11 of the Most Charming Towns in the Great Lakes Region
Cherry-capital harbors, a car-free island, lighthouse villages, mural towns, and quiet fishing ports: the shores of the Great Lakes do small-town living about as well as anywhere in the country. You do not need a big city here to find a good main street, a great beach, and a story worth telling. These 11 towns, none of them bigger than a small city, are among the best the lakes have to offer.
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City calls itself the Cherry Capital of the World, and every July the National Cherry Festival proves the point. There is far more here than fruit, though: a walkable downtown of breweries and food trucks, freshwater beaches on Grand Traverse Bay, and rows of vineyards out on the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas. It is also the jumping-off point for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where sand bluffs rise some 450 feet above Lake Michigan. Catch a show at the 1891 City Opera House, then drive out to the 1870 Mission Point Lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula.
Mackinac Island, Michigan
Step off the ferry onto Mackinac Island and the first thing you notice is what is missing: cars. Motor vehicles have been banned since 1898, so islanders and visitors get around by bike, on foot, or by horse-drawn carriage, and fudge shops line the downtown. Fort Mackinac, built by the British in 1780, still fires its cannons for summer crowds, and the streets are lined with Victorian cottages and grand hotels.
Rent a bike and pedal the eight-mile road that loops the shoreline, stopping at Arch Rock, a limestone arch that stands nearly 150 feet above Lake Huron. The whole island feels frozen in the 19th century, in the best possible way.
Charlevoix, Michigan
Wedged on a narrow strip between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix, this town is best known for its "mushroom houses," a cluster of squat stone cottages with wavy, drooping cedar roofs built by self-taught designer Earl Young between the 1920s and 1950s. Downtown, a drawbridge lifts to let sailboats pass into Round Lake, and Bridge Street fills up with shops and galleries. It is one of the prettiest stops on the Lake Michigan shore, and refreshingly free of any theme-park feel.
Muskegon, Michigan
The largest town on Michigan's western shore wears its lumber-boom past well. Muskegon's showpieces are the Hackley and Hume Historic Site, a pair of ornate Victorian mansions built for two lumber barons in the late 1880s, and a downtown that has been steadily reinventing itself. But the real draw is the water: 26 miles of shoreline, the dune-backed beaches of Muskegon State Park, and P.J. Hoffmaster State Park, where ten miles of trails wind through wooded dunes down to the Lake Michigan sand.
Chesterton, Indiana
Less than an hour from Chicago, Chesterton is the gateway to the Indiana Dunes, where sand mountains nearly 200 feet tall rise straight off Lake Michigan. Indiana Dunes State Park packs three miles of beach and 2,182 acres of dunes and woods into the town's backyard. Chesterton itself keeps a tidy historic downtown of Romanesque and Italianate storefronts, and its European Market draws crowds on summer Saturdays.
Ashland, Wisconsin
Ashland bills itself as the Historic Mural Capital of Wisconsin, and its walkable downtown backs it up with dozens of large-scale murals splashed across its brownstone buildings, several of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Lake Superior port sits at the head of Chequamegon Bay, and the local scene runs on independent spots like South Shore Brewery, one of Wisconsin's oldest craft breweries. On the edge of town, the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center is worth a stop for the climbable observation tower over the bay.
Bayfield, Wisconsin
Tiny Bayfield, population barely 500, is the launch point for the Apostle Islands, a scatter of 22 sandstone islands in Lake Superior famous for their wave-carved sea caves, old lighthouses, and cliffs. Twenty-one of them make up the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; a ferry runs out to Madeline Island, the one that does not.
Back on the mainland, Bayfield's hilly streets are lined with orchards, galleries, and Victorian inns. Time your visit for the Bayfield Apple Festival in early October, or a summer show under the canvas at Big Top Chautauqua.
Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Door County is Wisconsin's answer to Cape Cod, and Fish Creek is its postcard. This little village on the Green Bay side of the peninsula sits at the doorstep of Peninsula State Park, some 3,700 acres of bluff-top trails, a golf course, and the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. Downtown is all clapboard shops and cherry-pie cafes, and summer nights bring outdoor musicals at Northern Sky Theater. Cap it off, Door County style, with a traditional fish boil, where whitefish and potatoes cook over an open flame until the pot boils over in a burst of fire.
Grand Marais, Minnesota
Perched on Lake Superior's rugged North Shore, Grand Marais is an artists' town with a working harbor. Galleries and studios cluster around a compact downtown, the North House Folk School teaches old northwoods crafts like timber framing and canoe building, and the fall Art Along the Lake tour draws makers from across the region.
It is also the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the start of the Gunflint Trail. Walk the breakwater out to the harbor light, or set up at the municipal campground right on the cobblestone shore.
Marblehead, Ohio
On a rocky peninsula jutting into Lake Erie, the village of Marblehead is built around its lighthouse, a 50-foot limestone tower that has been lit since 1822, which makes it the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the American Great Lakes.
The rest of the peninsula rewards a slow afternoon. The Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve protects a rare wildflower that blooms gold across an old limestone quarry each May, ferries run to nearby Kelleys Island and Put-in-Bay, and small lakehouse restaurants serve perch and walleye pulled straight from the water.
Sackets Harbor, New York
Out on Lake Ontario, tiny Sackets Harbor packs a surprising amount of American history into a pretty waterfront village. Its deep natural harbor made it the US Navy's main base on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812, and two battles were fought on its shores in 1812 and 1813. Today the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site hosts summer reenactments, with soldiers drilling in period uniforms, while the restored downtown along West Main Street trades in boutiques, cafes, and lake views. It is the rare town where you can tour a battlefield and grab a lakeside dinner on the same block.
Charm Around Every Bay
The Great Lakes do not do things small, except when it comes to towns. From the car-free lanes of Mackinac Island to the mushroom houses of Charlevoix and the War of 1812 battlefield at Sackets Harbor, these 11 places pack big personality into tight, walkable downtowns. Pick a lake, point the car at the water, and you will not go wrong.
