Minnesota resorts are booked solid this summer
ISLE, Minn. -- It seems a lot of people are skipping their flights and road tripping for their holiday weekend plans.
Resorts across the area tell us they are packed with customers, something that hasn't happened in two years.
Amanda Etienne and her son, Bronson Ditch, traveled from La Salle in southern Minnesota to spend a week with their family at Appeldoorn's Sunset Bay Resort on Lake Mille Lacs.
"After the COVID, yeah, this is the perfect, perfect place just to get away," Ditch said.
Etienne noticed Tuesday it's a bit slower than previous summers, but she expects, correctly, that the resort will fill up by the weekend.
Christine Sorensen, Appeldoorn's general manager, says they're booked solid through the Fourth of July holiday.
Sugar Lake Lodge near Grand Rapids is also out of vacancies this weekend, according to Abby Oxborough, the resort's owner and general manager. In fact, she says their waiting list is about 50 or 60 people long.
Both Sorensen and Oxborough say high gas prices are working in their favor.
"People don't want to drive that far," Sorensen said. "They're driving far enough to be away from home, an hour to two hours is an easy drive for the amount of gas, and yet they get to spend time away with their families."
Some of the guests booked at the resorts this weekend are actually being re-booked from canceled trips last summer or even 2020. It's created a logjam of reservations for several weeks.
"We're just doing the best we can to accommodate, but you know, it books up fast and every time people leave, we remind them, you know, get your spot for next year because we don't know how it's going to look like," Oxborough said.
She says weekday trips might be the best bet to get a resort vacation in this summer.
