Day trips from Chicago
 

My brother & I are going back to Chicago where we grew up to see Dad. We do this once a year & even though we enjoy seeing friends & family, we are tired of it & want something else to do. Maybe a day or two somewhere in the country or at a resort, etc. Any ideas?

Sorry, I didn't proof-read. Place commas around "where we grew up".

Depends a bit on time of the year but here are some ideas:

American Club in Kohler, WI. Very nice resort: golfing, tennis, spa's, you name it.

Madison, WI vibrant medium city with lots of festivals, lake recreation.

You could always do WI Dells if tourist things are your bag. The above are all 2-3.5 hours depending.

If you can go 4-5 hours, how about Door County if you have not been in awhile.

Galena - eagle ridge inn for golf, horseback riding, spa. nice little town to shop, good restaurants. other option might be to go to the wineries in southwestern michigan/harbor country. Tabor Hill is pretty good.

I second swmichigan. I love that area and there's tons to do. Check out swmichigan.org. Also, there is the Lake Geneva area which is closer than both Kohler and Madison.

You could drive down to St. Louis for a short visit. Its about a 4-5 hour drive, depending on where you are coming from in Chicago. There's enough to do here for a few days and would be a change of pace.

Thanks for the replies. The Dells are not an option because we went there every summer while we grew up. Does anyone know about any B&Bs that are reasonable in these areas? Galena is nice. Haven't been there in years.

swmichigan.org has tons of b&b listings...

If you are only going away for a couple of nights, I would also consider Lake Geneva or Saugatuck/South Haven. Both have lots of B&Bs.

Amish country is not too far from Chicago, take a look at Shipshewana/Middlebury/Nappannee Indiana. I know there are B&Bs there, you might start with these links:

http://www.shipshewana.com/
http://www.essenhaus.com/

Or you might have a look at Put in Bay in Ohio, it's close to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH.

For Galena lodging, google on Jo Davies county - things will book up quickly. We usually stay at Eagle Ridge Inn but the DeSoto hotel has my eye. there are a lot of B/B's as well.