The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (44 page)

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Authors: Jane Wooldridge

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For a unique sleeping experience, try Virginia’s only state park yurt, which runs $98 per night. For big groups, the park has five family lodges, each sleeping as many as 16. They have covered porches, gas logs, heating and air-conditioning. A rental runs $371 a night, with at least a two-night minimum, for out-of-state visitors (less for Virginians). Fill it up for a family reunion, and it comes out to less than $20 per person per day.

Kiptopke State Park,
3540 Kiptopke Dr., Cape Charles, VA 23310, 757-331-2267,
www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/kip.shtml
.

Table Rock State Park, South Carolina.
A South Carolina jewel set in the Appalachian Mountains and dotted with lakes and waterfalls, Table Rock State Park covers more than 3,000 acres and is about a half-hour drive west of Greenville. Built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the property preserves the era’s careful stonework and architecture, with many of the buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. A giant granite outcropping lords above, adding grandeur to the setting. Come here for swimming, boating, and an array of hiking options. Cabins have heating and air-conditioning. Ask for cabins 5, 6, 7, or 8, which are right on Pinnacle Lake. Prices range from $75–$120 per night.

Table Rock State Park,
158 E. Ellison Lane, Pickens, SC 29671, 864-878-9813,
www.southcarolinaparks.com
.

[
CHAPTER
3]

quest for knowledge

W
hat did you bring back from your last vacation? A tan, a T-shirt, and a pile of postcards? That’s fine, of course, but most of us want something more. Time we know is precious. Lounging around has its moments, but recreation can really be that: re-creation.

The wonderful thing about a vacation is that you can learn new skills, indulge a creative streak, and maybe find inspiration to do something completely different with your life—all at low cost and with minimal time commitment.

Some are organized programs. For more than a century, the Chautauqua Institution has brought travelers together in what can really only be called an adult theme park for the mind that allows you to explore issues of the day and questions of the ages with some of the best minds on the planet. You can go to a university and explore the great books, or sign up for a learning tour and literally travel to the places where history was made and contemporary culture is changing.

And that’s just the traditional pursuits. How about taking a class in comedy improv, sushi-making, or forming a rock band? You’ll discover programs that can take you down roads you might have dreamed about but never knew how to pursue.

And don’t forget the vacations that nurture your inner artist. For less than you’d spend on a week at the beach, you can learn to paint, draw, or make music. You can come back literally dancing from a ballroom weekend. Go to a writer’s conference and you’ll find fellow travelers eager to offer support as you spread your literary wings. Whether your passion is wooden boats or tying flies for fishing, a learning vacation can help you pursue your desires.

When you come back home, you won’t be the same. And you’ll have much more than memories to share with friends and family.

see the birthplace of skyscrapers

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.

—
ERNEST DIMNET, FRENCH PRIEST AND WRITER (1866–1954)

56 |
If you want to see movie stars, you go to Hollywood. For politicians, D.C.’s your destination. But if architecture is what interests you, book a ticket for Chicago.

The City of Big Shoulders invented the skyscraper in the late 19th century, and it hasn’t looked back. It offers visitors a gallery of the architectural trends of the past century, from prairie style to modernism, and everything in between. It’s home to the two tallest buildings in the country, the Willis Tower (formerly named the Sears Tower, 1974) and the Trump International Hotel and Tower (2009).

An easy (and inexpensive) way to take in the scope of the city is to follow the lead of commuters: Buy a ticket for the El, the Chicago Transit Authority’s elevated train (888-968-7282,
www.transitchicago.com
, $5.75 for an all-day pass). “It’s a viewing platform for the city,” says Jason Neises of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. “I know of no other place in the world that offers something like this. You can literally see it all on the El.”

The Brown Line loops through downtown, weaving through the skyscraper district, and then meanders through neighborhoods. The Green Line heads west to Oak Park, home to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. On the way, it literally passes through the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, the largest concentration of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe buildings in the world, and home to the innovative McCormick-Tribune Campus Center by Rem Koolhaas.

Exploring on your own is the most frugal way to sightsee, but if you want some guidance, sign up for one of the
Chicago Architecture Foundation’
s many tours. It offers tours by foot, bus, bike, Segway, and boat, focusing on entire schools of design, individual architects, and even specific buildings. Tip: If you plan to take a few tours, buy a membership. It entitles you to free walking tours (usually $15 each), and provides a two-for-one pass for the “Architecture River Cruise,” which costs $32. If you live more than a hundred miles from Chicago, an individual can join for just $40.

With more than 70 tours on offer, it’s hard to know where to start. Neises suggests the foundation’s “Historic Downtown (south): Rise of the Skyscraper” walking tour. As he explains it, Chicago was a boomtown during the late 1800s, after the great fire had literally burned it to the ground, growing faster than any other city had up to that point in history. Since the downtown was hemmed in by rivers and lakes, builders had nowhere to go but up. As the city was developing, so were new technologies: steel framing, electricity, plumbing, telephone and telegraph, and the ability to make plate glass. “They came all together at just the right time for Chicago to invent the skyscraper,” he says.

The walking tour takes in some of the earliest incarnations, including the 1888 Rookery building designed by Daniel Burnham and John Root, with a restored interior by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the 1889 Auditorium Building by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan.

With planning, visitors can take in a second tour in a day. Most popular is the 90-minute “Architecture River Cruise,” which runs May through November. Passengers see and learn about 60 buildings. “It’s wildly popular,” Neises says. The trip is narrated by docents passionate about architecture and the city.

On another day, a visitor might take the “Frank Lloyd Wright by Bus” tour to Oak Park, once home to Frank Lloyd Wright. It includes a visit to his studio, a walking tour of the historic district, and a visit to Wright’s famed Unity Temple.

Or sign up for the daylong “Farnsworth House Plus By Bus.” This modernism tour visits the Illinois Institute of Technology and then heads about 55 miles west of the city to the famed Farnsworth House, a glass building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, that attracts visitors from around the world. The tour includes lunch and runs $58 for members, $70 for nonmembers.