Lake Superior Circle Tour - Economical Scenic Vacations. Interesting places to see and things to do without breaking the budget

Bayfield Apple Festival is one of Wisconsin's favorite fall festivals

Minnesota North Shore Fall Colors from the top of Moose Mountain.

See our Events Calendars for interesting things to see and do around Lake Superior: Wisconsin, Minnesota North Shore, Michigan Upper Peninsula, and Ontario.

Gas Saving Tips for your Lake Superior Vacation.

Discover Lake Superior - America and Canada's Inland Sea

With the pipeline closures, looks like gas prices are set to escalate again.

With higher gas prices people are tempted to cut back on their travel and vacation plans because of the increase. But the actual out-of-pocket cost of those higher prices is a lot less than you might think.

We've found if you put a pencil to the actual cost of the increased $ per gallon in the larger scheme of things it isn't that much.

Using the example of GAS prices at $4.00 per gallon, lets look at the actual cost changes using a very ordinary gas consumption of 20 mpg - which even Cadillacs, Trucks & SUVs can exceed these days. Our example is traveling to one of the most popular destination areas around Lake Superior: the Bayfield Peninsula, Apostle Islands National Park, and Madeline Island. Our example uses Ashland, Wisconsin as it is the gateway to this travel region.

Round Trip Mileage & Fuel Consumption
to Ashland, Wisconsin on Lake Superior and return (@ 20 mpg):

From Chicago - 886 miles. 44 gallons of gas

From Madison, WI - 602 miles. 30 gallons of gas

From Minneapolis, MN - 442 miles. 22 gallons of gas

Now lets run the numbers. At 20 mpg a price of $4/gallon of gas the round trip from Chicago to Ashland would cost you $176 in gasoline. If we assume gas at $3/gallon, the same trip would cost you $132. So the difference in the round trip to Ashland, WI from Chicago, Illinois would only cost an additional $45 (@$4/gallon vs. $3/gallon).

In our opinion an easy amount of money to offset. Go out to eat one less time than normal and you've paid for the difference. Stay at a budget motel one or two nights and you've made up the difference.

Cost of Local Travel

The harbor at Cornucopia Wisconsin, one of the seaside villages along the new Lake Superior Scenic Byway

While you are in the Ashland-Bayfield area you can take a day trip on the new Wisconsin Lake Superior Scenic Byway to the beautiful Duluth, Minnesota port city to enjoy Canal Park, the iconic Lakewalk, take the scenic Skyline Drive, climb Enger Park Tower and numerous other attractions. The round trip will cost you about $36 (@$4/gallon) - cheap entertainment.

If your expected vacation trip is longer, just crunch the numbers to get the real cost of the difference in gas between $3 and $4 per gallon. For example it isn't that far to travel through Canada from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Sault Ste. Marie Michigan - about 500 miles. You can do this with only having to fill up gas in Canada one time (our old Mazda 626 could've done the full trip w/o stopping at all for gas).

What if your family car gets 30 mpg (as many do these days) ? Well then that round trip from Chicago to Ashland, Bayfield and the Apostle Islands area will only cost you about $120 at $4/gallon. That trip to Duluth and back will only cost you $24.

So "put a pencil to it" - compute your anticipated mileage and mpg - and I think you'll find a way to fit a unique Lake Superior travel experience into your vacation budget. And with the price of air fare to distant locations going up and up you might find that a trip around Lake Superior or to one of its more remote vacation areas could be a heck of lot cheaper.

You'll discover the travel regions around Lake Superior offer an affordable yet uniquely scenic travel and vacation opportunity to get away and be renewed. ( For more details, see our travel directories for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula, and Ontario )

Did you know these interesting facts about Lake Superior?

-- Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world!
31,700 Square Miles
Miles of Shoreline = 2726 miles
10% of the world's fresh water supply

-- The total population of all the cities, towns, villages, and settlements around the lake is less than 800,000 people.

-- Some of the oldest rocks in the world exist along the Lake Superior shoreline in Ontario. And gemstone rocks like agates, jasper, quartz, chalcedony, unikite can be found on many of its beaches. (see our beach rock identification guide)

See more Lake Superior Facts here