The Dexter HotelElk Rapids
The newest reason to know where Elk Rapids is. Opened in May 2026 in
a reimagined apartment building a few steps from the marina, the 29-room
Dexter comes from Daniel Caudill, Shinola’s former creative director,
working alongside his Kinship Hospitality partner Kamron Bijeh-Apple,
and the pedigree shows. Nearly everything in the building was designed
and made in Michigan—the white oak furniture, the ceramics thrown by
Traverse City potters, the drapery sewn by a local seamstress, the
salon-style walls hung with work by Michigan artists—which gives the
whole place a sense of belonging that most new boutique hotels spend
years trying to manufacture. Downstairs, the Noble Lounge pours craft
cocktails above the waterfront, and the airport is about 20 minutes
away.
The OtisHarbor Springs
Set between two horse farms on the meadows outside Harbor Springs,
The Otis is a beautifully renovated 31-key mid-century lodge that
manages to honor the Birchwood Inn it used to be while feeling entirely
of the moment. Rooms are dressed in custom furnishings, Frette linens,
and Flamingo Estate products, and the property organizes itself around
the Fireplace Lounge, a central gathering space serving light bites and
cocktails from a chef duo out of San Francisco’s James Beard–recognized
NOPA. There’s also Birchwood General, an on-site shop stocked with local
goods and charcuterie, and a café pouring La Colombe for the mornings
you’d rather not commit to anything. Harbor Springs itself, one of the
prettiest harbor towns on the lake, sits just down the hill and is worth
a stroll (and a cookie or two from Tom’s Mom’s Cookies).
Hotel IroquoisMackinac Island
The Grand Hotel gets the postcards (and it’s def worth a visit), but
the Iroquois is where you should stay if you’d rather be on the water
than looking at it from a porch. The white clapboard Victorian sits
directly on the shoreline at the edge of downtown, is family-run, with
gardens tumbling down toward the straits and rooms that feel like a summer house someone has kept up beautifully. Freighters slide past the
windows, bikes and horses clop by out front, and there’s an excellent
restaurant to boot.
The Inn at StonecliffeMackinac Island
If the Iroquois is Mackinac’s front porch, Stonecliffe is its quiet
back garden. Built in 1904 and recently given a property-wide
transformation, the Edwardian mansion sits on the island’s bluff side,
where fire pits and lawn games look out over the Mackinac Bridge and the
straits connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan. The renovation kept the
history and the restored apple orchard now supports beehives, chicken
coops, and a garden. Come here to be reminded that Mackinac has an
entire wooded interior beyond the fudge shops on Main Street.
Hotel WalloonWalloon Lake
Hemingway spent his boyhood summers on Walloon Lake, and the village
finally has a hotel worthy of the literary real estate. Hotel Walloon is
a polished lakeside property in the heart of a village small enough to
walk in ten minutes, with water views, a proper dock, and a level of
service that feels closer to the old Adirondack camps than to anything
you’d expect this far off the interstate. The position is the real
luxury: Petoskey and Boyne City are both minutes away, and the
lake—deep, clear, and considerably quieter than its famous neighbors—is
right outside the door.
Inn at Bay HarborPetoskey
This is the grande dame of the stretch, a sprawling Victorian-style
resort perched above Little Traverse Bay just outside Petoskey, all
gabled rooflines and long waterfront lawn and sunsets that turn the
entire bay pink. (Petoskey calls them million-dollar sunsets, and while
that’s the sort of thing a chamber of commerce says, in this case it
holds up.) It’s the full-service version of Up North—spa, pools, golf,
rooms and cottages built for a week rather than a night—and downtown
Petoskey’s gaslight district is a short drive away when you want an
afternoon of bookstores and boutiques.
Alexandra InnTraverse City
Traverse City’s hotel strip along East Grand Traverse Bay is (mostly)
forgettable, which makes the Alexandra Inn feel like something of a
rescue. Family-owned and run by third-generation hoteliers, the 32-room
property opened in 2023 with a private sugar-sand beach, balconied rooms
looking north toward Old Mission Peninsula, and Blush, the only
waterfront rooftop bar in town. Warm cookies appear in the evening,
local art hangs in every room, and the whole operation carries a
personal quality that newer builds rarely manage. You’re five minutes
from downtown and three from the base of the Old Mission wine trail,
which is the ideal position for a first trip.
Dining and Cooking