Does this place exist?

OK, so my husband and I have two free tickets on allegiant airlines and are looking for somewhere to fly out of Las Vegas. However, our search for the perfect lakefront vacation has been unsuccessful. Neither of us have been to the midwest, so we aren%26#39;t even sure that the place we are looking for exists. Please help if you can! Here%26#39;s our list of must haves:

1. A place where Allegiant air flies from Vegas, or a place that%26#39;s under an 1.5 hours from where Allegiant air flies (see below for the list of places Allegiant flies from Vegas).

2. A vacation on the lake

3. A place where we can rent a house, condo, book a hotel room or cabin that%26#39;s on the lake

4. A place where we can rent a boat and explore or partipate in some water sports

5. A place that has restaurants or bars on the lake that we can get to by boat OR a place with some small scale nightlife (bars, restaurants, etc) within walking distance or a VERY short drive.

6. Hiking

7. Beautiful scenery

8. Somewhere in the midwest. He%26#39;s never been to the midwest and I%26#39;ve seen very little of it, so it would be new for both of us.

9. We would be going in late May/early June, so warm weather at that time would be nice!

Here%26#39;s where Allegiant flies from Vegas (I only included midwest and northwest):

Green Bay, WI;

Belleville, IL;

Billings, MT;

Bozeman, MT;

Bismarck, ND;

Casper, WY;

Cedar Rapids, IA;

Rockford, IL;

Des Moines, IA;

Duluth, MN;

Great Forks, ND;

Fargo, ND;

Great Falls, MT;

Idaho Falls, ID;

Kalispell, MT;

St. Louis;

Missoula, MT;

Peoria, IL;

Rapid City, SD;

Rochester, MN

Sioux Falls, SD;

South Bend, IN

Springfield, MO

Wichita, KS

So does this place exist, or am I asking too much. Is there a lakefront vacation anyone can suggest that would work for us? I figured either Michigan or Minnesota boards would be the best place to post. Thanks so much for any help you can provide!!

Does this place exist?

Check the Wisconsin board and type in Door County. About an hour and half from Green Bay, depending how far up the Door peninsula (between Lake Michigan and the bay of Green Bay) you drive. You would likely want to stay somewhere beginning in the Sturgeon Bay area or north of there.

Door County could probably fit all nine of your criteria.

Good luck

Does this place exist?

There are 1000s of places that fit all of your criteria between the great lakes and all of the inland lakes in MI, MN, WI, etc. If you want the condo option you might be better off starting there. Try vrbo.com (vacation rental by owner) to find condos that are available and fit what you are looking for, then figure out the flight.

Not much in the way of destination cities that gets you into Michigan, but South Bend would be close to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

South Bend would bring you to within a half hour drive to New Buffalo and St. Joseph MI. You could reach South Haven in about fifty minutes and Saugatuck in an hour. Check out Southhaven.org and Saugatuck.org.

I wholeheartedly second Rono%26#39;s suggestion for the South Haven/Saugatuck areas. These two cities (small towns) should meet most of your criteria. Let us know if there is anything else you need to know.

Door County, WI was also a good suggestion.

I agree with 24Fan. Green Bay, Wisconsin (which is in Door County) has a very nice airport, easy in/out.

The Door County area may just be what you want.

Here are two sites you may want to check out -

Door County

http://www.doorcounty.com/

Sturgeon Bay

http://www.sturgeonbay.net/

I am a big fan of SW Michigan and living on Lake Michigan and would love to tell you this is the spot for you. If you were coming later in the summer and didn%26#39;t want to rent a boat I could do that. In my area I can not think of where you can rent a boat for Lake Michigan. Boating on the big lake is more like the ocean in many ways. You need to have several things like flares, etc to be Coast Guard approved. Waves, channel markers etc make things s little different than boating on a small inland lake. Also the water is still VERY cold in late May and early June. Nice for walking on the seemingly endless miles of gorgeous beaches, but not so great for actual swimming til later in the summer.

Since you can fly into either Springfield, Mo or St Louis maybe Lake of the Ozarks -- which you could get to from St Louis , or Table Rock lake Branson, which you could get to from Srpingfield, MO. Both lakes have resorts lining them and have places to rent boats AND because they are further south ( than some of your other options) you will find it warmer for the end of May /early June.

THEN if you can come later in the summer some year and and want to hang out near a gorgeous lake, All along the west coast of Lake Michigan would be a great choice for you. Sunsets, lighhouses, white sand, wineries, sand dunes, lots of inland lakes too. Good luck with your plans.

Heh. I grew up near South Bend, IN and now live in Green Bay, WI. Either of these places would fit your criteria, but on the whole I%26#39;d suggest South Bend.

Green Bay will put you within an hour or so drive to Door County, which is considered the ';Martha%26#39;s Vinyard'; of the midwest. There are several state parks on the bay, and the various towns are full of galleries, eateries, and boutiques. You can rent boats, or try wind-surfing, go for hikes on various trails in the state parks, or just shop til you drop. However, the beaches on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan are virtually non-existent, so if beach type activities are what you want (sitting in the sun, people watching) then you%26#39;d be better off to go to South Bend, and go to almost any lakeside town in the southwest corner of Michigan. Green Bay itself has the Packer Hall of Fame, and the Packer%26#39;s summer training camp takes place right next to Lambeau Field. The pre-season games are also fun to go to, and even though all Packer games are always sold out, it%26#39;s possible to score tickets if you know where to look. Green Bay has the National Railroad Museum, which I found to be surprisingly interesting to visit; you can see it all in about half a day. The little towns in Door County are absolutely jam-packed in the summer, so if you want to avoid the crowds, visit after Labor Day; the weather is still nice, but there are less people. The Door County Peninsula Players is one of the oldest summer stock theaters in operation, and offer several plays to see throughout the entire summer season.

South Bend itself has little to recommend it, (unless you want to visit the Notre Dame campus) but it is the gateway to southwest Michigan, which features numerous little towns along the Lake Michigan shore. The beaches all along this shoreline are excellent, with lots of light sand, massive sand dunes, and in some spots there are cliffs overlooking the sandy beaches. Like Door County, the southwest corner of Michigan is a popular summer vacation destination for folks from Chicago, but because the entire shoreline is so pleasant and there%26#39;s more of it, most of the towns and villages are less crowded; that is, there is more room to accommodate the influx of tourists. The only real exception would perhaps be Saugatuck, which is more arts and crafts oriented, and has the most shopping available. Most of the beaches along this shoreline feature a long, shallow sand shelf, which allows the sun to warm up the water, so although it may be a little too cool for swimming in June, in July and August it can be very pleasant to swim.

I should mention that Duluth is about an hour away from Bayfield, WI, on the shore of Lake Superior. This is another pleasant resort town, with somewhat cooler weather in the summer. The chief activities are golfing, shopping in boutiques, and boating among the Apostle Islands. (You can rent boats for this.) Lake Superior is always frigid, even in August, so swimming in the lake is unlikely.