Home >  Plan a trip >  Best Trips >  Favorite places >  A year of best places

Other stories in "Favorite places"

• Best of winter
  Here are 20 things that will make you fall in love with snow season.
• 100 best places to vacation
  Here's one traveler's life list for trips in the Upper Midwest.
• Serious reservations
  Here's a guide to the lodgings, campsites and permits you should nail down now.
• Best of fall
  The chase is on as autumn colors coat the countryside.
• Best of summer
  The season is short, so have as much fun as you can.
• 10 tourist traps to love
  These roadside attractions dole out equal portions of schlock and awe.
• Secret spots of the North Shore
  You’ve seen Split Rock and hiked Oberg. What next? Here are 10 great places the crowds tend to overlook.
• Near escapes in Minnesota
  Skiing or skyways? Here are 10 places for a great winter getaway.
• Best shopping towns for weekenders
  Cute, compact, accommodating — these are good spots for girlfriend getaways.
• Near escapes in Wisconsin
  Water parks or waterfalls? Here are 10 places to go for a great winter getaway.
• A thousand times, go
  With "1,000 Places,'' daydream believers in the Upper Midwest get another life list to work on.
• Chasing the Top 10
  Darling town, oh so small/Who's the fairest of them all?
• Best little towns that charm the tourists
  These 10 favorite destinations have personality to spare.
• Best up-and-coming towns to get to know
  They're on the sidelines now, but nearly ready for their closeup.

A year of best places

Here are the choicest spots to be during each month of the calendar.

Wouldn't it be great to spend a year enjoying yourself in the 12 best possible places?

Broadcast journalist Charles Kuralt once gave himself that dream assignment: Spend one month apiece in your favorite places in the United States, "at just the right time of the year.''

He devoted July to Ely, the northern-Minnesota gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area.

I could spend all 12 months right here, in the Upper Midwest. Here are the places I'd pick.

For more ideas, see 100 best places to vacation.

For trips by season, see Best of spring, Best of summer, Best of fall and Best of winter.

For more, see other Favorite Places stories.

January/A northwoods ski resort

There's nothing more beautiful than the north woods in winter, when the forest is a cathedral of snow, spruce and sky.

Skiing at this time of year can be a religious experience; the solitude and the stark beauty of the winter landscape seem to induce contemplation and lofty thoughts.

Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are honeycombed with beautiful trails. I'd choose the ones at Maplelag, a one-of-a-kind ski resort in northwest Minnesota that is as beloved for its warmth and hospitality as for its well-groomed trails.

If I still had young children, though, I'd go to Afterglow in northeast Wisconsin, a family resort where guests get towed up a tubing hill by snowmobile and there's great snowshoeing, too.

February/Madison

Nowhere in the region is there so much to do within two blocks: Stay at the Madison Concourse Hotel. Eat at L'Etoile or Harvest, two of Madison's best restaurants.

Visit the Wisconsin Historical Museum and the Veterans Museum. Take a free guided tour of the Capitol. Play in the snow during Winter Festival on President's Day weekend.

And that's just Capitol Square. Walk a block down State Street and you'll be at the Overture Center for the Arts, which has seven performing spaces and hosts international artists and Broadway shows as well as the local symphony, opera, theater and dance troupes.

In late winter, the Overture Center hosts the Madison International Festival, a great place to take the kids.

For a vibrant mix of shops and eateries, just keep walking down State Street. If you're bored in Madison, you're bored with life.

March/Gunflint Trail and ice caves

When dirty slush clogs the rest of the region, the Gunflint Trail from the northeast tip of Minnesota still has a sparkling layer of fresh snow.

Ski on 200 kilometers of groomed nordic trails, snowshoe, go on sleigh rides, try skijoring, howl for wolves or mush a dog team.

Some years, the skiing is fantastic all the way to April Fool's Day and beyond.

The other great thing to do in early March is hike or snowshoe along the shore of Lake Superior to the ice caves on the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, near Cornucopia, Wis.

In the best years, the ice along the shore allows access for a month or more, from February to mid-March. In the worst years, it doesn't freeze at all.

April/Missouri's Ozarks

This is what you do when you're dying for spring and all you get is slush: Travel to Missouri and catch spring there.

By April Fool's Day, daffodils, hawthornes and forsythia are blooming, with redbud and dogwood close behind. 

The Ozarks are an outdoor playground, and still quiet this time of year; I'd head straight for the southern town of Eminence and spend my days visiting state parks and canoeing — or "floating,'' as it's called here —  on the wild streams of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

It's also a great spring-break destination if you have kids who love Laura Ingalls Wilder: Her last Little House, where she wrote all of her famous books, is in Mansfield.

May/Mississippi River Valley

In May, everything happens along the Mississippi River. Pelicans and warblers follow it north. Thickets of wildflowers bloom on its shaded hillsides and open goat prairies. Morel mushrooms pop up through old leaves.

It's a good time to visit Galena, Ill., the appealingly preserved 1850s boom town that groans under a crush of tourists in summer and fall. In Trempealeau, Wis., the Trempealeau Hotel puts on open-air reggae and blues festivals along the river.

And it's the best time to visit state parks and take in some magnificent views: Pikes Peak State Park near the northeast Iowa town of McGregor;  Perrot State Park in Trempealeau; Wyalusing State Park near Prairie du Chien, Wis.; and Great River Bluffs near Winona, Minn.

June/Lake Michigan

This is a great month to hit the big tourist spots on the Circle Tour of Lake Michigan, before the crowds arrive.

Mackinac Island is most gorgeous in mid-June, when its lilacs and yellow moccasins are blooming.

From there, head down Lake Michigan to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a 35-mile-long stretch of beaches, dunes and trails.

A trip down the Michigan side is one of the best and also cheapest beach vacations, thanks to the many campsites as well as mini-cabins, camper cabins and lodges in Michigan state parks along the lake. 

You can do a half Circle Tour by taking a short cut on the S.S. Badger, between Ludington and Manitowoc, or on the Lake Express High-Speed Ferry, between Muskegon and Milwaukee.

Be sure to allot a couple of days to Milwaukee. Catch a Brewers game in Miller Park or one of the big festivals on the lakefront: In June, there's the Lakefront Festival of the Arts, Polish Fest and Summerfest.

July/A northwoods lake resort

There's nothing more sweet and more fleeting than a July day on a northwoods lake, from coffee on the dock in early morning to the midnight rush from sauna to lake, for a float under the shimmering canopy of stars and northern lights.

Any lake will do. Fishermen like big lakes, such as Minnesota's Leech or Winnibigoshish or Wisconsin's flowages. Paddlers head for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Families prefer smaller lakes with resorts that have sandy beaches. 

Charles Kuralt, of course, chose a lake near Ely: "Anyone who has known the deep woods and the blue lakes, for a week or a season, puts himself to sleep ever afterward with memories of Ely,'' he wrote.

For resorts in Minnesota, see One in 1,000. 

And if you don't have the time or money for a whole week at a lake resort, head for one of the region's great beaches for a day or two.

August/Lake Superior

The Circle Tour of Lake Superior is, in my opinion, the best vacation, and August is the best time to take it. The water on the southern shore is warm enough to swim in, the black flies are gone and, if you wait till the last half of the month, the crowds will be gone, too.

In early August, the blueberries are ripe on the Keweenaw Peninsula, and you'll likely see bears when you're out picking.

You can swim from the lovely beaches on Madeline Island or even from your kayak as you explore the Apostle Islands or the islands off Rossport in Ontario.

You'll see your fill of lighthouses, waterfalls and ore boats, and you may even see a moose. If seeing a moose is high on your list, take the ferry to Isle Royale National Park.

For a nine-day itinerary, see Lake Superior's greatest hits. For planning tips, see Planning a Circle Tour.

September/Door County

This is the month to visit places that are packed during peak months, such as the Wisconsin Dells, Minnesota's North Shore and, especially, Door County.

Door County is the favorite hangout of Chicagoans, but there's a  lull in the action between summer vacation and fall color. Hotel prices even drop, though warmth lingers on the peninsula, wrapped by the waters of Lake Michigan.

Take the opportunity to paddle in the Mink River Estuary, bicycle on county roads or in Peninsula State Park, tour the lighthouses, hike in two dozen state natural areas and camp on Rock Island State Park.

It's also harvest time, so stop by the many farm markets for apples and tour the six wineries.

For more, see Fall in Door County.

October/Driftless Area

In October, there's a mad rush to see fall color in such reliable spots as Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in the U.P. and Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin.

Later in the month, though, the best color is in hardwood forests farther south. In the third weekend, Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wis., glows orange and gold, and Whitewater State Park in southeast Minnesota  has a palette of russet and ocher into the fourth weekend.

These craggy bluffs and valleys are part of the Driftless Area, a swath of southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa that the last four glaciers missed as they scraped across the landscape.

The result is a charming hodgepodge of ridges, bluffs and valleys perhaps best known for its bicycle trails: in Minnesota, the Root River State Trail through Lanesboro, and in Wisconsin, the Elroy-Sparta State Trail and the three other trails in a 101-mile system.

Artists also have taken up residence along the winding roads of bluff country, and in fall they host studio tours that combine shopping with scenic drives.

The one in northeast Iowa is the second weekend, and the big one in southwest Wisconsin is the third weekend. 

For tips on where to find fall color, see Pursuing the hues.

November/Minnesota's North Shore

Big, bad Lake Superior is most authentic in November: moody and dramatic, even violent.

Many people come hoping to catch a big storm, like the one that caught the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975; its sinking is commemorated every Nov. 10 at Split Rock Lighthouse.

But if that fails, hiking is wonderful. The bugs and leaf peepers are long gone, the absence of leaves opens new vistas and mud has hardened on trails.

Better still, hotel rates drop by up to half. It's also a good time to rent a cozy cabin or house, preferably one with a big wood-burning fireplace and picture windows.

For more, see Quiet time on the North Shore.

December/Chicago

This is a city that really rocks during the holidays, especially since it brought in a traditional Christkindlmarket, an open-air Christmas market like those in Germany. It's open every day in Daley Plaza, filling its visitors with Glühwein and good will.

There's more shopping on the Magnificent Mile, ice-skating in Millennium Park, the beloved "Christmas Around the World'' trees at the Museum of Science and Industry and the Apollo Chorus' impassioned performances of Handel's "Messiah.''

The bonus for budget travelers is lower hotel rates; conventions peter out during the holidays, so rates go way down. For a rock-bottom rate, go during the week before Christmas.

For more about seeing the town on a budget, see Cheap Chicago.

Last updated on December 4, 2011