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Cheap summer getaways

Yes, you can vacation for $100 or less. You won't be pampered, but the perks are priceless.

Marquette University's Straz Tower dorm.

On the edge of downtown Milwaukee, Marquette University opens its Straz Tower to tourists in summer.

In summer, it’s not as hard as you’d think to take a trip for $100 or less.

Many of the great travel experiences in the Upper Midwest can’t be bought, anyway – swimming in a Great Lake, hiking on a wooded trail, canoeing under an eagle's nest.

For $100, you won’t be sitting down to a candlelight dinner, but you might be dining by firelight. You won't be renting speedboats, but you might have your own boardwalk to the beach.

Here are 20 great trips where you’ll get few of the frills but all of the fun. Most give you a roof over your head; the trips that require camping also include guides, meals and/or fun things to do.

If you're really frugal, you can travel for almost nothing by staying in county parks and state forests and seeing the sights on a bike. To travel for free, join work trips on trails and in parks. As always, reserve as soon as possible.

And if you want to plan ahead, see Cheap fall getaways, Cheap winter getaways and Cheap spring getaways.

A yurt on Iowa's Clear Lake

Rent both yurts on the shores of Clear Lake in north-central Iowa, and you've got your own dock, shower house and oak-shaded corner of McIntosh Woods State Park.

Each yurt has a full-size futon and bunk beds and costs $35, or $210 per week. It's connected by bike trail to Clear Lake, a laid-back beach town with a 1950s vibe and music every weekend. There's a sand beach in the park and a lakeside supper club next door. It's camping, but just barely.

The bathhouse is disabled-accessible, as is one yurt. Guests can bring a boat or raft to use off the dock. Reserve up to a year in advance at Iowa state parks, 877-427-2757, which also rent many camper cabins and family cabins, $25-$100.

For more, see Yippee for yurts and Clear Lake tranquility.

Festivals in Milwaukee

Grand Traverse Light on Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula.

On Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, volunteer keepers help maintain Grand Traverse Light.

Summer is one big party in Milwaukee, whose lakefront festival grounds host the huge Summerfest, which it calls the world's largest music festival, and eight big festivals that celebrate Polish, Italian, German, African, Arab, Irish, Mexican and Indian heritages.

Ignore the expensive hotel rooms and bunk at Marquette University's Straz Tower, 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.

Or ride your bike; it's a college dorm, so you're free to take your bike up to your room in the elevator. Milwaukee is a great place to bicycle; see Bicycling along Lake Michigan.

Rooms are air-conditioned and have sweeping views, cable TV, microwave, refrigerator, phone and Internet access; cost is $45 for one person in a room and $62 for two. Call 414-288-7208 to reserve.

Many other colleges have dorms that are open to the public in summer. For more, see Cheap stays.

For more on festivals, see Party in Milwaukee.

A great amusement park in Green Bay

Want to take the kids to an amusement park, but don't want to pay $40 for a pass to Six Flags? Spend a day at the wonderfully old-fashioned Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay, where $40 will buy you 160 rides on the giant slide or 80 rides on a Tilt-A-Whirl or Ferris wheel.

The leafy, 45-acre park on the shores of Lake Michigan has been owned by the city since 1920 and has 16 mechanical rides, pony rides and a playground, picnic area and dance hall. Ride tickets are 25 cents each.

Green Bay still has many inexpensive mom-and-pop motels and other accommodations. In adjoining DePere, the Apple Creek Campground rents yurts and sleeping cabins for $69 per family.

And you'll probably want to visit the Packer Hall of Fame and tour Lambeau Field. For more, see Packer country.

Living in a lighthouse

A green canvas-sided yurt looks over Clear Lake in Iowa.

The yurts in McIntosh Woods State Park have their own dock on Clear Lake.

Many lighthouses on the Great Lakes give free housing to volunteer keepers in return for help with tours and light maintenance.

At Pottawatomie Light on Wisconsin's Rock Island, Au Sable Light in Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan and Devils islands in the Apostles and Big Sable Light near Ludington, Mich., volunteers stay at former keepers’ quarters. Others stay in former state-park manager houses or in cabins.

For more, see Living in a lighthouse.

A cheap stay in Chicago

Chicago is so much fun in summer that everyone wants to be there — bad news for people on a budget. But you can beat high hotel rates by staying at the Hostelling International Family Hostel in the South Loop at Congress and Wabash, two blocks from Grant Park, which hosts free festivals and concerts all summer.

It's quite posh, with pancake happy hours, an Internet room, WiFi and a carpeted great room with foosball, ping-pong and a pool table. There's a kitchen where guests can cook for themselves.

In 2006 and 2007, it was voted Best Large Hostel Worldwide. Beds cost $29-$38 per person, including a breakfast buffet of bagels, muffins, cereal, fruit and juice. Call 312-360-0300.

Volunteers takes guests on forays around town, to festivals and blues clubs. And speaking of volunteers, the official city Greeters will show you around city for free.

For more tips, see Cheap Chicago.

Canoeing on the Namekagon River

Community-education programs are a lode of inexpensive trips, and Southwest High School in Minneapolis has a particularly strong program.

In 2010, the program's annual canoeing trip is to the pristine Namekagon River in northwest Wisconsin, part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. It's June 25-27 and costs $100, including van transportation from Minneapolis, base camping at a private campground, shuttles, meals, canoes, gear and camping supplies. To sign up or get on the mailing list, call 612-668-3100.

But anyone can canoe (or kayak) any time on this pristine river, whose waters are as clear as glass. Camping on the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway is free and first-come, first-served.

Try the quiet section between Trego and the St. Croix River. If you need an outfitter, contact Pardun's Canoe Rental and Shuttle Service in Danbury.

Camping and a lakeside concert

Eight family cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps sit on the bluff above Backbone Lake.

If you're paddling on the Bois Brule River in northwest Wisconsin, there's more to do just to the south on the shores of Upper St. Croix Lake, headwaters of the St. Croix River.

In Solon Springs, the Lucius Woods Performing Arts Center offers Music in the Park on Saturday evenings at its massive log bandshell.

It's on the lake in Lucius Woods County Park, which has 24 wooded sites, a nice sand beach, a playground and a modern bathhouse. Camping costs $13-$14 and is first-come, first-served. 715-378-2219.

The music season runs from late June to mid-August and includes folk, blues, big-band, bluegrass, Dixieland jazz, Celtic and '50s music. Tickets are $13, $15 at the gate; $6.50-$7.50 for students. Brats and beer are sold on site. There's also a Dairy Queen, grocery store and restaurant a block from the park.

The North Country National Scenic Trail runs through the park, and on the north end of Upper St. Croix Lake, a historic two-mile portage trail connects it to the start of the Bois Brule.

For more, see Summer nights in Solon Springs and Paddling the Bois Brule.

Walking around Geneva Lake

In the tony Lake Geneva area of southeast Wisconsin, you can't put a roof over your head for less than $100. But you can have one of the best locations if you camp at Big Foot Beach State Park.

It's right on Geneva Lake in Fontana, with a quarter-mile sand beach. The campground has showers; 38 sites can be reserved and 37 are first-come, first-served, 262-248-2528.

You can swim, but the thing to do is walk around the lake on a unusual footpath that goes right through the front yards of the big mansions. It's 20 miles, but you also can walk to the town of Lake Geneva and get a ride back to Fontana on a Lake Geneva Cruise Line boat.

For more, see Gawking in Lake Geneva.

Tubing the Root River in southeast Minnesota

In Minnesota's bluff country, Lanesboro is the hub of the popular Root River State Trail.

It's got lots of B&Bs, but tourists on a budget can camp in Sylvan Park, right in the middle of everything. There are showers in the Community Center, and on Saturday mornings, there's a farmers market where you can buy Amish pastries for breakfast. Camping is first-come, first-served, $10 for tent sites, and $25 for campers.

Rent a tube from Root River Outfitters for $8 if you want to walk back along the bicycle trail or $12 if you want a longer trip with return by shuttle. Bicycling is free. Stay on a Sunday night and you can see a live broadcast of "Over the Back Fence'' for $5.

For more, see Languid in Lanesboro.

Cooling off in Duluth

As summer heats up, the price of hotel rooms rockets in this port city, cooled by the breezes of Lake Superior and frequented by crowds of tourists.

Get a break on those rates at the College of St. Scholastica, where dorm rooms in summer rent for $57 nightly, $378 weekly. Call 218-529-5777.

The college is in the hills above downtown, west of Chester Park and right off Skyline Parkway, which is a destination in itself.

For more, see Duluth's Skyline Parkway and other Duluth stories.

Cabins in Iowa state parks

The rustic cabins at Point Beach each have a boardwalk to Lake Michigan.

In hilly northeast Iowa, a family of four can spend a week in a cabin at Backbone State Park for $300. The lovely sand beach on Backbone Lake is nearby, there's great hiking, and the cabins, built in the 1930s by the CCC, have bathrooms and kitchens.

Other parks rent cabins, too. In summer, they rent only by the week; the rest of the year, the minimum is two days.

For more, see A cabin in Iowa.

Seeing the sights on a bike

An organized bicycle tour is the best and cheapest way to see the countryside and make a lot of friends along the way.

One of them is the Michigander, sponsored by the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance in July. It starts with a two-day loop tour and costs $95 including breakfast and dinner. 517-485-6022.

In Minnesota, you can ride for a whole week on the MS Society's TRAM for a registration fee of $50 (you also have to raise at least $300 in pledges). It's the last full week in July.

In Iowa, ride all seven days of RAGBRAI for $140; it's also the last week of July.

For details and more rides, see Sightseeing on $20 a day and Tours on two wheels.

BWCA from a bunkhouse

Two resorts on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area allow guests to stay for $16-$20 per person in bunkhouses while taking day trips into the wilderness or just relaxing on a lake.

At the end of the Gunflint Trail, Tuscarora Lodge on Round Lake rents nine bunkhouses in the woods, each sleeping four to nine people, that share a shower house. Cost is $16 per person, including towels, and an all-you-can-eat French toast breakfast is $7. Each bunkhouse is rented to only one party at a time, 800-544-3843.

Twenty-two miles east of Ely, Kawishiwi Lodge and Outfitters is on Lake One, an entry point into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The resort has two bunkhouses, each with full kitchen and bath and one with screened porch, where beds go for $20 per person, with a $60 minimum. One bunkhouse sleeps nine and one sleeps eight, and each is rented to only one party at a time. 218-365-5487.

For more, see Minnesota's Boundary Waters and Adventure on the Gunflint Trail.

Hiking and paddling with a club

Traveling with an outdoors club is one of the best deals you can get. You need to be a member to go on overnight trips, but you don’t need to live in the town where the club is based; you can meet the group at the destination.

One club known for its penny-pinching ways is the Minnesota Rovers Outdoors Club, based in the Twin Cities. It offers camping trips to Minnesota’s North Shore for as little as $10; you bring your own food, but you can borrow gear from the club.

It also offers beginner’s trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for around $85-$100. For more about traveling with outdoors clubs, see Join the club.

Your own beach on Lake Michigan

A crowd listens to an outdoor blues concert in Solon Springs

In the northwest Wisconsin village of Solon Springs, camp and see a concert in the same place.

Do you have a really large family and hardly any money but would like a nice beach vacation? Here's the place for you.

Just north of Two Rivers, Wis., Point Beach State Forest rents two rustic cabins, each with a boardwalk to white-sand beach on Lake Michigan. They're in their own part of the park, south of the lighthouse and main beach, so they're very quiet.

Guests should bring bicycles and ride the beautiful Rawley Point Trail through the park to the lighthouse and south to Two Rivers, where they can connect to the paved Mariners Trail, which follows the Lake Michigan shoreline to Manitowoc.

For more, see Two trails from Two Rivers.

One cabin sleeps 14 in bunks and the other sleeps 16, but they're all in one room, so beware of snorers. Each has a fire pit and latrine, and they share a covered pavilion for eating and a water pump. There's no electricity, so campers should bring lanterns. Shower houses are in the main part of the park. Cost is $60.

They can be reserved 11 months in advance, 800-372-3607. The park is at 920-794-7480.

Wisconsin cabins for the physically disabled

If you're physically disabled, Wisconsin charges just $30 per night for cabins in nine state parks. Of course, they’re very popular.

Modern cabins are in Buckhorn, High Cliff, Mirror Lake, Kohler-Andrae and Potawatomi state parks and at Ottawa Lake in the Southern Unit of Kettle Moraine State Forest and in Richard Bong Recreation Area.

Rustic cabins are at Copper Falls and Blue Mounds state parks. Reservations can be made up to a year in advance and are taken by individual parks; for information, call 608-266-2181.

Stay on a boat in Dubuque

In Dubuque, Iowa, you can stay on the Mississippi River and in a museum at the same time.

During the day, the 1934 steam-powered dredge boat William M. Black is part of the National Mississippi River Museum, but at night, it's a guesthouse with 55 bunks.

Cost is $50 per bunk; bring three friends and pay $37.50 apiece to rent two state rooms or $43.75 apiece to rent the Itasca State Room, which has a private bathroom. Rates include admission to the museum and breakfast in its Depot Cafe. It's open April through October. 800-226-3369, Ext. 213.

For more, see Destination Dubuque.

Stay on the beach on Lake Michigan

Camp in the 18 Michigan state parks that line the sandy shores of Lake Michigan between Mackinaw City and the Indiana border and you'll have a better location than you would at the fanciest resorts. Sites can be reserved six months in advance.

Or rent a $45 mini-cabin that sleeps four; there are 13 at Petoskey, Leelanau, Traverse City, Orchard Beach, Ludington, Muskegon and Warren Dunes state parks. Reserve up to a year in advance.

Go on a trail-clearing trip

If you're willing to get your hands dirty, you can enjoy a week in the outdoors for free, courtesy of the North Country Trail Association, which is building and maintains a 4,600-mile path from North Dakota to New York.

Go on one of its Volunteer Adventures, and you'll work four days and take one day off to enjoy your surroundings. Camping fees and 17 meals are supplied; volunteers pay a $50 registration that is refunded after the trip.

Youths aged 12-17 accompanied by adults are welcome. Call 866-445-3628 to register.

Camping on Lake Superior

I found Saxon Harbor County Park on Lake Superior while seeking out nearby Superior Falls, on the Montreal River between Wisconsin and Michigan. It has everything anyone wants in summer — a sand beach for swimming, showers, a protected bay for kayaking and a bar that serves burgers and pizza on days when it’s too hot to cook.

Sites are first-come, first-served — weekends fill fast — and cost $15 with electricity. Harbor Lights bar gives out information, 715-893-2242, or call Iron County, 715-561-2697.

For more, see 10 great campsites.

Last updated on March 7, 2010

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