MICHIGAN TRAVEL NEWS

Latest Local & International Travel News, Guides, Information & Planning Tips

When gas tipped above the $4 a gallon mark, hotels panicked. So did convention and visitor bureaus and other travel providers, who offered gas cards en mass to get travelers to vacation beyond their back yards this summer. Gas promotions seemed as ubiquitous as the continental breakfast.

But we should grab them while we can get them. As the novelty declines, so do the offers, especially with gas (today, anyway, and in some parts of the state) well below that mark.

Continue reading "Grab those free gas promos while you can get them" »

Attention "Antiques Roadshow" groupies: If you can't wait until the segments filmed in West Michigan are broadcast in 2009, get a sneak peek by visiting any of the three West Michigan museums that drew the "Roadshow" crew.

Filming for the top-rated PBS show took place at The Holland Museum, the Grand Rapids Public Museum and Gilmore Car Museum near Kalamazoo. Each is expected to be included in one of three Grand Rapids episodes.

Continue reading "Continue 'Antiques Roadshow' fix at West Michigan museums" »

GRAND RAPIDS -- He may be in the throes of football practice and school lesson plans, but coach and teacher Brad Mockabee also is recalling a perfect summer day.

That's the day he spent with his family and friends at a cottage in Holland, playing on the beach, cooking out and, finally, enjoying the sunset. He stood on the beach as the sun sank, tossing his 3-year-old daughter, Lauren, into the air, his wife, Meredith, looking on. At that moment, friend Laura Cebulski, of California, snapped a picture of the happy trio.

That photo perfectly captures the essence of Michigan summer, said Mockabee, Grand Rapids Christian High School's gridiron coach and Spanish teacher.

"It was the perfect summer night," he said. "My wife's good friend was taking photos of us, and that one had it all -- family, sunset, a day at the beach."

Continue reading "Summer photo contest winner tops more than 1,000 entries" »

ALLEN, Mich. -- When the days shorten and the leaves start to turn shades of saffron red and honey gold, it's time to wander down U.S. 12, a Michigan heritage highway that traces the Old Sauk Trail, an American Indian byway, as it leads to Allen, considered to be the Michigan's antiques capital.

It's said that if you stopped at each of the booths housed in these immense buildings and the small stores that brim with antiques for just one minute each, it would take more than three days to visit them all.

Continue reading "Hunt for antique treasures in Allen, Michigan" »

DETROIT, Mich. -- Situated in Detroit's midtown, The Inn on Ferry Street furnishes a soothing getaway for urban travelers. The inn has 40 rooms scattered throughout four beautifully restored Victorian-era homes and two carriage houses.

It's the special touches that impressed guests Rick and Bobbi Calkins, of Greenville. "They (the staff) take care of everything," she said.

Less than six blocks from the inn is a hodgepodge of worthwhile attractions: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Science Center, Detroit Historical Museum, the main branch of the Detroit Public Library and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

Continue reading "Detroit's Inn on Ferry Street offers quiet urban getaway" »

MEARS, Mich. -- I love exploring where few others have gone. And when fall foliage is at its peak, I want total immersion in the glowing colors, not distant glimpses from a highway.
But the fact I also have no sense of direction makes me happy to be sitting in Jeep No. 11, the caboose in a line of off-road vehicles heading caravan-style into the Pere Marquette State Forest in West Michigan.

Continue reading "Jeep thrills on trails less traveled in western Michigan" »

BOYNE FALLS, Mich. -- Bruised legs, callused hands and sore deltoids aren't ordinarily souvenirs of a relaxing weekend getaway. But then, there's nothing ordinary about the Trapeze Experience at the Mountain Grand Lodge at Boyne Mountain in northern Michigan.

The two-hour workshop, offered through the resort's Solace Spa, is an excellent choice for those who wish to come away from their vacation with something more life-changing than tan lines.

Continue reading "Soothe your adventurous soul at Boyne's trapeze experience" »

FRANKFORT, Mich. -- I was after a bird's-eye view of fall color, and I know that's what I have found as I glide downward in wide circles, round and round, high over the Point Betsie Lighthouse and the southern end of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

I've seen raptors do this. When I ask the pilot squeezed into the seat ahead of me why we're twirling, I'm expecting a recitation about air currents.

Continue reading "Michigan color tour by glider a real windfall" »

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Imagine attending a party with Matt and Ted Lee, the famous New York Times food writers and cookbook authors.

At the Traverse City Epicurean Classic's Grand Opening Reception in northern Michigan last year, I did just that, stopping by their tasting table laden with cheese straws, butterbean pate, pickled shrimp and corn bread salad -- a few nibbles from the "Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners." This year's event is Sept. 11-13.

Continue reading "Traverse City Epicurean Classic a star-studded event" »

LES CHENEAUX ISLANDS -- For a brilliant burst of fall color, trace the shoreline of Lake Huron, east through the Upper Peninsula on Highway M-134, toward the Les Cheneaux (pronounced Lay-Shen-O) islands.

Les Cheneaux is French for "the channels," so named because of the many waterways that divide this archipelago of 36 islands. Thought to be the home of Hiawatha, the waterways were the routes for coureur de bois, or French fur traders, and Jesuit explorers.

Continue reading "Leaf-peep by land, water in the U.P." »