📝 Travel survey: Michigan road trip pit stops and restaurants to try

It’s time to hit the road! Welcome to the newest edition of ClickOnDetroit’s newest newsletter - Taking Off! 🛫

Happy travels, everyone! Ken here. Thanks again to all of you who took the time to take our Michigan travel survey! We received hundreds of responses and awesome travel ideas. If you missed the first batch of results, you can catch up here.

If you didn’t take it -- it’s not too late! Click here to submit your travel thoughts and tips. 📝

📝 State of travel survey

For the second part of the survey results, we’re getting more into the details of traveling. With more than 550 responses, we got a great idea of how people are traveling and what you’re up to on the way, which is half the fun of a road trip, right?

First off, we asked if you’re an Up North camper type of traveler, or a grab a hotel or fun cabin sort of Northern Michigan visitor. Most of you said you prefer the hotel or cabin, by about 80% -- I’m with you on that one! Camping isn’t for me, but *many* people have encouraged me to try it. Maybe someday. But probably not.

We also asked if you prefer to visit inland lakes or one of the Great Lakes -- and no surprises there, about 75% said Great Lakes over inland lakes.

So how about some road trip activities? We asked if you have a cool pit stop when road-tripping inside Michigan -- here are some of the best and/or most common answers:

Michigan road-trip pit stops

• Bronner’s or the Bavarian Inn over in Frankenmuth
• Birch Run Premium Outlets
• Soaring Eagle Casino or Firekeeper’s
• Ryback’s Ice Cream Store in Port Austin
• Mission Point Lighthouse
• Wilson’s Cheese Shop in Pinconning
• West Branch (I think everyone stops in West Branch based on the traffic)
• Goodale’s Bakery & Deli in Grayling (try the apple cinnamon bread)
• Michigan Adventure
• John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids
• Idlewild (a ton of history here)
• Kitch-iti-kipi Springs in the UP

Lots of mentions about lighthouses, dunes, Mackinaw City and plenty of stops at fruit or food stands on the way up. And reviews on the state’s rest stops seem to be strong.

How about restaurants to try on your Michigan road trip?

• Tony’s in Birch Run (very popular mention)
• Mio Pizza (in Mio)
• Talley’s Log Cabin Bar in Lewiston
• Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant & Winery in Fennville
• Harrington’s by the Bay in Traverse City
• Legg’s Inn in Cross Village
• City Park Grill in Petoskey
• Butler’s in Saugatuck
• The Laundry in Fenton
• TJ’s Pub in Manistee
• Clyde’s Drive In in St. Ignace
• Fred’s in Roscommon
• Boone Docks in Glen Arbor
• Poppycock in Traverse City
• FireRock Grille in Caledonia
• Knot Just A Bar in Bay Harbor
• Geno’s Sports Bar in Thompsonville

There were so many more, including McDonald’s and Cracker Barrel, which are classic road trip stops. I always seem to stop at a Big Boy on the way back downstate.

We got so many great answers on this survey, we appreciate all the input. We’ll have one more issue on the results -- the Michigan hidden gems! Stay tuned. And if you haven’t taken the survey yet, check it out here.

📅 Ready, set, mark!

Here are some upcoming events around town to mark on your event calendar!

• April 8: Detroit Tigers Opening Day at Comerica Park
• May 28-30: Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit
• June 3-5: Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle
• July 30-31: Mo Pop Detroit music festival

For more events every day around Metro Detroit -- or to submit an event yourself -- check out our Live Guide here.

🧳 Welcome aboard

We appreciate you reading the Taking Off Newsletter. The people writing this (Hi, I’m Ken!) love to travel, too. We’ll have many other contributors -- including you!

Have a story idea, comment or just want to say hello? Shoot me an email! - Ken Haddad

Until next time, happy travels!