A Weekend on Mackinac Island
Have you ever visited Mackinac Island? If not, I would definitely add it to your bucket list ASAP. It’s such a charming and historic little city on an island in the middle of Lake Huron, where life seems to move just a bit slower—It’s truly like island time. Literally and figuratively because there are no cars here, only emergency vehicles. So the only travel is done by foot, bike, or horse and carriage!
Our life has been all go, go, go lately so it was the perfect place to come to celebrate our 6th year wedding anniversary! If you’ve never been or are wanting to plan a little trip here as well, so here is what we did!
Note: We have been to the island before this a few times, so we have already experienced the horse drawn carriage tours of the island and of Fort Mackinac, but if you haven’t—we highly recommend it for the true island experience! Such interesting history and stories to hear about while you’re visiting.
WHERE WE STAYED
While Mackinac Island is just a quick ferry ride from the mainland (and a great day trip destination), the best way to truly see all that the island has to offer is by planning an overnight getaway. There is plenty of relaxation and adventure to be had and a long weekend is the perfect amount of time to experience it all! We stayed at Mission Point Resort in the Straits Lodge, which is just about a 15 minute walk from the ferry port downtown.
We took Shepler’s Ferry from St. Ignace to the island, and although we couldn’t check into our room until 4 pm, when you arrive at the ferry terminal, you can check your luggage for it to be transported from the ferry by horse and carriage to the resort for free! Which is so great, so then you don’t have to worry about trying to bike with it or walk all over town while toting your suitcase around!
After we checked into our room, we walked around the resort and were so impressed by it all! There are 5 total restaurants here, a putting course, health and wellness retreat & spa, marketplace, and a gigantic lawn that houses 81 white adirondack chairs to sit and relax in by the beautiful waterfront.
WHAT we did
We would highly recommend bringing your own bikes (if you have them!) as the bike rentals are by the hour and not very cheap. We really enjoyed just strolling around and taking in all of the historic homes and gorgeous gardens, but there really is no better (or quicker) way to experience the beauty of the island than by bike.
Unfortunately part of the road was closed due to construction, so we weren’t able to ride all of the way around, but we went as far as we could on both ends of the island. And of course had to stop and climb the (what felt like) one million stairs to see the beautiful Arch Rock!
I always love to walk around and browse in all of the little shops downtown, but my favorite stops were at Poppins, Threads of Mackinac, and Joann’s Fudge.
At the fudge shops you can actually watch as they make and prepare it fresh, so It’s basically the law there to bring home Mackinac Island fudge, so we sampled a bunch and ended up buying 2 whole lbs of it…haha! Highly recommend the Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Turtle, Chocolate Toffee, and Maple Walnut!! Then we immediately walked over to Marquette Park to sit and enjoy some more fudge (I basically felt like 100 pounds of fudge by the time we left haha) while watching the hustle and bustle of downtown and the ferries coming into the island.
We rode our bikes up to The Grand Hotel and found out that you can buy a $10 ticket to tour the hotel! It’s self guided, so you can walk around and look around on your own. One of the staff recommended going up to the Cupola Bar on the 4th floor for the best view and she was right!! It was so cool!
From there we headed back downtown to Lucky Bean Coffee House for an afternoon coffee. They serve and sell Velodrome coffee there, which we love! We shared an iced miel with oat milk, of course. <3
On our last night there, we rented a tandem bike to ride and if you saw our Instagram stories, then you know how that adventure went. Haha! But it was such a blast and we laughed the whole time. We sat on the rocks own by the water with some blankets and watched as much of the sunset as we could.
WHERE we ate
Pink Pony—Hands down the most recommend restaurant to try, so we stopped there for breakfast and it did not disappoint! Such a beautiful dining area and the food was amazing!
The Gate House—We stopped here for lunch after biking around the island, so it’s safe to say we were h u n g r y, and it was such a nice place to sit outside and enjoy the afternoon. Less of the hustle and bustle that’s on main street, so it was v relaxing, and the fries were dang good. Next time I want to try their Tin Can Nachos!! Next door is Sushi Grand offering the island's only fresh, made to order sushi bar, which we will definitely be trying next time!! It was closed on Monday when we were there!
Round Island Grill—This restaurant is actually part of Mission Point Resort, so it was a quick walk to dinner from our room and such a beautiful view of the lawn and lake from their outside dining area! Best food and dining experience we had on island—we couldn’t stop eating and talking about how good it was. Haha
Kingston Kitchen—We ate dinner here on the first night and it was so good! We had never really had Jamaican style food before, but we really enjoyed it!!
Boxwood Cafe—A super convenient grab-and-go cafe right at Mission Point Resort with coffee, yummy bakery, and a few different snack options, we walked down there to grab some coffees on our last morning.
Sadie’s Ice Cream Parlor—Mackinac Island Fudge Ice Cream is a MUST when visiting Mackinac, so we stopped in after exploring The Grand Hotel and enjoyed it on the amazingly grand front porch. It was magical!
Watercolor Cafe—They have some really great vegan and gluten free options here! Their Tutti Fruity smoothie was SO good and Jason loved their blueberry muffin. It was SO busy in there, so we just got it to go and sat down by the harbor before heading back home on the ferry.
Doud’s Market—The cutest little market with so many options for grabbing snacks for a little picnic or even if you wanted to make a meal! I don’t know if we’re just weird like that, but we always love a visit to the local grocery store while we’re traveling—probably because we just really love snacks. Haha!
As you can tell, our time here was pretty laid back and it was exactly what we needed! Full of good food, lots of quality time, and so many beautiful views. If you’re wanting a little weekend getaway, I would highly recommend planning a trip here, it truly has something for everyone!! And we can't wait to go back!