Our favorite Dells lodging is the Indian Trail Motel. It's on the eastern end of Broadway so you're within walking distance of gift shops, restaurants, tourist attractions like Ripley's Believe It Or Not, miniature golf courses, amusement park rides, Ducks and the boat docks. We like this because we can leave the vehicle parked in front of our room for two days and walk everywhere. Indian Trail is a 1950s motel that has been well maintained and remodelled over the years. There's an outdoor pool across a the lawn behind this camera view. The white annex shown here houses an indoor pool and hot tub. Rooms have all the modern amenities, including refrigerators, microwaves and hair dryers. The Dells in many respects is an amusement park, with lots of crowds, noise and excitement. Indian Trail allows you a quiet, green, shady retreat where you can lean back in a lawn chair and catch your breath from the circus down the street. They offer special rates for youth groups and the two pools are certainly popular with kids. There are cottages out back and some units are kitchenettes. Free high speed internet access is available and a full service restaurant is next door. You have BBQ grills and laundry facilities if two weeks in the Boundary Waters left you with no clean clothes. Of all the older motels this is the best.

1013 Broadway, Dells 53965. 888-943-3557. www.indiantrailmotel.com.

If you want more adventurous lodging, we recommend Rome. You'll be spending a day or two in the 160 acre Roman Empire. See the two top right photos. Architecture is Greco-Roman. There are indoor and outdoor pools, indoor and outdoor amusement parks, indoor and outdoor water parks, miniature golf, 16 food outlets and a fairly large game arcade. As a guest of the hotel, you receive a pass to everything. It takes two days to do everything at Rome. This is a favorite of Midwestern youth groups. Scouts stop here en route to the Boundary Waters or trips further West, and schools come here on end of year field trips. Because of space limits, some of the rides are scaled down, but these are the best roller coasters in Wisconsin, you can surf the wave pool, and this is one of the best spinning mouse rides in the country. Duck tours depart directly from Rome. There's not a true sit down restaurant, but you're within walking distance of restaurants along the Wisconsin Dells Parkway. You're also in easy walking distance of Noah's Ark, one of the top 10 water parks in America; and The Upside Down Whitehouse, one of the nation's zaniest and most bizarre attractions.

Rome. 866-505-2909. 1621 Wisconsin Dells Pkway PO Box 267. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin 53965. www.thehotelrome.com.

The Wisconsin Dells KOA is one of the nation's better commercial campgrounds (and we know, having camped in most of them). There are plenty of trees, tent sites are grassy, and sites are not as jammed together as is the usual KOA practice. Located a quarter mile walk north of Broadway, you come down from the camp right at the bridge, the very heart of town. We've pitched tents here many times, but we really like the cabins, since we always make this trip in June, when cold, rainy weather is common in The Dells. There are both one and two bedroom cabins. The swimming pool is heated, and if you have a tv, you can plug it into the cable service. Wireless internet service is available free. There's an outdoor theatre with nightly movies all Summer and there's Bingo every Saturday night. Showers here are clean and roomy, with seats (we've tolerated far too many cramped showers with no seats). The campground is high on a hill and far enough out of town to escape the noise except for the Amtrak passenger trains which clatter past twice a day. Obviously, youth groups and families will find KOAs a very economic alternative to motels and "resorts."

S235A Standrock Road, Wis Dells, Wis. 53965. 800-254-4177. www.wisdellskoa.com