Caroline Carlson

The difference between dreading the endless hours on long, lonely stretches of highway and cherishing the open road as an essential part of your vacation can all come down to the soundtrack.

Find more great travel ideas in The Growler’s Tourism Guide 2020 Thunder Bay is less than six hours from Minneapolis–St. Paul, but it feels like another world. This metropolis of more than 100,000 Ontarians is a regional hub immersed in thousands of square miles of woods, rocky shoreline, and water. As the fusion of two distinct former cities (Fort William and Port Arthur), Thunder Bay has a bisected center of gravity, and visitors should check out both central business districts to get a feel

When you’re behind the wheel watching the interminable flat expanse of the Great Plains slowly roll past your window, hit play on an audio adventure that will fill the silence and get those neurons firing on all cylinders again.

Find more great travel ideas in The Growler’s Tourism Guide 2020 My wife is, let’s say, baseball-tolerant. She’d never watch a game on TV but is more than happy to head out to the park to soak in one of the 60-or-so days when it’s actually enjoyable to be outside in this state. And we’ve found that this pleasant summer pastime is most gratifying in the greater Minnesota towns that host town ball teams. If you fancy taking a few hours to relax in the sun with a cheap can of beer and the smell o

If you find that the thrill of eating whatever fast-food garbage you want when traveling long distances fades after the first couple hundred miles, take heart. There are a number of really satisfying, entertaining, and even downright impressive ways to stock your own cooler and travel in culinary style.

It’s the great, once-unsung Upper Midwestern place to eat: a civilized outpost of prime rib, steak, fried fish, and strong cocktails set against a backdrop of sprawling wilderness—the country supper club.