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Holland Tulip Festival courtesy of Pure Michigan
Springtime in Michigan is nothing short of glorious. After the long, hard winter, you need to shake some of the stir craziness out of your head. You just want to get out, see the sights and let the sunshine warm you.
That is why a mini vacation is a great way to get into the spring season. You can leave work and your dusty home behind for a few days to see what else the Mitten State has to offer. Thanks to Michigan’s many inland lakes, fresh waterways and rivers, there is always a water view to be had anywhere you go; many have beaches to boot.
If you love cities, there are big metropolises as well as smaller towns to visit and explore. You can check out spring festivals that tend to bring out fewer tourists, letting you get some elbow room in some hot tourist spots. Overall, you can’t go wrong spending your hard-earned vacation funds within Michigan, where the sights, sounds and smells of spring will welcome you and your family.
If you go, be sure to book your travel in advance as some places will still get a decent number of bookings if there is a pre-scheduled event. Bring your appetite to eat out and support the local restaurants. Also, you may want to bring along a few dollars for tourist souvenirs for everyone in your family and at work–after all, when you return with some Mackinac Island fudge or Traverse City cherries, you’ll be the most popular person in the room.
Here are five weekend getaways that are ideal for springtime travel in Michigan.
Holland
The Tulip Time festival, which happens from May 7 to 15, is an ideal time to check out Holland, which is a West Michigan tradition. The city has held this festival since 1929, and it brings the beauty of hundreds of thousands of tulips and tulip-lovers to the city. There are events, activities and musical performances throughout the event as well if flowers aren’t your thing. It also has one of the largest parades in the state, so you may want to stick around to check that out as well.
Mackinac Island
There’s a good reason why so many people flock to this tiny island each year. Not only does it have outstanding natural beauty and places to visit, but it also has one of the cutest downtown areas with great food, shopping and activities. Every kid (or kid at heart) will love checking out the boardwalk, going up to the massive porch on the Grand Hotel or buying some tasty fudge at one of the local shops.
Michigan Beaches
Michigan boasts more than 3,200 miles of shoreline, and among its most beautiful locations is its national park, Sleeping Bear Dunes. This beachfront area allows you to enjoy everything from large forested areas to high hiking trails to the beachcombing of your dreams. Sleeping Bears Dunes gets pretty busy in the summer, so springtime is a great time to visit and enjoy the many tourist areas around it.
Hemingway Trip
If you love the writing of Ernest Hemingway, you can trace his early footsteps around northern Michigan, including the fantastic city of Petoskey. You can walk or fish where he hung out as a young boy, see where his family enjoyed summers on the lake and cruise through some of the towns where he started writing his classic stories. These towns around Petoskey are filled with tourists all summer long; in spring, you can have the place to yourself.
Camping
If you seek natural beauty and unforgettable views, then you’ll want to head Up North and do some early camping. Bring a warm sleeping bag and lots of sweaters, but the UP has some of the loveliest camping sites around. You also can cruise up the Mackinac Bridge, head over to Tahquamenon Falls State Park and see all of the sights in relative peace from the tourist crowds during the early part of spring.
