Difficulty Meter Tailgating, but on ice, with a fishing pole

Frankfort, Michigan

• Drive Time 4.75 hours

If you’ve never gone ice-fishing, heading out with a French-culinary-trained chef is the way to start. “We want to do something people will remember,” says Ben Wolfe of Sport Fish Michigan, the man who puts glamour in an activity usually associated with flannel-wearing dudes drinking crappy beer. For this five-hour trip (from $175 a person, sportfishmichigan.com), guides bring heated shanties, rods, reels, and gourmet eats. “My guides are all big hunters,” says Wolfe, who turns the deer and wild turkeys they catch into smoked sausage for guests. Aspiring anglers get a top-notch experience on Crystal Lake with guides who know where to find northern pike, burbot, and even the occasional steelhead.

The Particulars

Body Burn Just your throat, if you drink one too many shots

Stay Settle into a stylish cottage at Crystal Mountain (from $399 for a three-bedroom, crystalmountain.com), 20 minutes from the lake.

While There Hit the slopes of Crystal Mountain, one of the Midwest’s best full-service ski resorts (lifts from $47; rentals from $38).