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Routes · North America

Berlin to northern Michigan: Traverse City and Mackinac Island

Berlin → Traverse City → Mackinac Island

Traverse City
"Traverse City, Michigan 1950.jpg" by AAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Grand Traverse County Courthouse (Traverse City)
Photo: rossograph, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cherry orchards and dunes & a car-free island Best season (general guide): Jun–Sep

Northern Michigan, on the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, is a summer world of sand dunes, orchards and old resort towns. This route spends three nights in Traverse City and three on Mackinac Island. From Berlin you'll connect through a US hub to Traverse City.

How to pace it: Spend days one to three in Traverse City: day one, the bay front; day two, Sleeping Bear Dunes; day three, Old Mission Peninsula wineries. Then spend days four to six on Mackinac Island: day four, drive north, ferry to the island; day five, bike around the island; day six, Fort Mackinac and the Grand Hotel.

Traverse City lies at the head of the two arms of Grand Traverse Bay, an inlet of Lake Michigan about 51 kilometres long. The area is a major cherry-growing region, and the National Cherry Festival is held each July. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, west of the city, has huge sand dunes and bluffs above Lake Michigan.

The Old Mission Peninsula, which divides the bay, is lined with wineries. Mackinac Island lies in Lake Huron at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac. Its name in Odawa means great turtle. Cars have been banned on the island since 1898, so people travel by bicycle, horse and carriage or on foot.

The Grand Hotel, opened in 1887, is known for its very long front porch. The Mackinac Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the Western Hemisphere, links Michigan's two peninsulas. Fudge shops are a Mackinac tradition. Traverse City had about 15,700 people in 2020, and its four-county area about 153,000. The city partly extends into Leelanau County.

Most of the island is a state park, Michigan's first. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Sleeping Bear Dunes is named after an Ojibwe legend of a mother bear waiting for her cubs, which became the Manitou Islands. Summer is the season; ferry service is reduced in winter.

Safety: Canada's advice for US is to take normal security precautions (updated 10 Oct 2026), and this is a domestic US trip with no State Department advisory.

Suggested outline

  1. Berlin

    Start

  2. Traverse City

    By air · 3 nights suggested

    A bay town of cherries and wineries.

  3. Mackinac Island

    By road and ferry · 3 nights suggested

    A car-free island in the straits.

    Mackinac Island
    "Aerial view of Mackinac Island 2020-09-04.jpg" by August Schwerdfeger, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons· licence

Day by day

  1. Day 1 · Traverse City — Arrive; the bay front· Berlin → Traverse City (by air) — long-haul; may arrive the next calendar day
  2. Day 2 · Traverse City — Sleeping Bear Dunes
  3. Day 3 · Traverse City — Old Mission Peninsula wineries
  4. Day 4 · Mackinac Island — Drive north, ferry to the island· Traverse City → Mackinac Island (by road and ferry)
  5. Day 5 · Mackinac Island — Bike around the island
  6. Day 6 · Mackinac Island — Fort Mackinac and the Grand Hotel
  7. Day 7 · Mackinac Island — Travel home from Mackinac Island· Mackinac Island → Traverse City (by road and ferry), then Traverse City → Berlin (by air)

A suggested pace only; expedition days are set by the operator.

Flights, leg by leg

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Traverse City

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Plan the trip: Traverse City

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Mackinac Island

Nearest airport: Traverse City Search fares · Traverse City ↗

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