Hi there. You might have noticed that I took some time off this site to focus my energies elsewhere, such as living my life (and also Insta). But I’M BACK! Hopefully, I can stick around a while if you’ll have me. I love reading travel guides so I thought I’d make one for my trip to Traverse City, Michigan. My boyfriend and I wanted to do something special for our 10 year anniversary and since Hawaii was out of the question (thanks, Corona), Michigan it was! All jokes aside, I had heard great things about this area and was super excited to check it out! This was my first time visiting the Traverse City area but I’m already planning my next trip to the UP (upper peninsula of Michigan)!

Where to Stay

Since we live in the Chicago area, we did the 5-6 hour drive up there Friday evening. I would recommend driving/having a car with you unless you plan to solely stay in the Downtown Traverse City area. Although, there are so many things to do in the surrounding areas, that I wouldn’t recommend that!

We stayed in the cutest hotel along the Bay. There are tons of hotels along the water but we chose The Baywatch Resort…mainly because I liked the style of it and loved the ground level rooms that allow you to walk right out to the beach. It was about a 10-minute drive to the downtown area and a 40-minute drive to the Sleeping Bear Dunes. It ended up being a perfect location for us, although I do wish there were a few more shops/restaurants within walking distance of the hotel (any investors wanna work on that??)

Traverse City Area Long Weekend Itinerary

Friday

• Hotel Check-in
  • Ideally, we would have gotten to the hotel in time for dinner downtown, but we hit traffic and ended up arriving at 10 pm when everything was closed. We did end up finding a late-night pizza joint still open though and ordered delivery to the hotel room. 

Saturday

• Sunrise on the patio
  • This was supposed to be the only nice day weather-wise so had to make the most of it!
• Breakfast
  • Grabbed some food at Tropical Smoothie Cafe Drive-Thru. I normally like to solely eat at small businesses when I travel and I know this is a chain but we had never had it and wanted something fast but healthyish.
• Sleeping Bear Dunes
  • We did the driving Pierce Stocking Scenic Trail.. which to be honest wasn’t super scenic but the last stop #9 made it worth it. The water was so blue and the dunes were so incredibly steep!
  • We also checked out the Empire Trail, which I believe was a 2-mile walk to get to the outlook. It was an easy hike and the view was amazing!
• Sunset Beach Bonfire
  • We ended the day at the Esch Beach for a sunset bonfire with s’mores, of course! It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Sunday

• Food
  • We ordered curbside pickup at Rose and Fern for breakfast and it was amazing! The sun started to come out a little, so we took our food to sit at a picnic table at the Public beach area.
• Downtown Traverse City
  • Although it is “Corona Time”, we still decided to check out the downtown area. We were a little nervous because it was still so busy, but every shop had sanitizer right at the door and we felt pretty safe overall. We popped into a few shops, got some ice cream from Moomers, then headed back home as more rain was headed our way.
• Water Activities
  • My boyfriend decided he wanted to jet ski before the rain came. There were three jet ski rental locations within walking distance of the hotel.  They were only allowing one person to go out on the skis because of the wind so I stayed at the beach and got some reading in.
• Food
  • It was a struggle to find someplace to eat that night as we were a little weary to eat inside of a crowded restaurant. There were a few covered patio places, (check out The Filling Station), but they had 2 hour wait times, as to be expected during Labor Day weekend. We were frustrated and hungry, so curbside pickup from the Red Mesa Grill across from the hotel is what we landed on. It was actually very good! Although, they did end up getting our order wrong so we ended up with 2 orders and about 14 tacos.

Monday

• Patio Time
  • The waves on the lake were crazy this morning, we enjoyed the views from our patio and pretended we were at the ocean.
• Wineries
  • Most of the wineries require reservations right now due to Corona, I made one for Brys Estate the night before with only one time left 12:30! I’m glad I got it because the place was amazing! We sat on the upper deck which had expansive views of the vineyard. We got a tasting flight and a Frose (best frose I’ve ever had) as well as the charcuterie board.
  • Next up we stopped at Bonobo Winery, which did not require reservations for their wine by the glass. They do, however, require reservations for VIP tastings and tours. This place was super-laid back and I just wanted to stay all day! The had a huge upper patio as well as lawn seating down below. They also have the infamous blogger swing were it is mandatory to take pictures on.
• Food
  • As Monday was our actual anniversary, we had made reservations at the Aerie Restaurant Lounge for dinner. I had seen pictures online and was obsessed with the sunset view from the top of the Grand Traverse Resort. Unfortunately, we picked the cloudiest day, and there wasn’t even a glimpse of the sunset. It was all good though, the food was amazing and the service was great too. (none of this is sponsored by the way, I just like to give my opinions lol)

Tuesday

• Check-out
  • Our check-out time was 11 am, so we spent the morning packing up and enjoying the last few moments of our beach view.
• Donuts, duh
  • Before we embarked on our journey home, we stopped at Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. They had the cutest mini donuts with creative flavors like Peanut Butter and Jelly and Fruity Pebbles. We tried one or two, then decided to save the rest for when we arrived back at home.
• Food/Coffee
  • I convinced my boyfriend to stop at Mundos Coffee because I have this thing with coffee shops when I travel. (I gotta catch em all!) Their Avocado Toast was superb, as well as the coffee. Definitely recommend.

And that is all! If you read through all this, kudos to you and thanks for caring what I have to say 🙂

(Also, If you were wondering where the rest of the meals are on this blog post, such as lunch… we ate a lot of Uncrustables and granola bars. We like snacks.)

Check out this post about another cute Michigan town: Ludington, Michigan 

Here’s some more pics…I know that’s all we really care about anyway: