Good Non-Tech vacation places for the cheap in Northern US?

[LordRaiden]

Planning on taking a vacation around the end of August for 7 days. I'm going to be turning off the computer, shelving the cell phone, powering down the PDA, and going 100% non-tech. I work on IT all day, then come home to my own little NOC at home and I work, live, breath, eat, sleep, and who knows what else tech. So, I'm going to put it all down for 7 days and get away from it all. Drive around, find some places to visit. Anything away from technology.

Anyone got any good places to go visit, camping spots, hiking, tourist traps, etc. that someone with about $750 to burn for a week could go? Yeah, that's all I'll have for the whole bloody week. Like I said, poor. That's gas, food, you name it. Anything that's in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and maybe Penn. or Kentucky.

Anyone got any good suggestions? Great places to visit? Good cheap places to stay or camp?

EDIT: Ok, poor is no longer an issue. Just found out I'm getting a bonus of $3k today. So poor is not an issue. Being relatively cheap on most things is.

 

[amnesiac]

Wherever you go, don't forget your laptop and iPod.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

There are great spots in New England, particularly in NH for camping. If that is too far, I lived in PA, and the Allegheny Mountains are great for camping. Why don't you try the PA website?

 

[Ness]

Whitewater, Indiana has a nice (national?) park. It's very large and peaceful. My family used to go there every winter and stay in their cabins. I don't remember the rate for the cabins, but they were fantastic. They had plenty of bedspace, refridgerator, and a wood burning stove thingy... Most importantly, they were incredibly low tech. Last time I was there, they didn't have microwaves. (Kinda sucked that I brought microwave popcorn.)



The thing about them is that they allow you to have a filling and relaxing day in nature, but they give you a great night's rest.


If you consider that all you'd really have to pay for is gas to get there, then enough food to last what, 2 or 3 people... if you buy decent food and not all snacks, you could pull off the food bill for $75 easy... (less if it's only you) That would leave the chunk of the budget for the cabin.

I'm sure you could do it on that sort of budget, but the only problem is that unless you are just out to chill out, not do much of anything, you might get pretty bored if you were there a whole week.

 

[jlee]

New Hampshire is beautiful, and there's no sales tax.

I'm going back up for about 2 weeks in the beginning/middle of August..

 

[LordRaiden]

Yeah, those all sound great. You guys know of anything in the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana area that I could consider as well?


amnesiac: Uh, no. And I'm not bringing cell phone either (except for calling in emergencies) Like I said, no technology, minus of course the car.

 

[DrPizza]

In the past, I've taken my kids to a lake that has several camping places...

Included:
camp site
water & electric hook-up
bath & shower house accessibility
16 foot boat with motor

Total for 1 week = under $300, plus gas, plus food.

Just had to provide our own tent, sleeping bags, fishing tackle, and food.
I'm sure that for your budget, you can afford a great camping trip. (if you're willing to sleep in a tent)
But, if you want to go on a "camping trip" that means sleeping in a cabin, cottage, or lodge, by this time of year, most places with inexpensive cabins are reserved long in advance.

If you were willing to drive to the Adirondack mountains in NY (probably too long of a drive), there are a lot of campsites that: are not reserved in advance, do not cost a penny, are very scenic, and generally can be found. There are areas with relatively good fishing, and you'll probably see less than 50 people over the course of the week.
Wish I could help you more with specific places, but I'm mostly familiar with NY

tourist traps

tourist traps generally = take your money

 

[ScottMac]

What kind of stuff do you like to do? Camping? See sites? Explore? Museums? Visit "foreign" flea markets? Swim? Sail? Skydive?

There's stuff like the house-on-the-rock in Wisconsin ... cheap but completely bizarre. There's caves, lots of good fishing, lots of museums ... What do you like to do?

Check with AAA or some of the state websites too.

For camping, I'm partial to Northern lower Michigan or the U.P. or Northern Wisconsin, or the other way....way South in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio.

If you wanna run around Nekkid for a while, there's Roselawn, IN ... Home of Ponderosa Sun Club. Nice place. Interesting Pool (solar heated).

If you're looking for "Bob and Edna's Largest Ball O' String in the World" kinda places, there's a buncha those kinda places around too.

Chicago is having a "Tall Ships" exhibition next week (I think) ... thirty-something old, big, ships. You could probably kill the whole week in Chicago (as long as you don't stay in a hotel downtown). You could stay in the 'burbs and take trains downtown ...lots of museums, great food of any kind ...

The Experimental Aircraft Assn is doing their annual "Fly In" next week in OshKosh Wi. This is a big year for flying ("A Centenniel of Flight"). There's usually tens-of-thousands of airplanes (everything - home builts, Warbirds old and new, big planes, little planes, classic ones, ultra lights, helos, Sea planes/ambhibs, space stuff, (NASA has a big display)). Airshows every day. It's about $35.00 a day for the tickets. Probably the closest you'd get a hotel is Beaver Dam - about a half hour away (but cheaper). (www.eaa.org).

That's all that come to mind ...depending on your preferences, no doubt, there's lots more.

Good Luck, Have fun.

Scott

 

[todpod]

check out the Allegheny National Forest in N. PA lots of hiking trails and a Nice fishing in the Allegheny Resevor. (sorry I can't spell).

 

[PCMarine]

I've heard camping in the Wisconsin Dells is fantastic.