9 Great Lakes Towns With a Slower Pace of Life

The Great Lakes built big industrial cities across the United States and Canada. But their quieter gift is the string of small towns set into the shoreline's nooks and coves, places that sat out the modern rat race and never looked back. These nine have the amenities and the scenery to fill a trip, and they all specialize in the same thing: slowing down. Here is a short international tour of the best of them.

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Mackinac Island does not just slow things down; it winds the clock back a century. Sitting in the straits between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, this four-square-mile island bans cars, a fact that hits you the moment you step off the ferry from St. Ignace or Mackinaw City. You get around the Victorian village, the hilltop fort, and the state park that covers about 80% of the island one way only: by horse-drawn carriage, bicycle, or your own two feet.

The commercial core can get busy in season, so here is my advice. Rent one of those single-speed cruisers with the basket on the front and ride the 8.2-mile perimeter loop, the only car-free state highway in Michigan. The crowds vanish within the first half mile.

Tobermory, Ontario

At the top of the Bruce Peninsula, the harbour village of Tobermory keeps a lively tourist scene at an easy pace. It sits where the Niagara Escarpment's karst cliffs meet the water, where Lake Huron gives way to Georgian Bay (often called the "Sixth Great Lake"), and it serves as the base camp for two of Canada's best national parks.

Grab fish and chips and ice cream around Little Tub Harbour, take a glass-bottom boat over the shipwrecks and lighthouses of Fathom Five National Marine Park, or hike the shoreline in Bruce Peninsula National Park. Then board the Chi-Cheemaun ferry for the two-hour crossing to Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world and home to the next stop.

Providence Bay, Ontario

Manitoulin Island is full of scenery, wildlife (watch for roadside moose), and First Nations communities, which make up a large share of the population. You could stop in the ferry town of South Baymouth, the marina at Little Current, sleepy Manitowaning, or the arts town of Gore Bay. But if you came here to slow down, aim for the beach town of Providence Bay.

Providence Bay has a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) sandy shoreline, a boardwalk running alongside it, and shallow water that warms up early for a long swimming season. My van broke down here on the first of June, which turned out to be no bad place to be stranded; the water was already pleasant. The town carries just enough to anchor a multi-day retreat: a fish-and-chips spot, a good cafe, and a couple of places to stay.

Bayfield, Wisconsin

Set in far northern Wisconsin on the western end of Lake Superior, Bayfield is well off the beaten path and worth the detour. As the "Gateway to the Apostle Islands," it is the cozy base for the 21-island archipelago and the largest collection of lighthouses in the National Park System, plus sea caves and ancestral Ojibwe homelands along the shore.

Cruise and kayak operators run out of the small, walkable downtown. Between trips on the water, work through the boutiques and eateries of Rittenhouse Avenue, and if Superior's seafaring history grabs you, stop at the Bayfield Maritime Museum, open June through September.

Bayfield, Ontario

If the first Bayfield wins you over, its Canadian namesake keeps the mood going. Bayfield, Ontario, sits on the southeast shore of Lake Huron in the Municipality of Bluewater. Its Heritage Main Street starts in The Square, where the farmers' market sets up on Friday afternoons, and runs past old inns, galleries, bookstores, gift shops, and a solid roster of restaurants and bars. Follow it to the northwest end and you reach Pioneer Park, a green hilltop where a wooden staircase drops to the water. From there you can walk Bayfield's small beach and the south pier out to the mouth of the river.

Empire, Michigan

Empire sits on the northwest shore of the Lower Peninsula, at the foot of the Leelanau Peninsula, and it runs at a village hush. It is home to the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center, where you pick up day passes and maps, and a small, likable downtown along Front Street. From there you can walk to Empire Beach and the Robert H. Manning Memorial Lighthouse, drive south to the Empire Bluff Trail for a short wooded climb to a big panoramic payoff, or head north into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the Sleeping Bear Heritage cycling trail.

When the dunes wear you out, push deeper into the Leelanau Peninsula, where 20 wineries make up the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail. It is a fine way to stretch the escape another day.

Michigan City, Indiana

Indiana Dunes National and State Park is a must for nature lovers curious about the stranger side of southern Lake Michigan. To the west, a smokestack skyline makes the case for conserving what is left; to the east, the five Century of Progress Homes from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair dot the shoreline with color and odd retro-futurism. In between run dunes hundreds of feet high, wild grasses, and 50 miles of trail through old-growth forest.

The best base for exploring this stretch is Michigan City, right on the west side of the national park. Its harbor rounds out a visit with a cluster of low-key attractions: the Old Lighthouse Museum, the East Pierhead Lighthouse, and Washington Park Beach and Zoo.

Ashland, Wisconsin

I came across Ashland on my way up to Bayfield, a rustic city on the east side of Chequamegon Bay. Just 30 minutes from Bayfield, it also claims the "Gateway to the Apostle Islands" title, but its own draw is paint: as the self-styled "Historic Mural Capital of Wisconsin," it wears 20 massive murals across the buildings of Main Street. The Ashland Mural Walk, which you can also do by trolley if you book ahead, is a slow way to take in both the art and the railroad, lumber, and military history behind it.

Around the mural walk, duck into the Ashland Historical Museum for the backstory, catch a matinee at the indie Bay Theater, or settle in with a coffee and a book at Black Cat Coffee House.

Copper Harbor, Michigan

Copper Harbor closes out the Michigan trio. Perched at the very tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, this community of about 100 people is built for getting away from everything. From here, a four-hour ferry runs to Isle Royale, one of the least-visited national parks in the country.

Closer to town, the payoffs come easy. Drive up Brockway Mountain for a wide view over the forests and Lake Superior, walk the towering white pines of Estivant Pines Nature Sanctuary, or just settle in around the harbor with a plate from Harbor Haus or a pastry from Jamsen's Bakery.

Slow Things Down This Summer

School is out and the water has warmed, which makes it prime time to plan a weekend or a longer trip. The Great Lakes region has its lively beach towns, but it has just as much to offer anyone looking to downshift. Take the foot off the pedal, or ditch the car entirely in a couple of these, and settle into the slower rhythm of these nine lakeside towns.