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Tags: NYT Reviews / Wisconsin Hotels / → All Tags

NYT Shows Us How to Make Like a Mobster in Wisconsin

By all stereotype-riddled accounts, Midwesterners should be laidback and genial. Too friendly, even. And nowhere might that be truer than Wisconsin, a gentle respite of summer camps, lake cabins, and farmers markets.

Of course, not all Midwesterners fit that bill, epitomized best in the 1920s and 30s by the likes of Al Capone, John Dillinger, and Baby Face Nelson. Their refuges of choice? When the “heat was on,” writes the NYT, “bad guys on the lam” headed for Wisconsin’s north woods.

Some of their spots of choice have stuck around, and Wisconsin travelers can make like a mobster and disappear down the state’s back roads for a few days. The NYT details three resorts and lodges with gangster history.

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Tags: Jock Jam Hotels / NFL Hotels / Brett Favre / Motor Lodges / Wisconsin Hotels / → All Tags

Brett Favre's Family Has The Best Western on Lockdown for November 1

Where: 780 Armed Forces Drive [map], Green Bay, WI, United States, 54304

Brett Favre...are you in or are you out? Active or retired? Healthy or injured? QB for the Minnesota Vikings or not? Whatever it is, please make up your mind soon. That's because your whole family has a huge block of rooms reserved at the Best Western Midway Motor Lodge near Lambeau Field in Wisconsin reserved for November 1 when the Vikings play your old team, The Greenbay Packers.

Favre is expected to sign with the Vikings soon, unless a recent surgery on his arm has some undesirable consequences. But even if it does and Brett decides to choose retirement once and for all, the Midway Motor Lodge has a fairly flex cancellation policy.

The group isn’t required to guarantee payment for the rooms until 45 days before the check-in date, so it can cancel the reservations in the next two months without financial penalty. [Hotel Manager Doug] Warpinski said Favre’s family and friends routinely stayed at the hotel for home games in Favre’s final five years with the Packers.

If Favre does end up playing for the Vikings and will be QB for the Green Bay game, then at least you know where he might be headed once the game is over. PS. The hotel also has an indoor pool.

[Photo: AJC Blogs]

Tags: Wisconsin Hotels / Hotel Sierras / Green Bay Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Sierra Opens in Green Bay; Packers Fans Will Be Pleased

Where: 333 Main Street [map], Green Bay, WI, United States, 54301

Packers fans: put down that pigskin and forget the primal urges of football. Now you can get some refined Starbucks and Sharper Image iPod docking stations with your fourth downs and offsides, at a new hotel in Green Bay.

LodgeWorks has just put the $7 million-dollar touch on The Hotel Sierra Green Bay, formerly the Regency Suites, and within spitting distance from Lambeau Field and nearby the city's anticipated promenade called CityDeck.

And it's more upscale business traveler hotel than a football lover's hang: "...an open eight-story atrium filled with lit palm trees, porcelain tiles, warm rugs, oversize lamps, zebra woods and other natural elements."

We can't really see Packers fans snuggling into the those animal patterns, but then again, maybe they will.

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Tags: Hotel Renovations / Wisconsin Hotels / Snapshots / → All Tags

The Abbey Resort Gets a New-ish Look

Where: 269 Fontana Boulevard [map], Lake Geneva, WI, United States, 53125

The 40-year-old Abbey Resort on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin has undergone a $40 million makeover and after two years of renovations, the hotel is nearly complete as well as under new managment by HostMark Hospitality Group.

The updates include LCD TVs in the 334 guestrooms, outdoor patios or balconies, and wireless internet in the common areas. The TVs (on the wall on the left in the photo) look sweet but we're not sure we agree with the choice of bedspreads. It's not quite floral but it has some greenery on it. Then again, this is Wisconsin not New York.

The resort also features the 35,000-square-foot Fontana Spa which has more than 40 different types and a fitness center. More treatment rooms are going to be added so doublecheck before you book about any renovation work still being done.

Spring rates start at $119.

Related Stories:
· The Abbey Resort reviews [TripAdvisor]