Lake Michigan Road Trip: Five Day Great Lake Adventure
Lake Michigan Road Trip: Five Day Great Lake Adventure
After spontaneously buying tickets to Lollapalooza, we were headed to Chicago for the first time. As we love a good adventure, we decided a Lake Michigan road trip would be an excellent idea!
Known as the Lake Michigan Circle Tour, you can drive around the entire lake which is approximately 1,100 miles long (1,770 kms). The other Great Lakes also have circle tours, but this is the only one entirely within the USA.
This is a quite a long read with loads of details about our trip - but we also have a condensed version here if you would prefer. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
Day 1: Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Grand Rapids
We stayed at an airport hotel and picked up our rental car at 9:00am. The first stop on our road trip around Lake Michigan was Indiana Dunes National Park. The drive was slightly overwhelming (wrong side of the road for us) but we loved all the big billboards on the side of the road – and the ridiculous number of fireworks for sale!
It took roughly 1.5 hours to get to the Indiana Dunes Parking Lot. As it is a National Park there is an entrance fee which was $25 per car. I had read online that you had to pay for this car park, but we didn’t.
Because we were on a tight time schedule, we did the Dune Succession Trail Loop which takes you out to the beach. It was a Saturday and the beach was busy, but swimming wasn’t allowed because of dangerous conditions. There are many beautiful look out points and we were fortunate enough to see the Chicago skyline across the lake.
The facilities attached to the car park were great – clean restrooms and filtered water to refill drink bottles. There were many other places to discover within the National Park we’ll return one day to explore more.
Next stop was Cracker Barrel for lunch which was convenient, had some gluten free options for me, and honestly, we both loved the gift shop. There were multiple places to eat in this area, as well as an Aldi (this was small wouldn’t recommend), and Meijer.
After topping up on road trip snacks, we veered onto the 196 and made a stop at South Haven, a beautiful beach town with a nice lighthouse. The stop was brief, but it was very busy, and you could spend hours here with friends and family.
Next, we drove a little further to Saugatuck. We stopped here for a stroll around the lovely little township, had a drink by the water watching all the boats go in and out, took a journey on the chain ferry, and climbed Mt Baldhead Park to a great viewpoint. It’s definitely a place we would go back to and spend some more time. Parking was extremely hard to find on a busy Saturday afternoon. You may have to park quite a few blocks away. At 7:00pm, we headed to our accommodation for the night – it had been a big day!
We stayed in Grand Rapids that evening. Because it was summer break, affordable accommodation was scarce along the quaint shoreline of the Lake.
Day 1 Summary
- Activities: $25
- Food: $100
- Distance travelled: Approx. 196 miles / 315kms
- Time in car: Approx. 3 hours
- Accommodation: Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Grand Rapids Wyoming
- Review of accommodation: 8/10 would stay again
Day 2: Grand Rapids to Traverse City
Day two of our road trip around Lake Michigan started early, grabbing a quick hotel breakfast (included) on our way out the door. We decided to get most of the drive done early today so that we could spend a good amount of time at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. I had marked Orchard Market on maps, and it made a great stop. We took a photo with a sign of the Circle Loop, bought some cherries (delicious!), and had a fantastic 20-minute conversation with a total stranger about RVs! Some of the friendliest people we have met travelling lived around here.
Next stop was the Arcadia Scenic Turnout. It is well worth making this quick stop for fantastic views of Lake Michigan. There are picnic tables and restrooms (apparently not in the nicest condition…) if you want a longer stop. After, we continued to the Philip A. Hart Visitor Centre to buy our park pass ($25). This is also a fantastic gift shop; I would have bought a lot more if I had the space! The staff were super friendly and helpful with what to do within the timeframe we had.
We drove around the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive Loop and stopped at a few places. Highly recommend Stop 10 to spend some time out of your car. You will be in the sand and will want some sunscreen on as it was HOT. The brave can make their way down to Lake Michigan here, but it is extremely steep. There is a huge fine to rescue you if you are not able to get back to the top!
Following The Loop, the Dune Climb was recommended to us, but we were too tired. Instead, we drove up to Glen Haven beach. This was a lovely swimming beach, and I was a bit sad I wasn’t prepared for that!
Our next stop was Traverse City for the night. When we arrived on the Sunday night, to our surprise given the number of tourists around, almost everything was shut. Luckily Cherry Republic was open, we tasted some delicious cherry late harvest Riesling, chocolate covered cherries, and other yummy things on offer. We had dinner at Taproot Cider House which was great. Due to the number of tourists there it was hard to get a table – book ahead if you can. After dinner we strolled down to the beach enjoying a lovely sun set and a perfect end to day 2.
Day 2 Summary
- Activities: $25
- Food: $90
- Distance travelled: Approx. 220 miles / 355 kms
- Time in car: Approx. 4 hours
- Accommodation: Comfort Inn Traverse City
- Review of accommodation: 7/10 – nice enough would stay again but also look at other options
Day 3: Traverse City to St Ignace (Mackinac Island Day trip)
Another early start as we had a two-hour drive to St Ignace to catch the ferry to Mackinac Island. We decided instead of taking the highway to drive through some lake towns and the Tunnel of Trees. Some of the lake houses we passed were absolutely stunning and the Tunnel of Trees was beautiful (note – the road is quite narrow).
We briefly stopped in Mackinaw City before crossing the historic Mackinac Bridge. Price drove us to stay in St Ignace, but it would be nice to go back and explore this cute township again one day.
It was a great experience to drive over the bridge (check that it’s open here). Parking was free for the day at the St Ignace ferry terminal. After parking up we quickly hopped on a boat and were on our way over. Check the schedule – some boats include a tour under Mackinac Bridge which is awesome if it’s your first time seeing it. The boat takes approximately 20 minutes to travel to the island.
We bought a boat ticket including lunch at the Grand Hotel and would not recommend this. It’s an interesting building, but just pay to have a drink there, or go for a walk around the grounds. The lunch is very overpriced ($159 for the two of us!) and incredibly average. Our service was worse. What was much better was hiring a couple of single speed cruiser bikes to go around the 8.2-mile island. We also played mini golf at The Greens of Mackinac. This was so much fun and you can have some drinks on this course. Drinks, sun, mini golf = win. We wandered around the shops for a little bit and then headed back to the ferry. See our Day Trip to Mackinac post for more about our day there.
There wasn’t a load to do in St Ignace, but we loved where we stayed (Moosewood Inn) and had a great dinner at Bouys by the Bay.
Day 3 Summary
- Activities: $145
- Food: $210
- Distance travelled: Approx. 130 miles / 209 kms
- Time in car: Approx. 2.5 hours
- Accommodation: Moosewood Inn
- Review of accommodation: 9/10 would definitely stay again
Day 4: St Ignace to Green Bay
Day four of our Lake Michigan Road trip was the day with the biggest drive. Along the way we had a couple of rest stops at scenic lookouts, and Escanaba for some snacks (did a Walmart trip which is possibly only exciting to a tourist from a small country). After we headed to the beach, including a quick dip in Lake Michigan as we hadn’t done that yet. We wouldn’t necessarily suggest this as a place to stop, but it worked for us that day
We arrived in Green Bay mid-afternoon. To say we were disappointed with Green Bay is an understatement – there was nothing going on! We expected more looking on Google Maps, but also because of the Green Bay Packers. There were two positives: 1) a lovely hotel and 2) delicious Mexican food. Personally, we wouldn’t recommend staying there, but perhaps we were in the wrong area or there at the wrong time?
Day 4 Summary
- Activities: Free!
- Food: $40
- Distance travelled: Approx. 250 miles / 400 kms
- Time in car: Approx. 4.5 hours
- Accommodation: Hotel Northland, Autograph Collection
- Review of accommodation: 8/10 would happily stay again
Day 5: Green Bay to Chicago
Our last day of our Lake Michigan Road trip! We loved this trip but were ready for a day without driving and staying at a hotel for more than one night. We got up quite early and headed for the Mars Cheese Castle. Highly recommend this for something different, quirky souvenirs, and more than just cheese!
Next, we headed to the Pleasant Prairie Premium Outlets. This was good but no amazing sales. Our last stop was Bass Pro. We LOVE this shop. There is just nothing like it back home! A quick stop at McDonald’s (and one massive soft serve later), we were headed to return the rental car.
Trip Summary
- Activities: $195
- Food: $500 (approx. all meals plus snacks)
- Distance travelled: Approx. 1,000 miles, 1,609 kilometres
- Time in car: Approx. 17 hours
- Accommodation: $740
- Gas: $107
- Rental Car: $640 (including insurance etc.)
Overall, this was an amazing trip and definitely doable in 5 days. It’s awesome to say you’ve driven around a Great Lake! If we were to do it again, we would spend more time on the east side of the Lake. This was such a beautiful area and we moved through it quite quickly. The people were also incredibly friendly. Enjoy your own Lake Michigan Road Trip!
- Categories:
- USA