The idealized America
In a lot of ways, this north central state represents an idealized America with its lakes and forests, smaller cities and northern European heritage. Its geography — which includes state shorelines on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior — provides the stage for plenty of outdoor activity, particularly the water-based kinds.

This farm state is especially noted for its dairy operations and the natural extension of that, cheese making. It is noted as well for its beers. On top of that, Sheboygan claims the title bratwurst capital of America. There is plenty to do, see and eat in the Badger State.

About Wisconsin
Tourists come to this part of the upper Midwest for outdoor recreation, for unsullied natural scenery and for manageable cities and towns that offer physical charms, culture and friendly hosts.

Lots of people in the central U.S. know about Wisconsin, and that’s where many of them go to relax and relieve stress, especially in the summer. Centrics and venturers are especially comfortable here, and all personality types enjoy the array of outdoor and family-oriented activities.

The Wisconsin Dells along the Wisconsin River has the most famous scenery in the state. It is a spectacular 15-mile stretch of river flanked by sandstone cliffs rising as much as 100 feet above the river’s rushing waters. Its natural appeal combines with the area’s several water theme parks and other attractions to create an ideal lure for families.

Lake Geneva, the town on Geneva Lake, is the state’s other best-known tourist-focused destination. The resort became known early in the 20th century as a favorite for Chicagoans and was President Calvin Coolidge’s summer retreat. But the hands of Mother Nature and mankind offer other choices: Door County, that peninsula bound on one side by Green Bay and the other by Lake Michigan; the Wisconsin Northwoods, a stretch of forests, lakes and rivers reaching across the northern third of the state touching both the state’s Great Lakes shorelines, and scenic byways including the Great Mississippi River Road National Scenic Byway showing off quaint river towns with their festivals, historic town centers and their parks.

Not to be overlooked, two cities stand out on the tourist map, Madison and Milwaukee, which between them offer performing arts, fine dining, sports teams, museums, festivals — and access to still more recreational opportunities on the state’s lakes, and on land, as well.

No wonder then that summer season is prime time in Wisconsin, especially for water sports and fishing.

• Get your license and go hunting. In Wisconsin, that means deer, 800,000 of them roaming the state’s woods, with a nine-day hunting season in November.

• Go biking and make yours a themed trip. Fall foliage is a seasonal choice, but other themes include the Frank Lloyd Wright Tour and the Cheese Country Trail. Go to www.travelwisconsin.com/Biking_in_Wisconsin.aspx for access to an online biking ideas.

• Go dogsledding. Learn to drive a team of Siberian huskies.

• Attend the annual venison feed in a town called Tomahawk. Free venison burgers are served the first Saturday of the deer gun season, in the late fall.

• Go canoeing or kayaking in a town called Two Rivers, one of Wisconsin’s several charming harbor towns facing Lake Michigan. Find more information on this and other scenic harbor towns, which include Milwaukee, at www.wisconsinharbortowns.org.

• Take a guided tour of an Al Capone hideaway in northern Wisconsin. Called the Hideout, the lakeside home in Couderay features machine-gun portals, a gun tower and walls that are 18 inches thick. Also, museum displays include a re-creation of the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

• Go diving near Washburn to see any of several shipwreck sites in Lake Superior. Go kayaking on Lake Superior, too.

• Attend Milwaukee’s annual Indian Summer powwow in the fall. Or choose from other powwows in the state.

• Hire a Great Lakes charter fishing boat and go for trout and salmon on either Lake Michigan or Lake Superior. The boats are available in many of the lakes’ harbor towns. Wisconsin sells more than1.3 million fishing licenses a year, and more than 61 million fish are caught.

• Spend the night on the World War II submarine at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc. Before you leave town, tour the Natural Ovens Bakery.

• If you are a sports fan, time your trip to see the Green Bay Packers play football. It’s big-time sports in a small U.S. city with lots of tradition and enthusiasm.
Then, go to the theater in Green Bay!!

• Build part of a trip around the theater, the outdoor kind. Wisconsin is home to three nationally known outdoor theaters: American Players Theatre in Spring Green; Peninsula Players Theatre in Fish Creek, and Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua.

• Like many a place in the northern U.S., Wisconsin is a magnet for leaf peepers. Go to www.travelwisconsin.com to look for updated charts, available seasonally, indicating where the color is best at any given time and to receive fall color updates by e-mail.

• Go for a nice long walk. For this, one of Wisconsin’s most popular destinations is Door County’s Peninsula State Park, with nearly 35 miles of trails through hardwood forests and along towering limestone bluffs. Guided walks are available along the revealingly named Ice Age Trail.

• Go cross-country skiing. The state has more than 700 miles of groomed trails for the purpose.
Alternatively, go downhill skiing, for which the state is better-suited than visitors may guess. Wisconsin is third in the nation for the number of ski areas (36) for downhill-skiing enthusiasts.

• This is irresistible: Visit a cheese factory. There are at least 45 for tourists to choose from.

• Take cooking classes. One place to start is the Demonstration Kitchen at the Shops at Woodlake. Up to 40 people can interact with chefs as they prepare a featured dish.

• Take your pick, winery or brewery? You can visit plenty of either from a selection of around 70, with a good mix of each. If you like a little history with your wine, put the Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac on your list. Now a National Historic Site, the winery and vineyard were established before the Civil War by the Hungarian Count Haraszthy, who later became known as “the father of California wine making.”

• Sail on one of the Great Lakes (Wisconsin borders two: Michigan and Superior). At Racine, for example, you can sail on Lake Michigan aboard a Great Lakes Sailing Charters boat. Half-day, full-day and two-day excursions are on offer.

• Here are some fun, even corny, ideas for entertainment, depending on your travel schedule. Attend Sun Prairie’s August Sweet Corn Festival, one of the largest in the nation. Or, on Labor Day weekend, attend the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw in Sauk Prairie. Another September alternative is the U.S. Watermelon Seed-Spitting and Speed-Eating Championships in Pardeeville.

• Take a self-guided walking tour in Port Washington on Lake Michigan, past and into many historic buildings, or along the first man-made harbor in North America. The downtown, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has the largest collection of pre-Civil War buildings in Wisconsin.
Port Washington also hosts the world’s largest one-day, outdoor fish fry every July.

• Ringling Brothers Circus (and others) maintained winter quarters in Baraboo. Take a look at the Circus World Museum here and see performances in the summer.
Near Baraboo, in North Freedom, the Mid-Continent Railway Museum offers 45-minute rides on an old-fashioned train.

• Rent a cabin on a lake and don’t do anything. Just relax — this is the perfect place for it.

• If the kids love water parks, head to the Wisconsin Dells. Besides boasting America’s largest water park, Noah’s Ark, it also has America’s largest indoor water park, the 125,000-square-foot Kalahari Waterpark Resort Convention Center. In other words, this kind of water play is not seasonal anymore. Also, stroll the scenic Dells RiverWalk, or ride its bicycle route.

• Eat bratwurst in Sheboygan. Attend a fish boil dinner in Door County; preparation is a show and involves cooking fresh whitefish outdoors over an open fire — and intentionally causing the water to boil over.

• Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the classic “Little House” books, was born in Pepin County. Visit the Little House Wayside, which features a replica of her childhood log cabin, and the Pepin Historical Museum.

• Amuse yourself at the Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb (and taste a hot horseradish mustard, called Hit and Run for a reason) or the Outagamie Museum in Appleton with its section on former resident A.K.A. Houdini.

• Visit the Dane County Farmers’ Market held on Capitol Square in Madison from April through November. It is the largest such market in the U.S.

• Take a two-hour lighthouse cruise aboard a retired Chicago fireboat. Embarking from downtown Sturgeon Bay, the Door County Cruises lighthouse cruise takes you on a water tour of the Sherwood Point Lighthouse, the Canal Station Lighthouse and the 19th century Sturgeon Bay ship canal which is now used by recreational boaters and Great Lakes freighters.

• Look for eagles in Sauk City and Prairie du Sac, which are home to North America’s largest population of wintering eagles.