September 7Sep 7 Ok, even though this summer has been great by TX standards, my wife and I agreed we only have a couple more summers of Texas left in us, ideally not spending mid-June to Labor Day here anymore. We are not Surly 1%ers (eliminates Aspen mountain-top cabin for three months) but we also eliminated a mobile home in Eight Mile so looking for the sweet spot in-between those options. We have also traveled a lot of the north-ish with exception of Michigan. But Maine to Washington, our favorite is def Wyoming/Montana followed by Maine adjacent. For all of us looking to leave dat heat for a season, any recommendations with reasonable budget? Dream scenario is some ski area that has reduced rent in summer so condo rentals are cheap (mammoth sorta checks box here). Do you migratory little birds buy or just long term rent? Do you always go back to same place or rotate?
September 7Sep 7 Just now, tx 3 putt said: I love wisconsin summers Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!
September 7Sep 7 Author 4 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said: I love wisconsin summers Madison came up. The cheese curds hit differently there.
September 7Sep 7 13 minutes ago, Hornbeliever said: Dream scenario is some ski area that has reduced rent in summer so condo rentals are cheap (mammoth sorta checks box here). Resort towns are expensive year-round. Summer is just as busy as winter these days.
September 7Sep 7 I’m planning on looking for a place to sublease or something for a month in Colorado next summer. Ideally Estes or Breckenridge but those might be hard to find something like that.
September 7Sep 7 Wife works for a company based in Wisconsin and travels there every month for a week for meetings and to work out of her office there. She has just about convinced me that we need a place in the Great Lakes region.
September 7Sep 7 1 hour ago, Hook1997 said: I’m planning on looking for a place to sublease or something for a month in Colorado next summer. Ideally Estes or Breckenridge but those might be hard to find something like that. Not at all if you plan far enough in advance, at least in the Breck. Expand your search out to Keystone, Frisco and Silverthorne and you'll have a variety of options.
September 7Sep 7 1 hour ago, royiv said: Wife works for a company based in Wisconsin and travels there every month for a week for meetings and to work out of her office there. She has just about convinced me that we need a place in the Great Lakes region. I was in Appleton for around 8 months over 2 years for a project around 7 years ago. Summers were awesome and beautiful
September 7Sep 7 12 minutes ago, Zepol87 said: I was in Appleton for around 8 months over 2 years for a project around 7 years ago. Summers were awesome and beautiful I’d also like to check Traverse City out. Have a friend that rented a house there this summer and they said it was awesome.
September 8Sep 8 On of our sons lives in Minneapolis and we've visited a few times. It's a great city and you don't have to go too far to get into some areas with gorgeous scenery. Obviously a lot of lakes. It would be on our list for sure.
September 8Sep 8 1 hour ago, Mo Horn said: On of our sons lives in Minneapolis and we've visited a few times. It's a great city and you don't have to go too far to get into some areas with gorgeous scenery. Obviously a lot of lakes. It would be on our list for sure. MPLS is an awesome city. One of my best friends has lived there for 20 years and I doubt they ever leave. We love going up there to visit them in the summer. Great downtown, good restaurants, tons of breweries. Canoe trips on the boundary waters are an awesome experience along the US/Canada border.
September 8Sep 8 8 hours ago, tx 3 putt said: I love wisconsin summers Carmel, Indiana, summers are pretty damn good.
September 8Sep 8 17 hours ago, South Austin said: Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it! it's like Czechoslovakia
September 8Sep 8 13 hours ago, mdmost said: Yeah, I was going to suggest Minnesota. Some parts of Minnesota even get an entire 6 weeks of summer.
September 8Sep 8 I bought a place in Whitefish, Montana a couple years ago. I love it. Great weather. Beautiful mountains and lakes nearby. Entrance to Glacier NP is about 30 minutes from my house. Good restaurants (not Aspen good, but good and much cheaper). The summer musical festival is on a nearby ranch if that is your think. Saw Flatland Calvary and Turnpike last summer. World class hiking in every direction. Great fly fishing and plenty of nice golf courses. Mountains all around you. Kalispell is 20 minutes away, which is nice if you need to go to Costco, Chic Fil A, Target, Wal Mart, etc. Kalispell also has a great airport that has daily summer direct flights from DFW and weekly directs from IAH. Kalispell also has a minor league baseball team that is fun to watch. Small town rodeos in Big Fork and Columbia Falls, which aren't far. I still like spending a week or so in Aspen. But Montana is better than Colorado IMO. I go in the winter for a couple weeks to ski. But summer is magical. Once my kids are out of the house in a few years, I will spend May to October there.
September 8Sep 8 If you want to be in a city, consider Mexico City. Rent is cheap, food is cheap, tons of entertainment. They have Uber, subways and buses everywhere. Roundtrip from Austin is 2.5 hours High of 75F everyday.
September 8Sep 8 1 minute ago, zman13 said: If you want to be in a city, consider Mexico City. Rent is cheap, food is cheap, tons of entertainment. They have Uber, subways and buses everywhere. Roundtrip from Austin is 2.5 hours High of 75F everyday. How’s the broadband? Buddy of mine lived in Cancun for about a decade and his biggest complaint w/r/t working from there was unreliable broadband.
September 8Sep 8 1 hour ago, royiv said: How’s the broadband? Buddy of mine lived in Cancun for about a decade and his biggest complaint w/r/t working from there was unreliable broadband. Broadband can vary a lot. Anywhere from fiber to the house to an old DSL type connection. Best bet is ask for connection details and speed tests from the landlord
September 9Sep 9 Author On 9/7/2025 at 3:08 PM, Hook1997 said: I’m planning on looking for a place to sublease or something for a month in Colorado next summer. Ideally Estes or Breckenridge but those might be hard to find something like that. Let us know how this works out and what bang for your buck is for that area
September 9Sep 9 Author 5 hours ago, Frank Drebin said: I bought a place in Whitefish, Montana a couple years ago. I love it. Great weather. Beautiful mountains and lakes nearby. Entrance to Glacier NP is about 30 minutes from my house. Good restaurants (not Aspen good, but good and much cheaper). The summer musical festival is on a nearby ranch if that is your think. Saw Flatland Calvary and Turnpike last summer. World class hiking in every direction. Great fly fishing and plenty of nice golf courses. Mountains all around you. Kalispell is 20 minutes away, which is nice if you need to go to Costco, Chic Fil A, Target, Wal Mart, etc. Kalispell also has a great airport that has daily summer direct flights from DFW and weekly directs from IAH. Kalispell also has a minor league baseball team that is fun to watch. Small town rodeos in Big Fork and Columbia Falls, which aren't far. I still like spending a week or so in Aspen. But Montana is better than Colorado IMO. I go in the winter for a couple weeks to ski. But summer is magical. Once my kids are out of the house in a few years, I will spend May to October there. Was in that area for a week and loved it so lucky you. I hate winters so would never go hence why it is tough to justify buying a place (and I don’t want t to be an out of state landlord again). And I’ve never looked so this area might be out of my price range anyways if what I paid for my rental there at like $500/night if I recall. But do let me know if any buddy of yours ever wants to rent out their place for two months in summer or something, ha. I’ll start looking at price points in two years most likely when reality of this becoming true is a bit closer.
September 9Sep 9 I just came back from Africa and the sun was so hot it hurt your skin. That said, I cannot handle Texas summers. 2nd vote for Summit County, there is a nearly infinite amount of things to do there, and good people, although I prefer Steamboat. Edited September 9Sep 9 by Thetexashammer
September 9Sep 9 On 9/7/2025 at 12:37 PM, Hornbeliever said: Dream scenario is some ski area that has reduced rent in summer so condo rentals are cheap (mammoth sorta checks box here). Take a look at red lodge, Montana. Great little ski town, on the beartooth highway which is gorgeous, and that highway puts you into Lamar valley of YNP in around 60-90 minutes. red lodge brewery makes some good suds too. Edited September 9Sep 9 by Pato del Muerto
September 9Sep 9 12 hours ago, Hornbeliever said: Was in that area for a week and loved it so lucky you. I hate winters so would never go hence why it is tough to justify buying a place (and I don’t want t to be an out of state landlord again). And I’ve never looked so this area might be out of my price range anyways if what I paid for my rental there at like $500/night if I recall. But do let me know if any buddy of yours ever wants to rent out their place for two months in summer or something, ha. I’ll start looking at price points in two years most likely when reality of this becoming true is a bit closer. My entire family bought homes up there in the last few years. The real estate is very reasonable, IMO. Relative to a lot of places. To me, for the beauty, access to mountains/rivers/lakes, great nearby airport, ski resort, and being just down the street from Glacier NP, it's a steal. Prices have dropped a bunch after the Covid spike. My uncle bought a home in the Whitefish Hills neighborhood, which is literally 4 minutes from town. He got 20 acres with spectacular views, a 6500 sf main house, a massive garage where he can park a 40 foot RV and it has an additional 1200 sf apartment for $3.5 million. In Aspen, a house like that on land would probably be $100 million. If you rent by the month, you can probably get something more reasonable. I would call a realtor that is local. Here is who we used, she's awesome. https://revel.realestate/agents/amy-stevens/
September 9Sep 9 11 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said: Take a look at red lodge, Montana. Great little ski town, on the beartooth highway which is gorgeous, and that highway puts you into Lamar valley of YNP in around 60-90 minutes. red lodge brewery makes some good suds too. I guess you would fly into Cody? That would be a long travel day with connecting flights and a one hour+ drive. Then you have to figure out something about keeping a vehicle at the airport. I wanted something I could fly into direct in the summer. I keep a car at my house and just have family pick me up or take a 10 minute uber.
September 9Sep 9 Just now, Frank Drebin said: I guess you would fly into Cody? That would be a long travel day with connecting flights and a one hour+ drive. Then you have to figure out something about keeping a vehicle at the airport. I wanted something I could fly into direct in the summer. I keep a car at my house and just have family pick me up or take a 10 minute uber. You connect in Denver so from Texas not a big delay. Yeah it’s an hour from Cody. He is looking for cheaper options, that’s one of the ways to find them. Probably not more than 90 minutes from Billings too if that’s an easier flight for some reason.
September 9Sep 9 Ha, folks mention they want a nice little summer hideaway and then the talk turns to "reasonably" priced digs at $3.5 million. Never change surly 1%!
September 9Sep 9 5 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said: You connect in Denver so from Texas not a big delay. Yeah it’s an hour from Cody. He is looking for cheaper options, that’s one of the ways to find them. Probably not more than 90 minutes from Billings too if that’s an easier flight for some reason. I really hate connecting flights into small airports. If for some reason a connection is screwed up in Denver, you may not get another flight to Cody for the day. I cannot tell you how many times I have missed connections in Denver -- more than any other airport. In the winter when I go to Whitefish, I take a direct flight to Missoula instead. It is a two hour drive. But no connection in Denver. Because if you miss the Denver connection to Kalispell, you're f'ed. More and more Texans are moving to the Flathead Valley. Before long, they will have direct flights in the winter. From Dallas at least.
September 9Sep 9 American flies direct from DFW to BIL already, I know that. and during the summer months, delta flies to cody (and kalispell as you likely know) from SLC if the smaller airport would be better for connecting. I guess one issue with red lodge though is that because of their proximity to YNP, they do have a summer season as well so prices might not be surprised. Edited September 9Sep 9 by Pato del Muerto
September 9Sep 9 2 minutes ago, utee94 said: Ha, folks mention they want a nice little summer hideaway and then the talk turns to "reasonably" priced digs at $3.5 million. Never change surly 1%! That's for a massive house on 20 acres in an expensive gated neighborhood. A shithole in Aspen costs $10 million. Plenty of listings for a million or under in Whitefish. You can find stuff nearby for even cheaper.
September 9Sep 9 2 hours ago, utee94 said: Ha, folks mention they want a nice little summer hideaway and then the talk turns to "reasonably" priced digs at $3.5 million. Never change surly 1%! a thread about *literally anything* and Johnny posts about his ranch, his family ranches, his money, his connections. quelle surprise
September 9Sep 9 5 hours ago, utee94 said: Ha, folks mention they want a nice little summer hideaway and then the talk turns to "reasonably" priced digs at $3.5 million. Never change surly 1%! I was gonna give him credit for finally having what might be his first ever post that didn't mention his family's place in Aspen but then I noticed he snuck in a subtle reference to it. It's a not a proper surly post if he can't remind you he was born rich.
September 9Sep 9 3 hours ago, Foosters said: a thread about *literally anything* and Johnny posts about his ranch, his family ranches, his money, his connections. quelle surprise Don’t leave out his grandparents being a part of the Texans ownership group. That is one of his favorites.
September 9Sep 9 OP should by this place. Outskirts of the Denver area. You'd need to build a new house or invest heavily in a renovation, but 22 acres of land with those views as well as river access, backing up to a national forest, is a good deal. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/24676-River-Meadow-Dr-Buffalo-Creek-CO-80425/295313986_zpid
September 9Sep 9 OP mentions "renting cheap condo for a couple of months in the summer." Surly responds:
September 9Sep 9 3 minutes ago, utee94 said: OP mentions "renting cheap condo for a couple of months in the summer." Surly responds: That tree in the forefront looks cool AF.
September 9Sep 9 5 hours ago, Foosters said: a thread about *literally anything* and Johnny posts about his ranch, his family ranches, his money, his connections. quelle surprise And that the town he settled in is called whitefish
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