A Grand Trip To The Grand Hotel On Mackinac Island

I’m pivoting from my parenting tales this month to put on my Travel Blogger hat. I’m sharing my thoughts about our recent trip to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

What is the Grand Hotel?

Called “America’s Summer place”, the Grand Hotel first opened in 1887 for vacationers who traveled to Michigan by train, and then came to Mackinac Island via steamer and boat. Mackinac Island is a small island in Lake Huron where cars are banned. All travel is by horse, bike, or foot power.

The Grand Hotel is a National Historic Landmark where ladies and gents dress up for dinner, there’s dancing after dinner, and enjoying a cocktail and sitting in a rocking chair on the longest front porch in the nation is welcomed.

Why did we go to the Grand Hotel?

My husband and I visited the Grand Hotel to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

(Yes, I was a child bride!)

Check out one of our favorite wedding photos from 1994 that I had the photographer at the Grand Hotel help us recreate. Yup, they have photographers available to take pictures of you gussied up for dinner.

How was the Grand Hotel?

I’m not gonna lie. A trip to the Grand Hotel is pricey.

But soooo worth it! Our two-night trip was memorable, special, and the lavish 5-course dinner and a full breakfast are included.

We loved the Grand’s amenities, like the pool where Esther Williams filmed a movie in the 40s.

And we enjoyed the porch, from strolling it at sunset to rocking the night away with a cocktail.

The Suite Life

Every room is decorated by Dorothy Draper in a bold, colorful (some might say gaudy) style. No two rooms–and there are hundreds–are the same.

When we checked in, I was excited to see what room we’d get. Unfortunately, we got a room with a wonky portable air conditioning unit. It wasn’t a deal breaker, but there was a weird gap in the window where the unit was attached and we simply inquired if there was anything that could be done to fix the gap.

So they upgraded us to a suite (I swear, we just inquired about fixing the gap, we didn’t demand star treatment!) Only catch was that we had to spend one night in one suite, then move next door to the next suite the next day.

Oh, darn. Such a hardship.

Here’s the Huron Suite.

And night #2 was spent in the Mackinaw Suite next door.

We ended up staying in two of the coolest rooms in the whole hotel. Both had these amazing balconies, and most rooms don’t have balconies.

Check out our view.

And, if you go back to the top of this post, the very first picture, you can see my husband in red waving from the balcony of our room atop the Grand Hotel!