We spent five days in Michigan with one of the days being spent at Mackinac Island (I’ll make a separate post about the upper peninsula next week). As for the island, it was a unique travel experience that has been on my radar for a little while now. We went the day before the Lilac Festival that is going on right now. I will say for the day before I didn’t see many lilacs but we also didn’t venture too many of the inland streets. Leave a comment if you have gone during & your experience with it!
If you are unfamiliar with Mackinac Island, it’s located in Lake Huron in Michigan between the upper and lower peninsulas. It’s known for being a car free island with amazing views, fudge, bikes, carriage rides, and history.
You will need to take a ferry in order to get to the island. We took the Arnold Transit ferry over which at scale is cheaper but take into consideration the toll bridge if you cross out from Mackinac City into St. Ignance as that was a hidden cost for us.
When you get to the island, you will most likely see horses or bike riders right away. We ended up just doing the 8.2 mile bike loop around the island which took a little under two hours with a couple stops including Arch Rock. The cheapest option I found was Ryba’s which was right by our ferry exit at $12 an hour (prorates if not exact). They also had a coupon on their website for a dollar off your second full hour. Make the bike ride a priority if you can!
As for food/fudge we didn’t indulge in much of anything outside of Doud’s Market. Side note: you are able to find their fudge around the area as well without going to Mackinac Island at their other locations. I even saw some in a general store. I didn’t fact check this but all of them claim to give free samples too.
We only spent about five hours exploring and taking it in as the ferry only came every two hours during the time we visited & we brought our dogs.
Other things to do include: Grand Hotel, Fort Mackinac, carriage tour, butterfly houses, the secret garden (which I found out about writing this so we missed it :(…) Please comment if I missed something!
I hope you enjoy your trip! – Abigail
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