Lake Michigan Road Trip: Our Full Loop Itinerary Around the Lake

A Lake Michigan road trip is one of those things that has been on our bucket list for a while, but we never got the chance to do it until recently. We did the whole thing in about 11 days, starting and ending at our home base in Chicago, but you could honestly spend much longer or do it in maybe a week, depending on how fast or slow you want to move. Most of the stops we spent 1-2 nights and think it is a sweet spot if you’re doing the full Lake Michigan loop in 1-2 weeks. The Lake Michigan loop is cool because you get small-town charm, sand dunes, a car-free island, camping, and multiple states’ versions of lakefront towns! We tried to keep most stops around a 2-hour drive from each other, so we didn’t have too much time driving between locations.

Go To The Interactive Map Here →

We did this trip in August and the weather was perfect but the stays were pricey! If you wanted to save money and still have some decent weather, spring or fall would also be great times to visit. At the end of this post you’ll find our complete cost breakdown of how much money we spent on this road trip.

Chicago, IL

We started and ended the road trip from our home base in Chicago. For the start of our Lake Michigan road trip, we spent a few hours strolling down the riverwalk before getting on the road. If you have more time to explore, we definitely recommend taking an architecture tour on the river or a walking tour to learn more about the city. We previously lived here for 10 years so we have so many recommendations, and have more details in our Chicago travel guide!

New Buffalo, Michigan

We kicked our Lake Michigan road trip off in New Buffalo, Michigan, about an hour and a half drive east of Chicago. If you want the full breakdown of where we stayed and what we did here, check out our full New Buffalo post.

We stayed in nearby Union Pier rather than New Buffalo itself, and we’d recommend doing the same or staying in another small beach town nearby to save money over staying in New Buffalo itself. Thanks to its proximity to Chicago and its popularity, room prices in New Buffalo proper get expensive fast in summer. The Marina Grand Resort, right in the heart of downtown, can run as high as $600/night on summer weekends, and even the Holiday Inn just outside of town runs close to $300/night. 

We stayed at the Gordon Beach Inn, a quaint little inn just a 6-minute drive from downtown New Buffalo, for $125/night.

Saugatuck, Michigan

From New Buffalo, it’s a 1-hour drive north to Saugatuck. Saugatuck is such a cute little small town and a great place to spend an afternoon, there are plenty of boutiques and restaurants in the downtown area. Parking is limited, so don’t expect to just roll up and grab a spot right in the center, but you can park in the surrounding neighborhoods and walk. Saugatuck was a great dinner stop; we ate at The Butler and would recommend it, though the wait ran over an hour on the Friday night we were there. Grab a drink and walk around the harbor with it while you wait.

Staying in Saugatuck itself gets extremely expensive in the summer and books up quick. If you book with enough time prior to your trip, our top choices are The Hotel Saugatuck and Wickwood Inn. If you want to save a little money on accommodation, you can base yourself in Holland or Muskegon instead and driving in for the day instead.

Silver Lake Sand Dunes

Our next stop was about 90 minutes north of Saugatuck, or roughly 45 minutes from Muskegon. We only had a few hours here, which was enough time for sandboarding but not much else. The dunes are an amazing sight, something very unexpected in Michigan and totally different from every other stop on the trip. The dunes themselves are a part of Silver Lake State Park and you’ll need a Michigan state park pass to enter, but you can purchase one on-site for $13 for the day pass for one vehicle (bring cash!).

We rented our sandboards from the Sand Box and they cost $10 per hour to rent. One hour was enough to hit a few slopes but you can rent for $30 for the day if you want to stay longer.

If you have the flexibility, we’d recommend spending the night here rather than just passing through. There were some great camping and hotel options nearby, plus fun lake activities on Silver Lake, which sits on the other side of the dunes from Lake Michigan.

Traverse City

Traverse City was a longer drive to get to, about 2 hours and 20 minutes from Silver Lake, but it was worth it, it was the largest lakefront town we stayed in on the whole Lake Michigan road trip. There are so many good bars and restaurants here, and it would make a great home base if you wanted to spend extra time exploring northern Michigan rather than continuing around the full loop. This was one city we definitely could’ve spent more time exploring the bar and restaurant scene! The night we spent there, we had dinner and drinks at Little Fleet and would highly recommend it. It was a delicious collection of food trucks (pizza, Asian, Mexican, BBQ, something called beefalo) in the downtown area. We also went to a brewery called The Filling Station Microbrewery that was housed inside of an old train station, which was a super cool concept and had really good pizza!

Staying in Traverse city in the summer can get expensive in the summer so we recommend booking as soon as you get your trip planned. Some of our favorite hotel choices are The Hotel Indigo and The Alexandra Inn.

Mackinac Island

This was one of the highlights of the Lake Michigan road trip. To get here, you drive to Mackinaw City and leave your car parked, there are no cars allowed on the island itself. The drive from Traverse City to Mackinaw City was another long one, at 2 hours and 10 minutes. Mackinac Island is a small, historic resort town, and the best way to see it is by renting bikes and riding the 8 mile loop around the island. Make sure to stop at Arch Rock along the way, and don’t skip the small rocky beaches scattered along the path, they are perfect spots to sit and enjoy the water for a while.

For a fun afternoon activity, Fort Mackinac is worth the visit, a historic fort from the 1800s where they still run cannon demonstrations and have exhibits and replicas explaining what life on the island used to look like.

We stayed at the Island House Hotel, and it was expensive ($400+ per night) but was in a great location! There aren’t many hotels on the island but other recommendations we have are Hotel Iroquois and Bicycle Street Inn. All of the lodging options on the island were $400+ per night, so be prepared for that! The Island House Hotel is beautiful and looks right out over the water so we would definitely recommend it! (We’re planning a full Mackinac Island post with more detail soon, so keep an eye out.)

Upper Peninsula (The UP) at JW Wells State Park

Everything gets a little more spread out the further north in Michigan you go. After crossing the Mackinac Bridge into the UP and driving about 3 hours, we found an amazing campsite at JW Wells State Park. We stayed at their modern campground option and it was fantastic. It’s right on the water, quiet, and close enough to a grocery store that restocking supplies was easy. The park has a beach for swimming and relaxing, clean bathrooms and showers, and electricity at every site, which meant we could charge our car overnight. The campsite was only $37 a night, making it a great budget option that also helped break up the drive.

Door County, Wisconsin

Leaving Michigan behind, our next stop was Door County, Wisconsin, a small peninsula with Green Bay at its base that we’d heard so much about before arriving. Door County has a huge range of places to stay, from campgrounds to small hotels, resorts, and Airbnbs, so it really depends on what kind of trip you’re after when you’re looking for lodging here. This drive wasn’t too bad, at only 2 hours and 20 minutes to Jacksonport, though if you go further up the peninsula, expect closer to 3 hours.

While we stayed in Jacksonport, we spent majority of our time exploring Baileys Harbor and Sister Bay. In Baileys harbor we loved visiting Door County Brewery for a flight of beer and Inland for sourdough pizza! One quick tip if you’re planning to visit Sister Bay and eat at the famous Al Johnson’s (a Swedish restaurant with goats on the roof!), get there early and be ready to wait. We showed up on a Friday at 11am and were quoted a two-hour wait. Instead of waiting the full time, we ended up grabbing sandwiches at Door County Creamery instead, which ended up being one of our favorite meals of the entire trip!

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

From Door County, it’s about three hours to Milwaukee, our last Lake Michigan road trip stop before heading back home to Chicago. This drive was 2 hours and 30 minutes to downtown Milwaukee, but depending on where you’re staying, timing could vary given the size of the city. We highly recommend checking out the Public Market for a few hours, there are tons of food and drink options inside. Milwaukee is such a great mid-sized city, with tons of restaurants, breweries (our favorite is the Lakefront Brewery right on the river), and things to do. We got lucky and happened to be there during the Wisconsin State Fair, which meant trying an impressive amount of food and seeing some seriously large cows and racing pigs.

So, How Much Does a Lake Michigan Road Really Trip Cost?

Below is how much we spent on our 11 day trip for two people. The majority of our accommodation spending was on Mackinac Island (Nearly $1,100 for two nights on the island itself), while the rest of the transactions were pretty evenly spread out.

Category	Cost
Accommodation	$1,735
Food & Dining	$1,405
Groceries	$327
Transportation (Tesla charging, parking, tolls, ferry)	$251
Other (Primarily $134 Mackinac bike rental)	$291
Total	$4,009

Final Thoughts

A Lake Michigan road trip is a magical summertime trip, and it’s one we’d recommend everyone do at least once. Between the small towns, the campgrounds, and the fact that you cross through several different states along the way, there’s a surprising amount of variety packed into driving around the lake!

Our Interactive Route Map

Here’s an interactive Lake Michigan road trip google map that you can help use to plan your own trip!

If you have questions about planning your Lake Michigan road trip, reach out to us on Instagram @checkedouttocheckin, we’re happy to help!

P.S. – This post contains affiliate links for the hotels we love. If you book directly through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us keep the blog running!