What's in your toolbox when you need a quick 'n easy, guaranteed-to-be-great hotel deal? The place to be is Travel Ticker's Hotels Under a Hundred page, where every deal slides in at under $100 a night and savings can reach 65% or more. Property locations can run the gamut from beach to mountain to theme park, but it's often the savings at a swish downtown city properties that really get our eyes a-popping. Case in point: Chicago, where two outstanding hotel deals just might get you thinking about a spring getaway in the Windy City.

• $89 a night for weekend stays at the very-posh-indeed Palmer House Hilton, across from Millennium Park in the Loop District, and just $109 a night for midweek. That's a 40% savings. Available March 3-May 15.
• $79 a night + room upgrade + free Continental breakfast and Internet access at the Hotel Blake. This is a 40% discount before the room upgrade, which is worth $50 a night alone. Available through April 30.

Area hotels are getting in on the birthday action, too. Chateau on the Lake Resort is a 301-room resort set on an Ozark mountaintop overlooking Table Rock Lake, just ten minutes from Branson’s attractions. The resort rolls out the red carpet for active families with tennis courts, nature trails, indoor and outdoor pools and a line-up of water recreation from jet skis and paddle boats to snorkeling and scuba.

With the resort's two-pronged “Spring Break March Madness” package, families can choose the deal that works best for them.  Looking for room to spread out? Pick the "Family Suite Deal," which gets you 25% off the nightly rate for a 518-square-foot, one-bedroom Ambassador Suite.  When we test-booked a late-March weekend, the nightly package rate for a lakeview suite was $224.25, which is indeed a 25% discount off the regular rate of $299 a night.  If you'd prefer to have two separate rooms, go for the "Family Plan," which gives you 50% off a second standard room when you book one room at the regular rate ($179 for the dates we checked). The Family Plan also translates to a 25% savings on your lodging total. 

Both options include nightly movies in the resort’s Sassafras Theatre, and kids 5 and under eat free from the kids' menu in the Atrium Café when accompanied by an adult. Both packages are available for stays from March 12 to April 4. Call 888/333-5253 to book. 

Set on 20 lushly landscaped acres along a spectacular seven-mile stretch of beach, the resort offers a wide array of fun activities for the whole family. Take your pick of five heated pools, explore the grounds by paddleboat along a meandering river, or head to the white-sand beach for water sports and a ride down a giant inflatable waterslide. You can play tennis, have a round of mini golf, take in a dive-in movie, or simply kick back in a cabana or hammock and sip your umbrella drink. Then let the kids play at the supervised KONK Club while you enjoy a massage or a romantic dinner.

For a chance to win a beach escape at TradeWinds Island Grand Resort for your family, just fill out the form on the giveaway page. You can enter once a day through March 16, 2010. Good luck!

Need a rental car for Presidents' Day weekend—or any other weekend through May?  Enterprise Rent-A-Car is running a 50%-Off Special for weekend rentals through May 21. The deal applies to three- to five-day rentals and on cars ranging from economy to full size—though alas, no super-kid-friendly SUVs or minivans. The only real drawback we see is that the deal doesn’t apply to any airport locations.

When we checked in San Diego, the deal was available at most area locations, including tourist-friendly Old Town. And it's hard to argue with the savings. For the upcoming Presidents' Day weekend, a full-size car was going for a regular rate of $43 a day at one of San Diego’s downtown locations, but only $20 a day in Old Town, a short trolley ride away.

To book the deal, start on the specials page, punch in your city and dates, and look for the orange “special” button next to participating locations. The discount is good through May 21, and doesn’t apply to charges such as taxes or the damage waiver.

Our guest blogger today is Jody Halsted, a mom who shares family travel tips and destinations in her blog, Family Rambling. Her home base in Iowa makes it easy to explore many destinations in the Midwest. Here are five fabulous and free things to do in Kansas City, a city she visits with her family at least six times a year.

Union Station: This early 20th-century train station is incredible.  Kids love checking out the model trains in the large display outside the post office in the west wing. Next, wander into the cavernous North Waiting Room, where the Kansas City Lionel Club’s model train display is tucked off to the side.  If minature trains aren’t enough fun, follow the signs to the Freight House Bridge to view real trains outside.  At the bottom of the escalator is the Irish Heritage Museum.  Stop in; sometimes you'll find storytellers or live music.

Fountains at Crown Center: Located in downtown Kansas City, Crown Center is much more than your average mall; it's a great family destination year round. Along with kid-centric stops such as Kaleidoscope and the Hallmark Visitors Center, this giant mall is home to the city's largest fountain, whose 97 water jets and shooters make for splashy fun all summer long. Try to catch one of the free dancing water shows, in which the fountain is synchronized to music played by members of the Kansas City Symphony. Also in summer, “Free Friday Night Flicks”  is a series of family-friendly movies shown on an immense screen outdoors throughout July and August.  Bring your own chairs. 

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: This museum's 22-acre outdoor sculpture park is an easy, fun way to expose young children to art.  Huge shuttlecocks—better known as “birdies” in badminton—are scattered around the grounds as if playful giants couldn’t be bothered to pick them up. You can go inside the museum for free, too. Exhibits include Egyptian, Roman, and American Indian art, and even a Chinese Temple.

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead: Over the river and just across the state line in Overland, Kansas, this living history museum and 12-acre working farm is all about hands-on fun for kids. Kids can bottle-feed goats, milk a cow, go on a horse-drawn wagon ride, visit an Indian house, and see what learning was like in a one-room schoolhouse a century ago. For little ones, there are three play areas and pedal tractors to ride. (Open April-October. Admission is free Monday-Thursday and $2/person on weekends.)

Fountains at Country Club Plaza: Kansas City is has more fountains than any city in the United States, and the most incredible is the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain, which adorns a park that's just perfect for a picnic or game of Frisbee. Wandering through Country Club Plaza, your kids can spy many magical beings in the fountains, including mermaids, Neptune, and cherubs. Our family favorite is the Boy and Frog fountain.

Named one of the “Best Resorts for Family Reunions” by TravelandLeisure.com, Skytop Lodge is a destination resort offering something for every member of the family. For a chance to win a winter escape at Skytop Lodge for your family, just fill out the form on the giveaway page. You can enter once a day through February 15, 2010. Good luck!

This winter is turning out to be a great time for a weekend getaway, thanks to big sales at two of the largest hotel chains. Last week we posted about Hilton's mega January sale, which offers winter weekend savings of up to 33% across its chains. 

Now Marriott has stepped up to the plate with a  Global Rate Break promo that lets you save 20% on weekend rates stay at many of its hotels—and claims to up the ante to a 40% discount at a few resorts. The deal applies to various Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Fairfield, SpringHill, Residence Inn, and TownPlace Suites hotels all over the world. 

We checked rates at several properties and found that, indeed, the deal typically delivers a 20% price cut. At Desert Springs, the JW Marriott in the Palm Springs area with requisite pool, lawn games and kids club, we found rates of $327 a night for a room with two beds and a balcony—down from the desert’s high season rate of $409. In Hawaii, the deal offered up the Kauai Marriott  for just $194 a night, down from $240.

But don’t get your hopes too high on the 40%-off lure that's said to be available at select resorts in the Caribbean, Latin America and Hawaii. When we test-booked a stay at a handful of properties for a February weekend getaway, we couldn’t find any availability at the 40%-off rate.  More commonly, we found that this deal led to a 20% discount.

The sale applies to weekend stays (Thursday to Sunday), and some hotels require a two-night minimum. You must book by January 22 and complete your stay by March 21. Use promo code F5X when booking online.

This sale delivers tons of weekend destination options for traveling families. Want a city break? Consider Hilton properties in San Diego (the Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa is just one mile from SeaWorld), Boston’s super-convenient Back Bay neighborhood, or the family-friendly Doubletree Guest Suites in Washington DC. 

Hoping to escape the cold? At the Hilton Longboat Key Beachfront Resort, the January Sale offers nightly rates starting at $288 for a double room on February weekend.  By comparison, the resort's best available bed-and-breakfast rate for that stay is $429 per night—which does indeed translate to 33% off your bill.

You must book before January 31, but you can travel anytime before December 26. As always, there are some blackout dates and other restrictions. The sale rates are pre-payable and non-refundable, so you should be confident of your travel dates before booking.  

Rising from Chicago's famed Riverwalk, the 2,000-room Hyatt Regency has a convenient downtown location on the Magnificent Mile close to many of the Windy City's top attractions, including Navy Pier, the Field Museum of Natural History, and Shedd Aquarium. More good news: The hotel's winter special lets you save 25% off the best available rate on stays through April 10, 2010. 

The promotion touts rates starting at $79 per night. We found nightly rates for a double room ranging from a low of $82 on a Saturday in January to $150 for a weeknight in April.  Compared to the best available rates for those dates, those promo prices do indeed reflect a 25% discount.  Other room categories are also available at 25% off; if you feel like stretching out in a junior suite you'll pay, on average, an extra $150 per night.  The Hyatt Regency has a sizable business clientele, so rates are significantly lower on Fridays and Saturdays—a boon for families looking for a weekend city getaway.

When booking online, use special offer code "FUN25." When testing this code, we ran into quite a few blackout dates. Being flexible with travel dates can pay off; if the promo code doesn't work for your preferred dates, try sliding a week forward or back.

Set alongside the rugged beauty of Lake Superior’s North Shore, Lutsen Resort has roots dating back to the late 19th century. Minnesota’s oldest resort is a popular family destination because there’s so much to do year-round, from swimming and kayaking in the summer to night hikes and guided snowshoe tours in the winter.  And let's not forget the downhill skiing. Nearby Lutsen Mountain has the highest vertical drop in the Midwest, the region's only gondola, and plenty of long, sweeping runs.  The resort is a classic winter playground, complete with the après-ski reward: at the end of the day, you and the kids can warm up next to a roaring fire in the Swedish-style hewn pine timber lodge.

Next month, you can get more Lutsen for less thanks to the  “January 3 for 2” package, which delivers a third night of lodging and a third day of lift tickets for free from January 3 to 31, 2010.  Lodging options include a double in the main lodge for $139 a weekend night; a two-bedroom log cabin for $319 a night; and a three-bedroom condo with a loft for $519 a night (prices are lower on weeknights).  The 3-for-2 deal on lift tickets means a family of four (two adults and two kids under 12) can ski for three days for a total of $480—a savings of $212 off the regular cost of lift tickets. Plus, you’ll get free equipment rental for the kids.  This deal is based on availability so it makes sense to book as soon as possible. Blackout dates are January 16-18, 2010.