Living in a state with the coldest winters, while still having brutally hot summers, most of us Minnesotans want to get away from the place we call home. The destination of travel varies with all families, depending on their type of “fun”. Most of the people here in Minnesota have a lot of fun being outside doing all sorts of things such as fourwheeling, fishing, and hunting. Those types of families tend to take short vacations to Wisconsin. Some families don't have the outdoor equipment like fourwheelers, so they make their way to Florida to get away from the cold and relax on the beach. Then there’s always those families who have a little bit more money than the others and take the two week long vacations to France.

Resembling Minnesota, Wisconsin is one of the colder states with lots of stuff to do, if you like to be outside. Living in Minnesota or Wisconsin you learn that there isn't much to do inside. While Minnesota is known for its fishing and its 10,000 lakes, Wisconsin actually has more lakes, up to 15,000. Wisconsin is also very consistent with how every lake has excellent fishing, while Minnesota has 5 major fishing lakes and the others and that great. Wisconsin is also smaller than Minnesota, but holds many more off road trails for fourwheelers and snowmobiles. Known for their amazing hunts, according to Outdoor Life Magazine, Wisconsin holds the best town for hunting and fishing in Appleton, where black bear, white tails, and waterfowl lurk throughout the year. The only somewhat fancy attraction Wisconsin has is Wisconsin Dells, which is a hotel with waterparks and all sorts of other activities. Otherwise Wisconsin is mostly known for the Packers, the scenery on National Park and four wheeling trails, and the amazing hunting and fishing trips. Whether you hunt, fish, or ride fourwheelers and snowmobiles, a short, cheap weekend trip to Wisconsin makes a perfect trip.

A little more relaxing than Minnesota, Florida attracts many tourists due to its warm weather and sandy ocean beaches. Florida is still a state to be outside, but there are still attractions that involve you being inside. Florida will always be known as the Sunshine State and will always have us Minnesotans coming down there to escape our rough winter and relax on the beach. Owning way more attractions due to the warm weather, Florida claims over 5 major amusement parks like Disney World and Busch Gardens, over 650 miles of beaches like Clearwater and Daytona, and is home to the Kennedy Space Center and the legendary Everglades. Florida is a much more popular tourist area pulling in about 40 billion dollars each year. The only negatives for us Minnesotans while going down there is the Public Roadways and its hard to understand a lot of the people who work in Florida. The all white population is 82% in Minnesota while Florida has a 57% all white population. Florida is also an actual tropical state, not a snow state. By the first step in Florida, most will realize that its a tropical state, because outside is palm trees, clear ponds, and the greenest grass you’ve ever seen. Even the music reflects on how the state portrays itself, most of the water parks and outdoor restaurants will have the Jamaican/Tropical music playing. For Minnesotans, Florida is the perfect week long winter trip just to get away from the cold.

Across the world from Minnesota, France lies in the middle of the most visited continent in the world, Europe. France is a place where 83 million tourists a year come to experience the European life, just under 3 million come from the United States. Out of the three vacation destinations I chose, France is definitely the most different. The biggest difference is the language, France actually has an official language of French throughout the whole country. Us Americans still choose to deal with all of the accents we can’t understand because of what France offers to tourists. When people hear France, everybody thinks of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and we probably should because that is by far the biggest attraction France has, but what we don't know is what other spectacular things France has for tourists. France, like Florida offers many great beaches to relax on, but what Florida doesn't have, is the restaurants and food right off the beach. France is a country with great food all on its own, but when you offer great food and a beautiful ocean view, tourists find themselves in heaven. The weird thing is that France claims themselves to have some of the best beaches in the world and keeps themselves in history with the Chamonix Alpine Ski Resort where the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924. France is also unique from the rest of the world, because of all of its different palaces that are now toured today like the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre Palace. France resembles the US more than we think, they are just a fancy and more proper United States. Over 90% of the population is originally from France and they speak their own language. Vacations to France are usually only going to happen once, if at all in your life, so when your family offers the trip, if they do, take advantage of it and take a nice, long, luxurious and expensive trip to France.

Money is a big part of choosing vacation destinations, and with the amount of money you're willing to spend, Wisconsin, Florida, and France fit all your price ranges. Almost all of us Minnesotans have taken at least one cabin trip to Wisconsin or a week long trip to Florida with the whole family, and maybe later on in our life, when we start to make money will make our way to the highly toured country of France.