Hi--
We will be heading to Evanston, IL for Thanksgiving to be with my brother-in-law and his family for the holidays. My daughter has the entire week off for the first time, and I'm considering a couple different options to make the trip extra special for her (she's 10.) I would love some TUG advice, esp. because I am not familiar with the resorts in the midwest. (Her school switched from a semester to a trimester system this year, and we lost our "bonus" week of Winter Break--the week after New Year's--and gained an extra-long Thanksgiving Break instead. So glad we planned and did Hawaii over Christmas/New's Year's weeks last year!)
The first scenario is to find a week in Wisconsin Dells and spend part of the week up there. There is a Getaway in II right now for that week (I do have a banked II week I can use, but this Getaway is cheaper than my MF+exchange fee.) I had been thinking about picking up my niece in Evanston first and taking her with us. My daughter loves her "baby" niece, but the niece is now in Kindergarten and only gets Wed/Thursday off, so that part of the plan is out. So a one-bedroom would be fine for the three of us. In this scenario, we would drive from NC to the Dells (probably spending the night on the way somewhere.)
The resort is a 1 bedroom at Mirror Lake--Tamarack. The TUG reviews are all from the summer months, so not sure if there would be much to do here at Thanksgiving time. It doesn't look like this resort has an indoor water park (just an indoor pool.) Would we be able to purchase passes to an indoor water park nearby? How does this work?
Or should we try to rent a different resort from an owner, just say those first few days of the week (Sunday-Tuesday nights, or thereabouts?) I don't have access to Wyndham or RCI resorts. I do understand that Glacier Canyon is extremely popular and it's probably too late for that.
Scenario two is to take an Amtrak sleeper from here to DC to Chicago. Haven't checked availability or cost on that, though.
Finally, there is also a one-bedroom Getaway at State and Grand in downtown Chicago. It's not cheap, but for the location, pretty reasonable (about $850 total.) If we did this, we probably wouldn't drive (or would drive and park our car in Evanston,) and spend the week in Chicago and just two nights with family in Evanston. Has anyone stayed here? There are no TUG reviews, and their website doesn't have much information.
There are so many options, I am feeling overwhelmed--and thus delayed the situation until the last minute.
Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks!
We will be heading to Evanston, IL for Thanksgiving to be with my brother-in-law and his family for the holidays. My daughter has the entire week off for the first time, and I'm considering a couple different options to make the trip extra special for her (she's 10.) I would love some TUG advice, esp. because I am not familiar with the resorts in the midwest. (Her school switched from a semester to a trimester system this year, and we lost our "bonus" week of Winter Break--the week after New Year's--and gained an extra-long Thanksgiving Break instead. So glad we planned and did Hawaii over Christmas/New's Year's weeks last year!)
The first scenario is to find a week in Wisconsin Dells and spend part of the week up there. There is a Getaway in II right now for that week (I do have a banked II week I can use, but this Getaway is cheaper than my MF+exchange fee.) I had been thinking about picking up my niece in Evanston first and taking her with us. My daughter loves her "baby" niece, but the niece is now in Kindergarten and only gets Wed/Thursday off, so that part of the plan is out. So a one-bedroom would be fine for the three of us. In this scenario, we would drive from NC to the Dells (probably spending the night on the way somewhere.)
The resort is a 1 bedroom at Mirror Lake--Tamarack. The TUG reviews are all from the summer months, so not sure if there would be much to do here at Thanksgiving time. It doesn't look like this resort has an indoor water park (just an indoor pool.) Would we be able to purchase passes to an indoor water park nearby? How does this work?
Or should we try to rent a different resort from an owner, just say those first few days of the week (Sunday-Tuesday nights, or thereabouts?) I don't have access to Wyndham or RCI resorts. I do understand that Glacier Canyon is extremely popular and it's probably too late for that.
Scenario two is to take an Amtrak sleeper from here to DC to Chicago. Haven't checked availability or cost on that, though.
Finally, there is also a one-bedroom Getaway at State and Grand in downtown Chicago. It's not cheap, but for the location, pretty reasonable (about $850 total.) If we did this, we probably wouldn't drive (or would drive and park our car in Evanston,) and spend the week in Chicago and just two nights with family in Evanston. Has anyone stayed here? There are no TUG reviews, and their website doesn't have much information.
There are so many options, I am feeling overwhelmed--and thus delayed the situation until the last minute.
Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!
