October 2025

Nearly through the fall sports season and an incredible stressful September at work, I knew I needed a break. The Grand Traverse region hit all my buttons for a wonderful long weekend away – lakes, quaint towns, stunning views, and a slower pace of life. If this sounds like your strategy for a long weekend, read on for more on our trip.

The Idea:

We had the long Indigenous People’s Day weekend kid free, and I’d researched a couple of options for the time we had. A friend and colleague grew up in the Grand Traverse area and given it’s location (about a 6 – 7 hour drive) and beautiful sights, I was immediately sold – the area didn’t disappoint! We’re now secretly searching for a lake home to buy one day. Score!

The Strategy:

I started with just a general idea and a recommendation. From there I searched for lakeside rentals on AirBnB till I found the perfect spot for the price we could afford. It ended up being a great central location from which to explore both halves of this area. From there I built two rough daily itineraries and the rest was history.

Planning Tips:

While a weekend getaway is more flexible for planning, starting your trip planning based on my experience can help you be more efficient and effective with your planning time.

1. Know thyself. If you’re looking for a laid back vacation exploring shops, lakeside restaurants, and don’t need constant internet access, I highly recommend this trip. If you’re looking for something with more adrenaline or activities to keep you busy, maybe hold off on this spot.
2. Choose a homebase strategically. It worked great to have a central location to return to every night. The locations were drivable, but we did spend at least a couple hours in the car each day. If you can exclude certain locations from your itinerary, you can adjust your lodging arrangements. Traverse City is also a great central spot and offers the amenities of lakeside resorts and a larger city.
3. Embrace the H2O. In this region, water is everywhere! Plan for the water, the sand and the muck if you’re hiking or walking lakeside. For me, this is one of the draws of the area. But this also means you can leave your fancy shoes at home.

Reviews:

Our relaxed itinerary was more focused on renewal than activities, but we still packed quite a bit into our two days. Read on for a review of what we saw and did in the Grand Traverse area. Obviously you can read reviews in many places as you plan your vacation – these are just my two cents.

Activities

Elk Rapids, MI

Elk Rapids is a cute town with a robust main street full of shops – coffee, antique, local goods, and more. The downtown connects directly to the marina and the lake so after perusing the shops you can get up close and personal with the stunningly clear water of Elk Lake.

We loved the huge antique store downtown, but found a lot of the items were more investment than bargain finds. We loved walking along the water and found several families enthusiastically digging for something in the lakeside sands.

Charlevoix Apple Festival

By accident, we stumbled upon the 46th annual Charlevoix Apple Festival once we headed up the coast. A larger town, Charlevoix boasts a charming downtown with long stretches of lakeside walking paths. The Apple Festival featured vendors with some amazing creations – live painting, wooden creations, and other typical fair vendors.

You can visit the festival the second weekend in October. Visit their webpage for more details.

I snagged an amazing pair of funky mittens at BaaBaaZuZu that have become one of my most prized possessions. The creator uses upcycled wool from sweaters and other sources to create one-of-a-kind mittens, hats, bags, jackets and more. Highly recommend!

Kewadin Casinos – Sault Ste. Marie

On a whim my husband said, should we go to Sault Ste. Marie? I of course, said yes. It was not remotely convenient from where we were, but we did find a lovely casino – Kewadin Casino – where we spent several hours soaking in the lights and jingle of slots and table games.

It was a tidy casino with no smoking (yay!) and a concert venue for bigger acts. We found the lack of live games a bit disappointing (we love some roulette wheel action) but I loved that the tribe managing the casino featured their culture and goods in the displays and gift shop. If you’re in the area and like games of chance, I highly recommend.

Mackinac Bridge

Once we were already pretty far up the lake coast, we became pretty determined to see the infamous Mackinac Bridge. It’s a central part of the history and pride of the region – we even saw a vendor selling repurposed sections of the old bridge at the Apple Festival in Charlevoix.

The bridge is stunning. It took us nearly 10 minutes to cross from one side to the other – we crossed into the UP at dusk and back again in the dark. It will definitely get your heart rate up and you’ll start to wonder, how safe is this really? We decided not to hold our breath on the bridge crossing.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (who knew there was such a thing?) is otherworldly compared to the surrounding geography. Rolling hills layered with fine sand and scrubby grass look like they were transplanted from thousands of miles away.

The major attraction here is the Dunes Trail and I loved the effort of slogging through sand over the hills towards Lake Michigan to be absolutely delightful. Certainly worth the effort! Due to the federal government shut down no one was staffing the park, but I was happy to see visitors were respectful and tidy. Five stars!

Fishtown, Leland, MI

The last stop on our trip was to visit the town of Leland, which boasts a modern take on a historic and still working fishing village. We arrived in late afternoon on Sunday – the town was filled with visitors but only one or two shops remained open. A bit disappointing but the scenery was worth the stop. Learn more about the preservation efforts at the village’s website.

Lodging

Elk Lake

We opted for an AirBnB on this trip and landed a stunning cottage right on Elk Lake. The lakeshore was nearly silent (save for some distant raucous from a Friday night high school football game) and abandoned. Loons floated across the surface at daybreak and the amazingly clear water was nearly untouched by boats in mid-October.

Food & Drink

The Cove

With few activities in Fishtown when we visited, we found ourselves whisked into The Cove, the most wonderful place I’ve eaten in sometime. The decor was eclectic and tasteful against a warm and friendly atmosphere.

We devoured a bowl of seafood chowder (take them up on the homemade hot sauce for this) and a whitefish dinner. Unexpected find, standout meal. Must visit! Check out their YouTube channel for 24/7 live streaming of the fishing comings and goings.

Twister Burger Diner – Flint, MI

Finding a non-chain diamond of a spot for food while on the road is a significant challenge. My husband wins the award for uncovering this gem, but the Twisted Burger crew gets all the credit. Warm, friendly, and prompt service alongside homemade burger buns and fresh food? I’m sold.

Oh also, it’s a super cute vintage diner. What more could you ask for? A knockout shake to wrap things up. Happy & satisfied.

Big John’s Steak & Onion – Flint, MI

So I’m guessing this is a locally known favorite, but as non-Michiganders, we’d never visited before. If you haven’t, I totally recommend stopping here. The food was ready before we even paid, and the staff was wonderfully helpful for two road weary travelers.

Interesting in bringing this trip into your home?

Check out my photograph from this trip in my Etsy store!