Cruise Inn RV Park

To learn more about Alexandria, and the mingling of Native American and Scandinavian settler traditions, there's a good few hours of entertainment to be found wandering the city's Runestone Museum. The centrepiece of the collection is a mysterious and still controversial stone slab found on a local farm, suggesting Vikings visited in the mid-14th century.

For more frivolous stuff in town, there's go-karting, miniature golf and bumper boats to be found at Casey's Amusement Park and a wild wet world of slides, geysers and whirlpools at the Big Splash Minnesota Indoor Waterpark.

For aquatic antics outdoors, it's a five-minute drive to Lake Lakota for bass fishing, swimming and kayak hire as well as walks through the surrounding terrain.

Alongside the lake-based activities, Lake Carlos State Park (20 minutes) serves up many fine walking trails through its diverse mix of bogs, marsh wetlands and lakes, and it's a good spot to join the Glacial Ridge Scenic Byway, whose 220 miles of views, walks and historic sites stretch south to the town of Willmar, an hour and 10 minutes away.

Hunters can head to the Roger M. Holmes Wildlife Management Area (25 minutes), one of many protected zones full of pheasant, grouse, wild turkey and deer.

For a warming and cheering interval amongst all this active outdoor stuff, you can be at Carlos Creek Winery in around two minutes, touring the 22 acres of vineyards and sampling the wares with a picnic in the grounds.