Northern Michigan is Now One of My Favorite Vacation Destinations

If you had told me two years ago that I would fall in love with vacationing in Northern Michigan, I never would have believed you. But after two unforgettable Michigan vacations, I can honestly say that Northern Michigan is now one of my favorite vacation destinations.

While I love exploring Knoxville, sometimes a girl has just got to get away. I have a long list of vacation destinations, but I’ll admit – Michigan was never on it. . Maybe it’s the freezing temperatures or maybe it’s because it’s so far away.  After all, when the Smoky Mountains are just down the road, and you can get to Charleston in a little over 6 hours, why drive over ten hours to see, of all places, Michigan?

But that was before a friend of mine started posting pictures of her hometown in Northern Michigan. Her pictures made me rethink everything I knew about Michigan as a vacation destination. Add in some soon-to-expire timeshare points – and Michigan quickly jumped to the top of our travel list. Before I knew it, we were packing for a road trip to the Great Lakes State.

Our first trip was in 2024. Unfortunately, we lost the first three days of our vacation due to a bad cold. With so little time left to explore, we decided to return this year. On both trips we ignored the lower part of Michigan and spent the majority of our two vacations either in the Upper Peninsula or the northern part of the Lower Peninsula. There was so much to see, I decided to split my story into two parts. Today, I’m focusing on Northern Michigan, and next time, we’ll head north to the U.P.   

The reason I first decided to explore Northern Michigan was because of the photos my friend shared from her hometown – Charlevoix, Michigan. This picturesque small town is nestled between Lake Charlevoix and Lake Michigan. According to the Pure Michigan website, Charlevoix is nicknamed, “Charlevoix: the beautiful” and I totally agree.

Despite visiting twice, Hubby and I have barely scratched the surface of what this charming lakefront town has to offer. Downtown Charlevoix is filled with an eclectic mix of local shops and cozy cafes. You could spend hours wandering from shop to shop discovering unique gifts and sampling delectable goodies.  

One of our favorite moments happens at sunset when you can stroll along the Pine River Channel (also known as the Island Lake Outlet). If you time it right – on the hour and half hour – you’ll see the Charlevoix Memorial Drawbridge lift to let tall sailboats pass through on their way to the marina from Lake Michigan. Looking toward Lake Michigan, the Charlevoix South Pier Lighthouse stands silhouetted by the glowing sunset – a picture-perfect postcard.

Northern Michigan is dotted with quaint little lakeside towns like Charlevoix. You could spend weeks traveling the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and still not visit all of them. And if the adorable little towns aren’t enough of a draw, we haven’t even discussed the lighthouses.

Believe it or not, Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state. While we had already admired the Charlevoix South Pier Lighthouse, our curiosity led us to explore more.

We headed south around Grand Traverse Bay and then north onto a narrow finger of land known as the Leelanau Peninsula, one of the most scenic spots in Northern Michigan. This area is home to four well-known Michigan lighthouses: South Manitou Island Lighthouse, Grand Traverse Lighthouse, Point Betsie Lighthouse and North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse. While I would have loved to see them all, we only had time for one: the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Before we reached the lighthouse, we spent the morning wandering through Historic Fishtown in Leland, Michigan, one of the last working fishing districts on the Great Lakes. The area features rustic fishing shanties, wooden docks, and weathered boats that remind visitors of Michigan’s maritime past.

While it’s an interesting stop, it also felt a bit touristy to me. If I had to do it again, I might have skipped Fishtown—except for one delicious exception: the Village Cheese Shanty.

This little food shack doesn’t look like much, but the food is worth the trip. I ordered the Orchard Wrap—tender chicken breast layered with creamy brie, tart Michigan cherries, and crunchy sunflower seeds, all drizzled in cherry vinaigrette. It was one of the best wraps I’ve ever had, and the perfect Michigan-inspired lunch to enjoy by the water.

We took our wraps to go, found a picnic table overlooking the bay, and then continued toward our next stop: Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

This lighthouse is open to the public from April through December and stands at the tip of the peninsula inside of the Leelanau State Park. The keeper’s dwelling and tower have been fully restored and are open to self-guided tours.

Climbing the narrow lighthouse was a tight squeeze -we had to remove our backpacks and watch our heads, but the view of Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay from the tower was amazing.

In addition, if you explore the Fog Signal Building you can try your hand at operating a remote operated vehicle (ROV) and attempt to pick up objects from the floor of a small pool. From the lighthouse and fog signal building, it is only a short walk to one of Lake Michigan’s gorgeous beaches.

If you’re like me, you’ve never associated Michigan with the beach. After all, it’s not near the ocean. But believe it or not, Michigan has oodles of beaches. It borders all of the five Great Lakes except Lake Ontario. The other four: Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior provide Michigan with over 3,000 miles of freshwater coastline, the longest freshwater coastline in the world.

Unlike the crash of waves often experienced on the Atlantic and Pacific beaches, the waves on Lake Michigan are softer, rolling across the stones and sand. In addition, there are no sharks to watch out for so you can safely wade around without keeping your eyes peeled for sharks or jellyfish. But what surprised me most was the clarity of the water – it’s so clear you can see far below the surface, even in deep areas.  

One of our favorite beaches was Petoskey State Park. It is situated on Little Traverse Bay and has a mile of Lake Michigan beach access. As with all of the state parks in Michigan, you’ll need the Recreation Passport to enter the park – an out of state pass will run you $11 per day.

If you don’t want to spend the day at the beach, but want to enjoy it for a few hours, Charlevoix’s Lake Michigan Park can be accessed from Downtown Charlevoix via the Pine River Channel walkway. This is a great park, offering beach access, great views of the Charlevoix Lighthouse, swing sets for the kiddos, and a clean restroom. Yet another reason to love Charlevoix. In addition, any of the beaches visited along Traverse Bay were absolutely beautiful. I didn’t see an ugly beach the entire time we were there.

Here in Michigan, you’ll want to keep those water shoes handy because there are a lot of rocks and stones in the water. This brings me to one of our favorite activities while we were in this part of Northern Michigan…the search for Petoskey stones.

When you’re married to someone who studied geology, you end up learning a lot about rocks. This trip, Petoskey stones, one of Northern Michigan’s most fascinating natural treasures, were the star attractions.

When Hubby discovered that Lake Michigan, specifically the area where we were, was famous for Petoskey stones, our treasure hunt began. These fossilized coral stones—formed from Hexagonaria percarinata—are uniquely patterned and prized by collectors.

Rumor has it that someone had recently found a very rare colored one and sold it for a great deal of money. This made the hunt even more exciting.

I’m not sure we ever found a “perfect” Petoskey stone, but that didn’t matter. Searching for them was fun. It was just like looking for shells at the beach in Charleston…a somewhat mindless activity that provides the relaxation all of us are looking for while on vacation. And this is only Northern Michigan; we still have more to see.

In my next post I’ll take you to a storybook island, complete with horse drawn carriages and butterfly houses. Then we’ll venture into the Upper Peninsula to explore waterfalls, shipwrecks, and painted rocks.