Two days on M-22 will get you most of what Northern Michigan does best. The Leelanau Peninsula on one day, Benzie County on the other, Glen Arbor as your home base in between. You’ll log about three hours of driving over the weekend, see two lighthouses, taste a winery and a distillery, and eat at the kind of restaurants that don’t have a second location anywhere.
Stay at Glen Arbor Bed & Breakfast and Condos in the middle of the village. The route below assumes you’re starting from there.
Day 1: North on M-22
Breakfast at the inn first. Coffee on the porch if the weather holds. Then north on M-22.
Your first stop is Leland, about thirty minutes up the peninsula. Park in town and walk down to Fishtown, a row of converted fishing shanties on the Leland River. Pick up a sandwich from the Village Cheese Shanty (The North Shore is a favorite with our family) or smoked whitefish from Carlson’s for lunch later in the day.
Keep going north through Northport to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the very tip of the peninsula. Eat your lunch on the beach. If the lighthouse is open, climb the tower.
Back south on M-22 to Omena. Stop at Leelanau Cellars for an afternoon tasting on the deck above the water.
South again to Suttons Bay. The downtown is small enough to walk in twenty minutes but full enough to take an afternoon if you let it. Galleries, ice cream, boutiques. Bayside Gallery is worth a stop for the ceramic and glass garden sculptures alone.
Dinner depends on where the day lands you. In Leland, The Cove for seafood with a view of Fishtown, or the tavern at the Bluebird for the patio. Back in Glen Arbor, Art’s Tavern for the burger and Cherry Republic for the porch. In Burdickville, LaBecasse for a longer meal. Or pick up takeout from Blu a block from the inn and eat on the porch back at the B&B.
Wine on the porch after.
Day 2: South on M-22
Day two, second breakfast from Laura. Then south on M-22.
First stop, the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Seven miles of paved loop through the forest, over a covered bridge, and out to the Sleeping Bear Dunes Overlook. Lake Michigan from the top of a 450-foot dune is the view people drive for.
South through Empire to Point Betsie Lighthouse. Red-roofed, white-walled, sitting right at the water. Walk the grounds, head out on the pier, sit on the beach. If the lighthouse and museum are open, both are worth thirty minutes.
Next, Frankfort and Elberta on either side of Betsie Lake. Bookstores, vintage shops, jewelry, ice cream. Park once and walk both.
Then keep south to Manistee, a 19th-century port town that kept its Victorian houses and most of its lumber-era downtown. Walk the riverwalk if you have an hour. Dinner at Bluefish for the seafood, then an hour back up M-22 to Glen Arbor. Or skip Manistee and head east from Elberta to Iron Fish Distillery in Benzie County. They grow the grain, cultivate the yeast, mill, distill, and age every bottle on the same farm. The tasting room is across the gravel from the still. Order a flight, take the tour.
Hours change by season for restaurants and museums on this route, especially in the shoulder months. Worth a quick check the day before.
Book a room or condo at Glen Arbor Bed & Breakfast and Condos and the itinerary starts at the breakfast table.
