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Other stories in "Girlfriend getaways"

• A month for the ladies
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• Best shopping towns for weekenders
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• Jolly Cedarburg
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• Autumn in the studios
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• Power shopping in Wisconsin
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• Cuyuna lode
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• Spa stay on the cheap
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• Where the girls are
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• Antiquing in Red Wing
  In a scenic river town, hunters find culture and kitsch.
• Galena getaway
  In northwest Illinois, historic village is a favorite destination.
• Wine walks
  On sunny ridges of the Wisconsin River valley, vineyards prosper.

12 months of girlfriend getaways

When women travel together, they like to sample everything.

In travel these days, girlfriends rule.

They shop, they sip, they splurge. No wonder every resort, spa and tourism bureau is touting "girlfriend getaways,'' trying to reel in the roving groups of women who are out spending quality time with each other.

Galena advertises pajama parties, makeovers and massages. Kansas City plugs a martini-and-manicure night. In Chicago, it's "shoes, shoes, shoes.'' In Door County, Sturgeon Bay hosts a Groovin' Sisterhood Weekend in April.

On stage, women can see "Girls Night, The Musical,'' "Menopause, The Musical'' and hear the Four Bitchin' Babes' Hormonal Imbalance revue.

Women do like to shop, sip drinks and be silly. But the women I meet want to do a lot more than that. They want to go everywhere and do everything, not just the girly-girl stuff.

In Ely, I met 11 Minnesota women who've skied together every year since 1984. Bicycling on the Root River State Trail in southeast Minnesota, I met the Fat Bottom Girls Cycle Club of Des Moines, also known as Babes on Bikes.

Women want to bike, hike, ski, watch wildlife, go to festivals, ride horses, take classes and then see what else there is to do. Here's a calendar of getaway ideas for women who like variety. For more on planning a getaway, see Where the girls are.

January: Hit the sales in Chicago, see a touring Broadway show ("Wicked'' is the current go-to play) and cash in on the city’s Winter Delights bargains. Book a hotel, find a condo at Vacation Rentals by Owner or stay cheaply at the very nice Hostelling International hostel in the South Loop, voted Best Large Hostel Worldwide in 2006 and 2007 (see Cheap Chicago).

February: Go cross-country skiing at Maplelag in northwest Minnesota, a friendly resort with bottomless cookie jars, the state's biggest hot tub, wonderful family-style meals and impeccably groomed trails (See Happy days at Maplelag).

For a women-only weekend, go to the Women's Ski Weekend at Camp du Nord near Ely, Minn. It's Feb. 19-22 in 2009, and cost of $175 includes cabin lodgings, all meals and ski rental and instruction.

You'll pay even less at the comfortable Deep Portage Conservation Reserve near the Brainerd Lakes of Minnesota, where Winter Family Weekends are $105 per person and include meals, lodgings, skis, snowshoes and use of a climbing wall (See Playground in the woods).

March: Talk about books in the wilderness of northeast Minnesota, where the Gunflint Lodge holds its annual Books in the Woods retreat, March 26-29 in 2009. Cost is $395 for three nights' lodgings in a cabin with whirlpool or sauna, meals, a wine and cheese social and discussions with regional authors. There are also naturalist programs,  mushing and massages, and the skiing is very good (See The best days of winter). The lodge also offers a Women's Northwoods Skills Weekend and Women's Dog Sled Adventure in March.

Mushing your own dog team is expensive, but it's pretty much the most fun thing you can do in winter. For more, see Dog days of winter.

Budget option: Rent a retreat center or a state-park lodge or guesthouse, and ski or snowshoe from there. For ideas, see The more, the merrier.

April: Go to Kansas City, where the fountains will be flowing and tulips blooming in the hacienda-style Country Club Plaza, started in 1922 as the nation's first planned shopping center. It's a great place to shop, of course, but also to eat barbecue, listen to jazz and blues, drink craft beers and gawk at the three giant badminton shuttlecocks on the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (See Going to Kansas City).

May: Take spring hikes and watch the bird migration along Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River between Red Wing, Minn., and La Crosse, Wis. Stay at Hawks View Cottages & Lodges in the bluffs above Fountain City, Wis., which doesn't have a lot of shopping but does have such quirky attractions as Elmer's Auto & Toy Museum, Rock in the House and Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden. (See Fountain City whimsy.)

Just downriver, the Trempealeau Hotel holds an annual Reggae Fest the first weekend of May and Blues Bash the third weekend of May, with nationally known musicians, great food and a killer view of the river.

June: Spend a long weekend in Milwaukee, which has a lovely setting on Lake Michigan, big lakefront festivals, a glamorous art museum, brewery cruises and fantastic bicycling on trails right in the city. There are plenty of good hotels, but the dorms at Marquette University, on the edge of downtown, are a great deal for friends (See Cheap stays).

July: In the dog days of summer, rent a cabin with its own natural spa and swimming hole on Minnesota's North Shore. In Tettegouche State Park, the deluxe Illgen Falls Cabin is steps away from the Baptism River, where guests can either sit in smooth potholes, letting the cool water flow by, or walk upriver to a swimming hole (See Cabin on a waterfall).

Budget option: If you don't mind lugging gear 1¾ miles, reserve the secluded and historic Mic Mac cabins on Mic Lake Lake, on the other side of Tettegouche State Park. They're also very popular in winter (See Heirs to a hideaway).

August: Hit the beaches of Door County — or the shops, galleries, bicycle trails, golf courses or theaters. This Wisconsin peninsula has it all, and even is relatively  quiet if you go the latter half of August, when the busy season starts to wane (See Outdoors in Door County). Stay at a condo, townhouse or mom-and-pop motel — there's plenty of everything.

Budget option: Prices go down at lake resorts in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin in mid-August, and many start offering partial weeks. See Last call for lake breaks and other Lodges & resorts stories.

September: Do the classic girlfriend-getaway thing in Galena, the northwest Illinois  town that's tailor-made for women. It even has a special Ladies Getaway on the weekend after Labor Day. There are tarot-card readings, fashion shows, wine-tastings, craft workshops and, of course, a lot of shopping. See Galena getaway; to find out about other towns like Galena, see Best boutique towns for weekenders.

October: Shop for one-of-a-kind items and also see the fall colors in art tours around the region (See Autumn in the studios). The Fall Art Tour in scenic southwest Wisconsin, between the towns of Mineral Point, Spring Green and Baraboo, is especially choice. Mineral Point is my favorite town for shopping and congenial atmosphere (see Mining for art in Mineral Point), but you'll find nine other candidates at Best little towns that charm the tourists.

November: Watch the gales on Lake Superior or fix a big Thanksgiving dinner in a cozy hideaway on Minnesota's North Shore, rented from Cascade Vacation Rentals in Lutsen. It's a good time to cocoon anywhere, and prices drop in the off-season. For other areas, check Vacation Rentals by Owner, HomeAway or other rental companies. (See Renting a vacation house or A cottage of one's own.)

If you're in the mood for holiday shopping, head for the old Yankee mill town of  Cedarburg, just north of Milwaukee, where Festive Friday Eves start in the middle of the month (See Jolly Cedarburg).

For more November getaways, see A month for the ladies.

December: Go to the annual Old World Christmas Market at the Osthoff Resort, where a nice variety of vendors, some of them European, set up shop in a decorated and heated tent (See Old World Christmas). The sprawling luxury resort in the eastern Wisconsin town of Elkhart Lake also has a cooking school and a spa.

If you like that, continue on to Chicago, where the Christkindlmarket sets up shop in Daley Plaza from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve.

And no city has a better holiday parade than Minneapolis, where the Holidazzle lights parade on Nicollet Mall starts after Thanksgiving and continues Thursdays through Sundays up to Christmas (See A jolly holiday in Minneapolis).

Last updated on December 8, 2008