Thanksgiving is the sleeper week of the Northwoods year. The leaf-peepers have gone home, the snowmobilers haven't arrived yet, and the whole place goes quiet in a way it never quite manages in July. If your family would rather spend the holiday around one long table in a cabin than in shifts at a restaurant, late November around Eagle River is close to ideal.
Why come now
Why spend Thanksgiving up here?
Because the holiday is really about a house full of people with nowhere to be, and that is exactly what this stretch of the year hands you. There is no schedule to keep. Nothing is crowded. The light goes amber by late afternoon and then it's dark by dinner, which sounds like a drawback until you've spent an evening with the fire going, something in the oven, and a card game that nobody is in a hurry to finish.
It also travels well. Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, so most people already have the Thursday and Friday free — turn it into four or five nights and the drive stops feeling like a lot of effort for one meal.
On the water
What do the lakes look like in late November?
Honest answer: in-between, and quietly beautiful for it. By Thanksgiving the Eagle River Chain and the Sugar Camp Chain are cold, dark and still. Some years there's skim ice in the back bays and a rim of it along the shoreline; other years the main lakes are still wide open and you can watch the last of the open water steaming on a cold morning. It is past the point where you'd want to put a boat in, but it is a wonderful week to walk out on the dock with a coffee before the house wakes up.
It is also too early to count on ice you can stand on. If someone in your group is already thinking about augers and tip-ups, read our ice-up guide first and plan that trip for later in the winter instead.
The meal
Can you really cook Thanksgiving at a cabin?
You can, and it's the part guests are most surprised by. Both of our kitchens are full kitchens — a real oven and range, a full-size fridge, a dishwasher, and enough counter to have two people working without elbowing each other. The practical limit is oven space, not equipment, so the usual trick applies: one thing roasts while everything else gets made ahead, reheated, or cooked on the stovetop.
Two things worth knowing before you load the car: do your big shop on your first full day rather than the morning of, because small-town grocery shelves thin out the closer you get to the holiday, and bring your roasting pan if you're particular about it. If cooking the whole thing is not your idea of a vacation, Eagle River's supper clubs are an entirely respectable plan B — our supper club and fish fry guide covers how that scene works and why the Friday fish fry is worth building a night around.
The rest of the week
What do you do with the other four days?
Walk it off
The hardwoods are bare, which means you can see through the woods for the first time all year. Trails are quiet and the footing is usually still good — see our hiking guide.
Hot tub weather
Cold air, hot water, no bugs, and stars overhead by six in the evening. This is the season the hot tub earns its keep, and at The Grandy Dandy the cedar sauna does too.
Downtown and leftovers
An afternoon of browsing downtown Eagle River, then back to the cabin for the second-best meal of the year. Nobody has ever complained about this plan.
And if the weather turns genuinely nasty, that's what the game room is for. Our rainy-day guide has the indoor options around town, too.
Make a weekend of it
Where to stay for Thanksgiving
Room for the whole family
Both cabins are open year-round and both are built for a crowd at one table — The O.G. on Lake Arbutus and The Grandy Dandy on the Sugar Camp Chain, each with a full kitchen, a hot tub, a firepit and the lake out the door. The Grandy Dandy adds a cedar barrel sauna and a game room with a pool table, which is a useful thing to own on a cold afternoon. Thanksgiving week is quieter than summer, but it's one house either way — ask early.
Good to know