4 nights in Minneapolis
 

Driving up to Minneapolis for 4 nights end of July. Going to a Twins/Royals game one night. What else? Would like to stay in a cabin one night and find a good place to fish.....perhaps a guided tour on a nice lake. Go carts, amusement parks, bowling alleys are all nice. Heated swimming pool....I'm open for suggestions....appreciate your input...thanks!

"Up to Minneapolis" from where? Who is with you? Ages, interests? Are you returning to home or going onward?
It's been a long time since I was there but I remember a good zoo in Minneapolis. We stayed in the White Bear Lake area with friends.

xman, everything you want can be found in the Brainerd area, three hours north of Minneapolis.

People don't generally go to Minneapolis to stay in a cabin. I'm not even sure if there are cabin rentals anywhere in the metro, it's much more of an up north thing.

How far do you want to drive in this trip? I'm fairly sure you could get a guided fishing trip on some of the metro lakes. I'm not aware of any outdoor go kart tracks in Minneapolis (again, that's something you'd find outside the metro or up north). Valley Fair (amusement park) is in Shakopee (south metro). There are bowling alleys all over the place. Bryant Lake Bowl is a popular place near Uptown but it's fairly small. Elsie's is in northeast Minneapolis.

So I guess my biggest question is what do you want out of this trip? How far do you want to drive? The cabin and fishing are sort of classic Minnesota things but the go karts/amusement park and bowling alley aren't really unique to the area. Are you ok with doing the generic kind of activities or would you be more interested in something that gives you a bit more of the local flavor?

I'd suggest looking at Taylors Falls - there is a go kart track, water park and alpine slides but also boat tours on the St. Croix River and the option of doing a canoe/kayak trip down the river, plus a couple state parks. I have no doubt you could find a cabin rental there and there some smaller lakes all over the place, I would guess there must be a fishing guide somewhere but I've never looked.

For fishing and the cabin: Brainerd is a good choice and is only a 2 hour drive from Minneapolis. Mille Lacs is a pretty big lake about 1.5 hours north of Minneapolis. And of course if you went to Duluth (about 2 1/4 hours) you could go out on Lake Superior.

So give us a little more info: do you want to stay in the Twin Cities metro or are you willing to drive a couple hours north for the cabin/fishing? Are the amusement park/go karts a must do or could you scrap those for something more Minnesotan? Like I said, you will find bowling alleys pretty much everywhere, I don't think that will be a problem at all.

We will be driving up from Kansas City. Two kids....11 and 9. Def going to stay in Minneapolis one night just for a baseball game. Looked into a resort (Vermillion Lake??)....$3,000 for for 4 nights with lot's of activities but I don't want to spend that much. Horseback riding and fishing I think would be the 2 outdoor activities my kids would like. I don't want to drive much farther than 1 hour north of Minneapolis.

Lake Vermillion is 6 hours north of Minneapolis. Are you going to the baseball game the first night in Minneapolis? Are you going to the baseball game the last night?

In 'prime' vacation season most resorts will only rent cabins by the week.

Again, Brainerd has what you want. It is the only area that I know of in Minnesota that does.