Winter Vacation in Minnesota

Best Things Nearby:
Snow sports: cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, snowmobiling, ice skating, and ice fishing. Beautiful scenery of a Minnesota northwoods in wintertime. Peace and serenity.

Best Things About the Resort:
Excellent condition, large rooms, very comfortable sleeping, and easy accessibility.

Resort Experience:
We stayed in one of the chalets on the Whitebirch portion of Breezy Point resort. Breezy features a wide variety of lodging options from small economical units to these gorgeous full-fledge homes.

Our unit included a lockout unit. The main portion consisted of a large kitchen, dining room and living room off of the kitchen. Gas fireplace in living room, downstairs bedroom with two twin beds -- great for the kids. Nice large entryway (for shoes, boots, snowclothing). Upstairs master suite with king size bed. Full bath up and down stairs. Upstairs bath off master suite has corner-type whirlpool bath. Large closet and storage space throughout.

Lockout unit consists of a second full kitchen with smaller dining area and nice sized living room off of the kitchen. Gas fireplace in this room as well. Second master suite has king size bed.

Both living rooms in the unit had pull-out couches and 27" TVs with VCR and stereo. We brought along our own DVD player for movie nights by the fireplace.

Both the main and lockout units have washer and dryers.

The rooms are well cared for and beautifully decorated. We brought along a small Christmas tree to add to a festive holiday spirit as we were celebrating Christmas on our vacation.

The chalets are located in the Eagles Nest portion of the Resort. Breezy Point has the large main portion containing the pools, Marina, Marina bar and grill, convention center, one of the golf courses, and many of the housing units. Outside this main area is the newer Whitebirch golf course, the Eagles Nest area and many other units on the Whitebirch fairways. (Our unit is located on the Traditional (original) golf course.

There are two pool areas. One is located in the marina building. This pool is smaller and quite crowded, but fun. It is set up for games of pool volleyball and there is a nice-sized hot tub (18 person?) and a smaller kid-sized wading pool (also nice sized) next to it. This area has a moderate sized game area with everything from video games to billiards and ping pong. There is a second pool in the Hilltop portion of the resort which is quite close to the marina portion. This pool is larger and much newer. It had a much cleaner feel to it. It was also much less crowded and seemed huge with the larger size and lesser crowd. It also has a nice large hot tub and a large kids pool. A strange quirk for this pool is that towel service is available only at the marina pool. You must pick your towels up at that pool and bring them to the Hilltop pool.

Breezypoint has an ice arena for ice skating. This is a great place for kids and adults to try it out -- skates are available. Admission is $1.50 per person, but we received a coupon for free admission (for our entire party) when we checked in.

On the lake there is an ice skating rink set up as well as a snow golf course--you hit tennis balls with real clubs! While we were there, we saw snowmobile radar runs. It is exciting to see snowmobiles go 100mph. The fastest run of the day toped 185mph!

Check-in and check-out was very easy.

We prepared much food in the unit. They were well stocked with cooking utensils. We also ate at the Antlers restaurant--fine dining (on the Whitebirch golf course) as well as at the Marina bar and grill--much more of a bar feel.

We did a lot of snowshoeing on the golfcourse itself and on nearby trails. We also climbed the nearby fire tower for an awesome view of the area and shopped the many interesting shops in the nearby town of Nisswa.

I spent several hours reading by the fireplace for a very relaxing and serene part of my vacation. It was also very enjoyable to play some board games (some are in the unit, we brought others) with my children (8, 6, 4).

During a portion of our stay, many from our family joined us for a Christmas celebration. The unit easily handled the hustle and bustle of a gift exchange and a meal for 18. That particular night, we had 11 sleeping in the unit. It was comfortable for everyone.

We had a very enjoyable time and I'd recommend it to anyone.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Excellent
• Amenities: Excellent
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

We had a great meal at Antlers. I had a broiled walleye filet with vegetables, potato, and salad. My wife had prime rib with the same sides. Our three children ate with us and had a very normal children's menu with typical fare--spaghetti, pizza, chicken fingers, etc. The food was excellent. The portion of walleye I received was huge and very well seasoned and prepared. The wait staff was very attentive and did their very best to make sure our evening was perfect. We had received a coupon for a free strawberry dessert. After eating our meal, we weren't hungry for dessert, but our waitress was more than happy to package the desserts (five of them) to go, and we enjoyed them a few hours later in the comfort of our unit.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is semi-formal, but they have a relaxed feel about the place. All of us attending that night were dressed semi-casually for a fine place.

It was a very enjoyable night out as adults, yet they were able to provide for our children as well.

One could easily have a romantic candlelight dinner for two there.

We ate lunch at the marina bar/grill. I had a hamburger platter and my wife had a swordfish appetizer. Our kids had typical children's menu fare. The food was typical sports bar quality. It was good overall--burger and fries good. The service was also relaxed with more of a bar feel compared to Antlers. Dress was very casual for lunch.

The look of this place was older with many rough edges, but it was adequate. The resort is hoping to remodel the marina. This restaurant had a great view of the lake. I'm sure it is an awesome view over the water during the summer months.

There are two pools at Breezy Point. The marina pool is the smallest but is also the busiest. This bothered my wife and me more than our kids. They loved the frantic excitement this pool usually had.

The pool is in an older building and has more of a cramped, older feel. The pool was set up for water volleyball while we were there. There is a nice-sized hot tub which would seat around 18 people. There is also a nice-sized children's pool, although this is located quite close to the 3-foot portion of the main pool. Because of the busyness of this pool, it also seemed a little dirtier. Not a gross dirtiness, but grungier overall.

There is a sauna located off of this pool as well as nice changing areas.

Also in this pool area is an arcade with many video games, pinball machines, foosball, air hockey, billiards, and ping-pong. There is also a pizza service available where they make fresh pizza. The pizzas are relatively inexpensive and are a great treat as a break during swimming.

Towel service is available at this pool.

The second pool is in another portion of the resort known as Hilltop. This is actually quite close to the marina area, but not connected by skywalk as the marina buildings are.

This pool is somewhat larger than the marina pool and isn't as busy. There were times that it was practically empty. There is a large hot tub (18-20 person) and a large children's pool, but it too is located next to the 3-foot section of the main pool.

There are no changing areas in this pool nor towel service available here. There are nice seating areas all around the pool.

This pool has a very clean and newer feel. The only quirk is the lack of changing areas (important during winter) and the fact that the only bathroom is located in the downstairs garage (pretty cold during wintertime). The lack of towel service here is also a strike against it. I think most folks couldn't figure how to find this pool or it would be a much more popular pool.

I love to hike, and Breezy provided many places to do this. With wintertime, my family used snowshoes and we did much hiking around the golf course as well as taking trips to nearby forests for snoeshoeing and hiking. Just a short distance from Breezy is an old firetower. It is a moderately difficult uphill hike to get to the bottom of the firetower and then many steps to the top, but the view is worth it. This is a great way to expend some of the energy of your kids and get some exercise in for yourself. The route back is quite easy, except for a moderately steep hill to climb down--just be careful with your footing on a snowy, slick slope.

Cranberry Bog Path is a great hiking/snowshoe path near Crosslake, MN, right by Breezy Point. This 4-mile (or so) hike was very easy and extremely serene and peaceful.

Golf courses always provide a great place to snowshoe and the fairways at Breezy are no exception. The traditional course is just off the back of the unit we stayed at, and we were able to follow many of the other fairways on our walks with the kids.

Nisswa and Pequot Lakes are located a short distance from Breezy Point and offer an array of shops. We spent some time in the shops of Nisswa.

Many of the shops have northwoods arts and crafts. Carvings and artwork as well as maple syrups and wild rice are some of the things you can find.

Several of the shops had fine dishware--unique items--that were of great quality and very elegant. The entertainer or gourmet can find wine serving sets, fine and exotic teas and spices.

Our kids loved The Chocolate Ox, a candy store with adult fare--fudge and truffles--as well as bulk candies that they loved. They also loved The Lucky Loon, a toy store with toys you may have never seen before. Very creative stuff in this store--things that will encourage a child's creativity and imagination.

There is a doll shop with a wide selection of miniatures as well as some vintage and antique dolls that will take you down memory lane.

We ate at The Nisswa Grill. It had a very nice atmosphere--nice and warm by the fireplace. The food was great and very inexpensive.

You might also like to check out the store Scandinavian Living, which is not located on the main street strip but is on the road back to Breezy Point. There are unique furniture items as well as dishware and decorative items.

There are is at least one art gallery on the main street and one or more along the road. We went in the one on the main street. You'll find nature and wildlife art.

You'd enjoy this area for a little trip a short half-hour away from Breezy.

This is northern Minnesota and there are a lot of places to snowmobile. The Paul Bunyan trail, with an access point in Pequot Lakes (very close to Breezy), is an old railroad bed. There are over 100 miles of snowmobiling available on this trail. Over 50 of this is paved, in case you come back in the summer and want to bike.

There are also many other trails around the area, and, of course, the lakes to snowmobile on. Nearby Gull Lake has a lighted snowmobile trail for nighttime sledding.

Snow conditions while we were there the last week of December were "okay." Minnesota has not gotten the large amounts of snow in the past few years that it has a reputation for in years past. Many snowmobilers are opting for four-wheeled ATVs, and there were many of these wheeling around Breezy on the golf course fairways, lakes, and trails.

There are places to rent snowmobiles nearby, but we did not use rental snowmobiles.