Mackinac Island Travel Guide
One of the most unique places I’ve visited in the Midwest is Mackinac Island in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You feel like you’re stepping back in time since they don’t allow cars but have horse-drawn carriages, bikes rule the roads, and Victorian charm lingers around every corner. Mackinac Island is famous for its historic forts, scenic trails, and world-renowned fudge. The island offers a perfect blend of natural beauty and old-world elegance. Mackinac Island is gorgeous but also pricey so here’s my guide of everything you should do while visiting, but also how to keep it on a budget!
How to Get to Mackinac Island
You take a ferry from either St Ignace or Mackinaw City to arrive on Mackinac Island. There are a few options you can choose from but the cheapest is Arnold Transit’s Classic Ferry. It takes just a little bit longer than the traditional ferry but costs $22.95 for a roundtrip ticket versus $36. The Classic ferry ride takes 30-40 minutes, where traditional is closer to 20-25 minutes. There is a $3 convenience fee if you purchase your ticket online but you can bypass that by purchasing them at the ferry ticket office.
Arnold Tranist and Shepler’s are the two companies you can choose from but Shepler’s is even more with roundtrip tickets starting at $38.
When you buy a ticket, you don’t pick a specific time so all the websites suggest arriving an hour early to make sure you get a spot. We arrived 2 minutes before the 10am departure from St Ignace to Mackinac Island on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and had no problem getting on. That same day we arrived 30 minutes before the 6:45pm departure from Mackinac Island back to St Ignace and are happy we were there a little early because not everyone that was in line for that ferry made it on.
You do have to pay to park in the Arnold Transit or Shepler’s parking lots when you leave on the ferry so we parked up the road in a neighborhood in St Ignace to avoid having to pay that fee.
Know ahead of time
How Much Time to Spend on Mackinac Island
We only had time for a day trip but I would have loved to spend 2-3 days there. However I do think you can do almost everything within a day. It is pretty expensive to stay on the island so if that’s not within your budget, just do a day trip!
Time of year to Visit
Mackinac Island is a seasonal island open May 1 to October 31. I visited towards the end of summer but each month will offer something different, whether it’s cooler weather in May, longer days in the Summer, or changing colors in the Fall, the island stays pretty busy during the time they are open.
Things to Do
#1 – Tour the Grand Hotel
Plan to spend a couple hours here walking around the main lobby, going up to the Cupola Bar on the 4th floor, looking for the Secret Garden, playing human-sized chess on the front lawn and more. Lake Shore Drive is the main street in town and it’s about a half mile walk to get to the Grand Hotel so it’s very easy to get to.
Trust me when I say, touring Grand Hotel is an absolute MUST. It costs $12 for admission. I was hesitant to pay to walk around a hotel but am so happy I did! This hotel is extremely famous for many reasons such as where the movie Somewhere In Time was filmed, the fact that each guest room is uniquely decorated, you can experience a fancy afternoon tea, or sit in a rocking chair on the world’s longest porch.
#2 – Bike Around the Island
You can rent bikes from many different places on Mackinac Island to bike around. The path around the entire island is 8.2 miles and I highly recommend doing the full circle around the island. You’ll see many beaches, the famous Arch Rock, Mackinac Bridge, and enjoy Lake Huron views.
The main attractions are all within walking distance to each other so I would recommend walking to those so that you don’t spend a ton of money renting bikes all day. The cheapest place I found for bike rentals was Ryba’s, starting at $12/hour for a single speed. They were out of single speeds so we had to rent a 3 speed at $14/hour. They charge in 15 minute increments which I didn’t realize until we returned them. It took about 1 hour 15 minutes to bike around the island, taking pictures and videos and then just hung out until closer to the 2 hour mark but when we returned them, they only charged us for 1 hour and 45 minutes so we could have returned them earlier and it would have been cheaper.
#3 – Arch Rock
Arch Rock is a gorgeous rock formation that you guessed it, is an arch! It towers above the water and is more than fifty feet wide. If you are biking around the island you’ll easily see it. You can view it from the main path or walk up some flights of stairs to see if overlooking Lake Huron. It’s about a mile walk from the main part of the city if you decide to walk to it.
#4 – Shop
There are plenty of gift, souvenir, clothing, jewelry, art, & craft stores you can visit. We swung into pretty much every shop and found some that we loved!
#5 – Try Some Fudge
Mackinac Island is known as the “Fudge Capital of the World” so even if you aren’t the biggest fan of fudge, you still need to at least try some! You can watch the fudge being made in the shops or through the windows which is fun to see and most of the fudge shops will let you try samples. Murdick’s Fudge was the most recommended so we tried their fudge and Ryba’s and personally I liked Ryba’s better and bought my slices from them. The Maple Pecan and Caramel Sea Salt were amazing!
Things I’d like to do on my next visit
Restaurants
Pink Pony
If you are only on Mackinac Island for a day, make sure you make a stop at Pink Pony. It’s one of the most famous restaurants on the island and if you sit outside you have a great view of the water. They have a famous drink called the Rum Runner but drinks like that are way too sweet for me and our server said it’s very sweet so I went with their Straw-banero Margarita instead and really liked it! Highly recommend getting the smoked whitefish dip for an app. I tried one of the flatbreads and that was also delicious.
Coffee shops
Good Day Café
Right when you land on the island an easy coffee shop to get to is Good Day Café. You can also get crepes, donuts, or homemade ice cream if you’re hungry.
Water Color Café
Water Color Café offers great coffee and they are known for their homemade pop-tarts! They do run out of the pop-tarts on busy days so try to go there early to guarantee getting one or see if they’ll be making a new batch at some point.
