Two Nights, One Cruise: Inside The Hotel Landing’s Worth the Drive Package
There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over Lake Minnetonka on a summer evening, once the wake from the day’s boat traffic has smoothed out and the light goes long and gold over the water. Getting there from the Twin Cities takes about fifteen minutes, no flight required, no airport security line, just Highway 12 west and then you’re standing on Lake Street with a lake breeze in the air.
That fifteen-minute distance is the whole premise behind The Hotel Landing’s new summer package, Worth the Drive. It pairs a two-night stay with a private three-hour cruise on Lake Minnetonka, for the kind of traveler who wants a real getaway, not a long commute to get one.
The Offer, On the Water
Worth the Drive runs for stays booked between Wednesday, July 15 and Wednesday, September 30, 2026, with a two-night minimum. The centerpiece is a private three-hour cruise aboard a premium Monterey M4 or M6, arranged through Tonka Boat Rental, with round-trip transportation to and from the Wayzata docks included.
Departure times are flexible: morning, afternoon, or sunset. A sunset departure turns the cruise into the evening’s main event, with the light stretched long and gold over the water. A morning cruise, by contrast, leaves the whole afternoon open for the spa or a slow walk along the Lakewalk.
A $150 curated food and beverage credit is built into the package, good on the boat and dockside, so a glass of something cold on the water or a bite back at the dock are both part of the cruise rather than an afterthought. There’s also a welcome beverage at check-in, Hotel Landing beach towels, signature glassware to take home, and preferred parking for the length of the stay. Booking requires seven days’ advance notice, and boat reservations are subject to availability, so this isn’t a same-week impulse. It rewards a little planning.
How to Plan Your Stay
The package leaves room to shape the stay, but here’s a rhythm that works well for a first pass, whether you’re here for the boating specifically or you’re mapping out a broader weekend on Lake Minnetonka.
Day one: arrive and ease in. Check in, take the welcome beverage out to the lakefront chairs, and let the drive fall away. Walk down Lake Street past the clock tower and the white pavilion at the water’s edge, past the shopfronts and The Grocer’s Table with its striped umbrellas, before turning in for dinner at Belle & Grey. Take a table near the bar, under the globe pendant light and the gallery wall of framed prints, and order the steak with jus, cooked to a slow medium-rare, before letting dinner run long and turning in for the night.
Day two: the cruise, and everything that frames it. This is the day the package is built around. Start with a treatment at Läka Spa, Nordic-inspired and right on property, where the relaxation room pairs wicker cocoon chairs with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking greenery, the kind of room that invites you to sit still for a while. If there’s time before your departure, a short walk over to Panoway on Wayzata Bay, the town’s lakefront park and boardwalk, is an easy way to spend it. Then book the sunset departure, so the light is already turning gold as you head out from the Wayzata docks aboard the Monterey. Come back in for dockside dinner using the $150 credit, whether that means a quiet table or something more social.
Day three: a last, easy morning. Nothing is scheduled, and that’s deliberate. Coffee on the balcony, or a last walk down to the water while the dock is still quiet, before the drive back east feels less like leaving and more like a natural place to pause.
Of course, nothing is set in stone. This is just one version of the stay, a starting point rather than a script. Some guests will move the cruise to day one and save the spa for last. Others will spend a whole afternoon in the lakefront chairs and never make it to Panoway. The cruise stays fixed to whichever departure you book, but everything built around it is yours to move.
The Details
Worth the Drive is a limited window, tied to the season when Lake Minnetonka is at its best. Restrictions apply, the offer can’t be combined with other promotions, and it won’t be back in this form come fall.
If a two-night boating getaway on Lake Minnetonka sounds like the right kind of worth-the-drive, the details and booking are on the offer page.