly every visitor to Duluth wants to stay on Canal Park. But the Spirit Mountain ski hill is in West Duluth, and so is the modest but perfectly nice Willard Munger Inn.

The motel offers good deals on skiing and snowboarding at Spirit Mountain. During the week, stays with lift tickets for two start at $92, and on weekends, they start at $116.

If you're a cross-country skier — and Duluth has great trails near the Munger and across town — you can stay there for $56-$60. For more, see Cross-country in Duluth.

Skiing in Ironwood

Thanks to lake-effect snowfalls, this Michigan town on the Wisconsin border never has a bad snow year. It has two cross-country ski trail systems, Wolverine and ABR, and both have inexpensive lodgings.

Across the street from Wolverine Nordic, Wolverine Village is a newly built skiers' retreat. Small cabins that sleep up to three go for $55, and large cabins that sleep up to 12 go for $175. There's also a dining hall, laundry area, showers and wax rooms.

Two ski trails pass the River House at ABR in Ironwood.

ABR (short for Active Backwoods Retreat) has lodgings right on the trails. It's known for its fastidious grooming, so that's a big plus. Overnights at six rustic, ski-in heated cabins cost $40-$60 for one, $8 for each additional person. A sauna and shower costs an extra $6.

The resort also has two modern houses, and groups can get by for $100 per person or less there, too. For more, see Ironwood the reliable.

Stay cheap in Madison

In summer, the Hostelling International Madison hostel is packed with tourists from around the world. But in winter, guests may have a room to themselves. The cost for a bed in a dorm room is $25; in a private room, it's $52 for one, $55 for two and $58 for three.

The hostel is ideally located two blocks from Capitol Square and State Street, which is packed with shops, restaurants and museums. Winter is the cultural high season, and the Overture Center for the Arts hosts international artists and Broadway shows as well as the local symphony, opera, theater and dance troupes.

The calendar is packed: The free Madison Winter Festival is Feb. 18-19 on Capitol Square, and the International Festival, also free, is March 3 at the Overture Center.

The giant Canoecopia paddle sports expo is March 9-11 at the Alliant Energy Center, and the Wisconsin Film Festival is April 18-22.

For more, see At home in a hostel (it includes information about the hostel in Chicago's Loop, too).

For more about Madison, see Madison for all ages and Shopping in Madison.

Tracking wolves in central Wisconsin

A wolf has dinner at the International Wolf Center in Ely.

Twenty minutes west of Wisconsin Rapids in Sandhill State Wildlife Area, the Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center offers several winter workshops, including Timber Wolf Winter Tracking & Ecology workshops Jan. 21-22 and Feb. 18-19.

Cost is $80 and includes instruction materials, dorm lodgings and two meals.

It also offers a Snowshoe Weaving workshop March 10-11; it's $185, but it includes a snowshoe kit as well as lodgings and two meals. 715-884-6331.

Slumber party in Ely

In this north-woods Minnesota town, the International Wolf Center is holding a New Year's Family Slumber Party Dec. 31-Jan. 1.

The all-day Saturday program includes indoor programs at the center as well as day and night hikes, and families who want to stay overnight can sleep on the floor of the auditorium. Cost is $75 for adults, $50 for children 6-12, including a pizza dinner and continental breakfast.

On Sunday, there's an optional half-day dog-sled trip, $160 per person.

For a budget trip on other winter weekends —Winter Festival is Feb. 2-12 — stay west of town in Bear Head Lake State Park, which has a guesthouse and camper cabins. For more, see Ensconced in Ely.

For more about winter in Ely, see Playtime in Ely.

More ideas for affordable travel

In the woods of northern Wisconsin near Tomahawk, Treehaven environmental learning center offers two Wolf Ecology Workshops, with tracking and howling surveys, Jan. 14-15 and Feb. 25-26 in 2012. They're $150, 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.

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 (there's a shower house) 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. 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.

It's always cheapest to travel with a group. 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 December 2, 2011

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