A Trip to Charlevoix, Michigan with Erin Schmidt and her Family
We just returned from a wonderful family vacation in Charlevoix, Michigan.
We rented a cottage from a neat family with young kids, and we'd highly
recommend their place. It was a simple three bedroom cottage in a private,
secluded area right on Lake Charlevoix. There are approximately ten other
cottages in their association and in the middle of them is a large, grassy
area about the size of a football field which made for a great area to run,
play and try out our outdoor toys. Beyond the grassy area was their beach
- it was fun to be so close to the beach - sandcastle making from morning
'til night!
Most of their renters return every year. While they are booked most of the
summer they do have openings for a few weeks in June and also the end of
August through the fall. It is a beautiful area - there's the sea shore
and the trees create tunnels over many of the roads. While it's too cold
to play in the water in mid-October, it is beautiful time of year with the
leaves turning colors. If you are interested in more information about renting
the cottage, please contact Debbie Arnold at arnolddsa@comcast.net.
The town is nicknamed "Charlevoix the Beautiful" and it had such
a quaint downtown with fun shops, fudge, taffy, ice cream shops and a wonderful
pizza place (Village Inn Pizza - the greek pizza was yummy). The downtown
is right on Lake Charlevoix. A few blocks over is Lake Michigan - and the
two lakes meet up at a draw bridge right on the Main Street (our kids loved
watching it). Many of the beaches have playground equipment right on the
beach. Between the play equipment, waves and sandcastles, there was hours
of entertainment on the beach.
Just a mile or so from our cabin was a small ferry boat that took a max of 4 cars across the narrowest part of Lake Charlevoix (about 100 feet) for a $3 fare. On the other side of the Lake (down the road a few miles) is Boyne City where we found a very fun and neat park.
There are many great day trips you can take from Charlevoix:
An hour drive puts you on the ferry over to Mackinac Island, where you can
rent bikes or take a horse drawn carriage as cars aren't allowed on the
island.
An hour and a half to the South is Sleeping Bear dunes. Take the challenge
of hiking a mile and a half through the sand dunes to the lake at the end.
Whether or not you make it to the lake at the end, it is fun to play in
all the sand and amazing to see such sand dunes!
There are many quaint little towns that make a fun day trip - Petosky, Harbor
Springs, Good Hart (very small with a fun post office/general store that
sells ice cream!) and smaller sand dunes.
There are several little farms in the area - one includes a gift shop, a fun restaurant, farm market store, petting zoo/mazes for kids.
It was a 13.5 hour road trip from Kansas City - and made for a wonderful, memorable family vacation. We would highly recommend it. Feel free to contact me privately (erinanddave@yahoo.com) if you have questions or want more info.
Erin Schmidt