Mackinac Island is, well an island. So you have to make plans to get there. We took a ferry over in the morning – Shepler’s.
Prices currently online are $27 for an adult round trip.
The boat tour was actually really nice and you can sit on the top or underneath and they take you under the Mackinac Bridge that connects Michigan from the UP.
Once on the island we rented tandem bikes and road around the Island (8 miles around the shoreline). You can rent a full day/half a day and when you arrive from the ferry there were about 3 different places renting bikes so we had no issue getting them on a Sunday in August! The biking was easy too and there were a lot of places you could stop along the way to look at the scenery and they even have a self-guided tour of different areas if that interests you more. Definitely the highlight of the Island.
I’ll never get over how clear the water is here and you can see where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet – one side is super calm and the other was way rougher and not as clear due to the waves.
There are NO CARS on Mackinac Island so riding bikes on the road wasn’t scary. You just had to deal with horses and people walking – you won’t get ran over though.
After we rode bikes we walked around the strip of gift shops and fudge. If you’re a fan of fudge – this is the place to buy some! I’m not a HUGE fan but apparently these companies have been in business for over 100 years and there’s some good fudge history.
We also walked up to the famous Grand Hotel which has been open since July 10th 1887 and boasts “the world’s largest” front porch at 660 feet! We walked up too the hotel and walked through the grounds and flower but apparently you have to pay to visit and go anywhere on the porch or inside to look around! We are cheapos and decided NOT to spend money to look at the hotel. So my views were all outside.
If you are a history buff – there is some War of 1812 forts on the island you can see.
Other than that my most vivid memory of the island was the small. You may be thinking “oh does it smell like fudge?” and I would say – well the smell comes from something that looks like fudge – but comes out of a horses butt.
Yep. The whole island I felt smelled like horses poop. Mind you – there are no cars – so people get around and get to the hotel with luggage either by walking or horses drawn carriage. I feel like they did the best they could with keeping up with it – but there’s just no way to get it all and it just smelled like horses poop in the main area.
So there ya go! The truth!
