Do you prefer fresh water to salt water? Tranquility to sun worshipping? Canoeing to surf boarding? Hiking to sandcastle building? Then follow us to one or more of America’s great lakeside resorts.
The Great Lakes Region
Where better to start your adventure than in the region with the world’s largest freshwater system – an area with five massive Great Lakes that offer more shoreline than California, Florida and Hawaii combined, at least 35,000 islands and, in Minnesota alone, 10,000 inland lakes?
Along these lakes – Michigan, Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario – are countless resorts, stunning scenery, charming small towns and numerous outdoor activities. And then there are the majestic lakefront cities such as Lake Michigan-fringing Chicago, Illinois, where you can jet-ski, sail, kayak, paddleboard, play beach volleyball or listen to great music in the waterfront Millennium Park.
North on Lake Michigan is the charming Wisconsin town of Sheboygan, where Blue Harbor Resort attracts guest with its 54,000sq-ft entertainment area and water park. Head farther north, into the Door County peninsula, and you can relax on one of 32 beaches, visit eight wineries and five state parks, or tour some of the delightful small towns such as Sturgeon Bay, Fish Creek and Baileys Harbor.
Tour boats, motor boats and houseboats are all available to rent in Minnesota’s 218,000-acre Voyageurs National Park, situated on five lakes, and, in Michigan, two great bases for a holiday are Mackinac Island’s recently-renovated Mission Point Resort, which overlooks Lake Huron, and the popular landmark Grand Hotel. Accessible only by ferry or a short plane ride, the island – a popular holiday destination since the late 19th century – is best explored by horseback or bicycle as no cars are allowed.
Also in Michigan, a great waterfront option is the highly-rated, waterfront Tamarack Lodge, sited in Traverse City, which is listed among the Best Coastal Towns in America. It’s an ideal base for visits to wineries and the massive sand dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore as well as for hikes around Torch Lake, the state’s second-largest inland lake. And if you are heading along Lake Michigan to Detroit, check out what is claimed to be Michigan’s first and only 16-passenger pedal-powered boat as well as the Detroit RiverWalk bike tours and kayaking from nearby Belle Isle Park.
Sandusky, Ohio, which sits on the banks of Lake Erie, is home to the legendary Cedar Point theme park – a regular winner of the Best Amusement Park in the World title – and Hotel Breakers, a beachfront property that is steps away from the park.
New England
At nearly 69 square miles, New Hampshire’s largest lake, Winnipesaukee, contains more than 240 habitable islands, some of which can be seen or visited by everything from a 19th-century paddlewheeler to the world’s oldest floating post office. Along the mainland shore are such picturesque places as Weirs Beach, which has arcades, boardwalks and a public beach; Meredith, a restored mill village featuring antique, art and craft galleries; and Wolfeboro, known for its picturesque, historic Main Street.
Cinema buffs might want to head instead for Big or Little Squam Lake, the locations for On Golden Pond, the 1981 film winning Oscars for both Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. Its sites can be viewed from the Experience Squam Cruise, which departs from Squam Lakes Science Center. If overnighting, check out the family-owned, award-winning Squam Lake Inn.
Searching for solitude, wildlife and pristine beauty? Then head for Maine’s Moosehed Lake, at 40 miles (65 kilometres) long and 24 miles (32 kilometres) wide, the state’s largest glacier lake. Tempting places to overnight include Greenville’s Blair Hill Inn, set in a 19th-century mansion complete with a spa, and the AAA Four-Diamond The Lodge at Moosehead.
The South
Lake Lure, south of attraction-filled Asheville, North Carolina, is best-known by film buffs as the place where charismatic dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) taught Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman (Jennifer Grey) all the right moves in that 1987 evergreen flick Dirty Dancing.
You can stay in suites named after the two stars at the 1927 Lake Lure Inn & Spa as well as in the cottages they stayed in, and practice your own Strictly Come Dancing moves at the September 13-14 Dirty Dancing Festival. In addition to boating, swimming and fishing, there’s the beautiful Flowering Bridge and spectacular views from a nearby giant outcropping known as Chimney Rock. It’s featured in another memorable film, The Last of the Mohicans, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis. Want to get away from the Hollywood buzz and a full-service resort, then enjoy a more rustic experience in lodging beside Tennessee’s Central Hill Lake or Kentucky’s 27,700-acre Dale Hollow Lake, both set in state parks and both offering a range of water and land activities.
In Louisiana, Lake Charles shares its name with a city renowned for its colourful Cajun and Creole culture, beautiful old homes and a number of museums, including one displaying the South’s largest number of Mardi Gras costumes. Infamous French pirate Jean Lafitte reputedly hid part of his treasure in the area; now it’s the inspiration for the Louisiana Pirate Festival, scheduled this year for May 2-5. A swashbuckling Lafitte lookalike and his fellow pirates arrive by boat, invade the town, take the mayor hostage and force him to walk the plank before he topples into the lake. (You wonder if this is part of his job description when he runs for office.) Other local sporting activities include fishing, boating, duck hunting and alligator safaris.
Toledo Bend Reservoir, located near the Texas border, is the largest man-made body of water in the Southern USA and fifth largest in the country. Covering 186,000 acres, 65 miles long and featuring 1,200 miles of shoreline, it is particularly known for its great bass fishing but also for its water sports, Cypress Bend Park beach and around 35 resorts that include cabins right on the lake.
The Midwest
Moving west into ‘America’s Heartland’, there are not only appealing options in Oklahoma and Kansas, where you can combine lakeside holidays with a trip down legendary Route 66 (see page 14), but also in Missouri, where you can combine the delights of Table Rock Lake and its surrounding Ozark Mountains landscape with the live entertainment options of Branson.
A magnet for fishermen and women because of its huge variety of different types of bass, its marinas and its fishing tournaments, the lake also offers numerous other activity opportunities. The accommodation options include houseboating, Big Cedar Lodge, named Number 1 resort in the Midwest by Travel & Leisure, and family-focused Watermill Cove Resort, with its huge swimming pool, mini golf and other attractions.
The Great American West
Sited at the base of Montana’s majestic Mission Mountain, Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the West and the home to such appealing destinations as Polson’s Kwataqnuk Resort & Casino, which offers watersports, skiing and entertainment, and Bigfork’s family-focused Averills Flathead Lake Lodge, which is close to art galleries, boutiques, fine restaurants, golf and live theatre.
In Idaho, Lake Coeur D’Alene’s namesake resort features what Golf Digest considers America’s most-beautiful resort golf course – the 14th hole is actually on an island reached by a custom-made boat. And Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park encompasses Yellowstone Lake, the largest one above 7,000ft in North America. It’s overlooked by the massive, white-columned Lake Yellowstone Hotel. First opened in 1881, it is surrounded by cottages and designated a National Historic Landmark.
The West Coast
California’s Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America, is known for its deep, clear, blue water and for the towering surrounding mountains, which are home to popular ski resorts. An ideal base is The Lodge at Edgewood, located on the shores of South Lake Tahoe. It has 154 luxurious rooms and suites, each boasting its own fireplace and private deck or terrace, a year-round lake-front heated pool and hot tub and a spa.
Sited about 45 minutes from Tioga Pass, at the east entrance to Yosemite National Park, the town of Mammoth Lakes is actually surrounded by several lakes. It offers great access to 11,053ft-high Mammoth Mountain’s skiing, snowboarding, gondola rides and ziplining as well as to boating, fishing, hiking, biking and excursions to Bodie, the West’s largest unrestored ghost town. A popular place to stay since 1924 has been cabin-surrounded Tamarack Lodge, set on Twin Lakes, 2.5 miles from the town centre of Mammoth Lakes.
In Washington State’s scenic Olympic Peninsula an appealing base is Lake Crescent Lodge, overlooking its namesake lake in the million-acre Olympic National Park. It’s accessible by the Bainbridge Ferry or by road from Seattle. However, if you want to overnight literally on – as opposed to beside – a lake, head for the Ross Lake Resort in the North Cascades National Park where you can sleep in a bunkhouse built on log floats or, alternatively, in a cabin. Access is only by ferry … or hiking.
The South-West
For something completely different, combine the glitzy showbiz world of Las Vegas’s famous Strip with a trip about 30 miles south-east to Lake Mead, set on the Nevada/Arizona border. Take a fascinating tour of the massive Hoover Dam and enjoy the lake area’s water and land sports. Or, if you are into houseboating, the place to head for is Lake Powell, surrounded by spectacular red rock scenery on the Arizona/Utah border. Then, of course, there is man-made Lake Havasu, set in desert terrain on the Arizona/ California border and, since 1971, the home of the relocated old London Bridge. Tour around the lakeside miniature lighthouses, enjoy all the water sports and then wine, dine and shop your way around the adjacent namesake city.
