My wife and I would like to go somewhere with our 11 month old daughter this weekend from Fri thru Sun. We were planning on St Joseph or New Buffalo, but there is ZERO vacancy within 30 miles of either of them. Of course, unless you want to spend $350 per night.

So I am looking for suggestions on places to go. We would like to go to a beach within a couple hours of Glen Ellyn and I think around $150 a night seems reasonable. Either Michigan or Wisconsin is fine.

Thanks

There is a Holiday Inn on exit 1 at New Buffalo, MI. I'd be surprised if it was full, but I may be wrong. You would be 4-8 miles away from Union Pier, Lakeside, Harbert, Sawyer, etc...which are particularly lovely this time of year.

You should probably start looking at some of the larger towns in SW Michigan. We know many of the owners of hotels/B&B's in Saugatuck and they are completely booked for the season, which is probably the case for most of the smaller beach towns.

I would start out with St. Joseph, MI, then maybe South Haven and then Holland. All of these are bigger towns with a larger selection of lodging options, and all three have very, very nice beaches on Lake Michigan. Good luck with your search!

You can rent something up over in Lake Carroll.

When my twins were still in diapers, we stayed at the Cove in Lake Geneva. Right across from the beach, two pools and a zero depth kiddie pool. Stroller walk away from everything. We had a suite with a kitchenette, so storing milk/formula/baby food (plus adult bevies) was convenient. Having a place to spread out during nap time was nice, too. Lake Geneva may not be as quaint as South Haven MI area, but quick drive and decent place to stay.

http://www.cove-lake-geneva.com/

Dem, it is funny you mentioned the Cove, we have stayed there quite a few times. We love that place. We were thinking about Lake Geneva, but wanted to try something new (guess I should have mentioned that).

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I will be looking the other towns up. I will let you know what happens.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
There is a Holiday Inn on exit 1 at New Buffalo, MI. I'd be surprised if it was full, but I may be wrong. You would be 4-8 miles away from Union Pier, Lakeside, Harbert, Sawyer, etc...which are particularly lovely this time of year.

Clamato, called there and the closest Holiday Inn with availability is 30 miles away. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Crap

Grand Geneva is less then 2 hours away depending on where you stay.

Check the Country Inn & Suites in Michigan City, IN. They show availability under $150 w/ breakfast.

You can access public beach in Michigan City or at the Indiana Dunes national park. You are also close to St. Joe or New Buff MI if you want to pop over for hipper dining, shopping, etc.

I prefer Warren Dunes to Indiana Dunes and a preliminary look seems to show some hotels in the area. We've camped there, which is really fun....but camping is a whole different ballgame. If you can find a hotel there, it is lots of fun to climb the dunes and the beach is pretty nice.

Staying along the Rock River is nice. Oregon, Dixon, Rock Falls, Starved Rock etc.

Lake Shelbyville/Eagle Creek

This site looked like some nice suggestions. Illinois DNR

Maybe I'll go to one of these. My husband and I usually do a small trip around our anniversary.
Google, water or Rock River, beach, etc. for Illinois.

Just got back from my first visit to Michigan. We rented a place in Grand Haven (for the Coast guard Festival) right next to the beach, but ended up trying beaches in other places as well. Our favorite was South Haven, that sucker was made for kids. Also, Oval Beach (Saugatuck) was a close second for awesomeness. I think South Haven may have some vacancies in hotels.

Use to spend some of my summers there. My friend (her folks) had a place on Grand River. Many wonderful memories! But it's a cruise, like 3 1/2 hours. Is it still a dry state on Sunday?

I think it is...but we were too tired to drink until mid week anyway!

We did not go to Michigan, but decided to go to one of the best beaches around. A little hidden gem called Sunset Pool. Long drive, phew!!! LOL.

Actually, Sunset Pool is really nice and seems really clean. We had a good time. I had a lot of fun going down the slides.

BTW, I was up in cheesehead-land this weekend and found Elkhart Lake was really nice. You might want to check it out for your next trip. Really clean and clear lake.

Centennial Beach- Naperville? perhaps?

We were just in Holland, MI 2 weekends ago and yes it is still a dry county on Sunday. With that being said there is a ref. on the ballot in Nov. to change that. It will be interesting to see how the voters vote.

We were thinking of doing one more camping trip before the start of school and drove through Warren Dunes state park and thought it looked a little "shady". The dunes sure did look fun. We also like a more private campsite, they were too open for us. I am glad you mentioned the lake in WI. I am looking for a clean lake. If you are familiar with Higgins Lake or Torch Lake in northern MI then you know what I mean be clean.

Michigan also has some sand dunes in Silver Lake, you can drive on those bad boys. We took the Jeep out on them a week ago and had a blast, especially the youngest child. On the other side of the Silver Lake dunes is Lake Michigan.

quote:

it is still a dry county on Sunday

Actually, Ottawa County is NOT completely dry on Sundays. They ban the sale of beer, wine and packaged liquor on Sundays. So, in other words when you go out for Sunday brunch in Ottawa County, you can't have a mimosa, but you can have a double vodka stinger.

They are looking to overturn this strange 1976 law in this year's election.