10 of the Best Vacation Lakes and Lake Areas in Minnesota
A Canadian eager to escape south for a long weekend with friends turned to the Minnesota thread of Reddit to ask for recommendations of great vacation lakes.
"Now that cross-border travel is in a better place, some friends and I were thinking of heading down from Canada to rent a cabin or lake house somewhere north of Minneapolis for a long weekend," said Reddit user u/Vantis1. "I’m not very familiar with the area, and don’t know much about what are the best lakes we should be looking at. Would love something that’s ideally within driving distance to a townsite, golf nearby and maybe a place for boat rentals. Any advice?"
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Minnesotans were happy to help.
"What are you looking to do?" asked Redditor PahTayTur. "Leech Lake is massive and great fishing. Gull Lake is good fishing, lots of water sports and closer to civilization. Both have boat rentals, resort amenities and lots of golf."
"Those two are well known, and I've heard friends like Lake Vermilion as well, another large one with resorts on it," offered harbinjer. "The Brainerd area also has lakes and golf resorts, but that's further south."
"Lake Vermilion is super nice," agreed Medical_Spy. "There's a casino with a golf course my dad and grandpa loved. Pfeiffer Lake is also close by and really nice for hiking and hunting. However, it's not terribly big and is mainly used for the campground."
"Grand Rapids area has great fishing, the city has everything you need," suggested Mcfuss0171. "I would choose leech lake over vermillion though. Just personal preference though."
"Otter Tail County," recommended newestadd15 in the Reddit thread, "a ton of cute towns and a 1000 lakes with a dozen or so resorts and tons of cabins to choose from."
"Find a nice secluded lake and cabin on AirBnB," suggested one instead. "Much better than all of the larger over-fished lakes. Most of Itasca county fits this requirement plus lots of state forest."
"Itasca is absolutely beautiful this time of year, tho all the fishing would be ON the lakes," said mia_art_1391. "100% if you have the chance Big Buck is always a go-to."
"Park Rapids (where I live), Duluth, Bemidji, so many towns, big or small, that you can get away to," offered Minnesota_icicle.
Last December, Brainerd was named the "Best Ice Fishing City in America" by Fishingbooker.com. Meanwhile, Travel & Leisure snubbed Minnesota entirely on their list of Best Lake Towns in the country. See the full conversation on Reddit here.