Your Guide to a One Day Adventure on Mackinac Island
Your Guide to a One Day Adventure on Mackinac Island
Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island is a quaint island sitting between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island feels like going back in time with its charming nature and no car policy.
With that charm comes a cost – the place is packed with tourists.
When you first disembark do not be alarmed if you feel as though you’ve stepped into the main street with hundreds of other tourists. Once you venture around the island it becomes more peaceful.
In this post we share our experience and provide a one-day guide to Mackinac Island.
Table of Contents
How do I get to Mackinac Island?
There are two places you can catch the ferry to Mackinac Island: St Ignace and Mackinaw City. It takes approximately 20 minutes from either destination, so this becomes personal preference, as both are fine to complete this trip in one day.
We chose to stay at St Ignace as the price was right, but Mackinaw City looked like such a lovely town we would like to go back there some day. As we only had dinner and slept in St Ignace it suited our needs perfectly this trip. We stayed at Moosewood Inn, which was a cute and charming place to stay. The owners are lovely and provided great recommendations.
Can I stay the night on Mackinac Island?
Yes! There are a range of options to stay and from what we’ve read (not experienced personally) it is lovely to stay the night as it is so quiet. We decided to do a day trip as it was peak summer tourist season, and the prices were very high.
What to take over to the Island?
Be prepared for different weather conditions. We had a beautiful sunny day and then it poured down for 10 minutes on the boat back and we got saturated! Take things like sunscreen, any medication etc. as it will be a lot more expensive over there. I would recommend taking some snacks and water too. Finally, wear something comfortable as you’ll likely be walking or doing activities.
What to do with one day on Mackinac Island?
There are a bunch of fun activities that you can do on the island. If you go in summer, be warned, it will be very busy! This is what we managed to do in one day at a nice pace, catching a Ferry at approximately 10:00am, returning around 4:00pm.
Lunch at the Grand Hotel
We bought Ferry tickets that had the lunch buffet as an add on. We love a good buffet and thought although it was ludicrously expensive ($159 for two, ($260 NZD)) it would be a lovely experience in a beautiful setting. The beautiful setting was definitely there and ticked all the boxes.
The lunch however was a total disappointment. The service was almost non-existent, and we had to ask several times for drinks. We arrived when the buffet first opened and would have been more forgiving if the restaurant was actually full. For what we paid we expected a delicious selection of food, but instead there was a quite small selection of average tasting plates. Rather than leaving with full happy bellies, we left disappointed. The only saving grace were the pecan chocolate balls.
I don’t like to write bad reviews but unless you have money to waste, our recommendation would be to go for a drink within the hotel and save your money for elsewhere. The grounds were pretty, and we would recommend a walk around them, especially The Secret Garden.
Bike around the Island
This was an awesome experience on a lovely sunny day. We rented bikes in town and headed off on the 8.2-mile-long loop. We completed this in roughly an hour at a leisurely pace, stopping only once at Arch Rock (definitely recommend that you stop there) and a couple of other photo stops around the way.
The Greens of Mackinac
If you feel like an activity and like mini golf, do this! It was a brilliant wee course with the added bonus of having a drink (or two) on the way round if you fancy it. Set right on the tranquil water’s edge, travellers of all ages will enjoy.
Walk around the main township
This is an idyllic town centre, or it would be if you could see it through the thousands of people lining it. There are no cars, only bikes and horse drawn carriages. There are a lot of nice gift shops and places to stop to eat and drink. Mackinac Island is famous for its fudge with lots of different options to buy. We picked up a yummy selection at Joann’s Fudge.
What we didn’t get to
As we were limited on time we did have to pick and choose, so we missed out on visiting Fort Mackinac and exploring some more of the walking tracks around the island.
Do we recommend going?
Definitely – it was a fun experience and a great day trip. If we were to go again, we would try to go in the shoulder season and stay so that we could appreciate the quietness of the Island at night.
We hope you enjoyed reading about a Mackinac Island one day trip. Enjoy the charm and a day without your car!
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