America's Best Beach Towns-National Geographic Traveler

Northern Lower Michigan: ”At the top of Michigan’s “mitten” is a Midwestern summer paradise with idyllic waterfront lake towns—Petoskey, Charlevoix, and Harbor Springs—that harken to summer vacations in simpler times. Ernest Hemingway spent his boyhood summers here and captured the area in an early novella, The Torrents of Spring. Standout diversions include running down the towering dunes to the crystal-blue shores of Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, biking the non-motorized, 26-mile Little Traverse Wheelway that links all three charming towns beginning in Harbor Springs. Native son and architect, Earl Young‘s mid-century mushroom houses in Charlevoix are worth a drive by, maybe on your way to Jesperson’s, a century-old, family-run restaurant in Petoskey that serves delicious homemade pie made with the region’s famous tart cherries.” — Susan O’Keefe, associate editor, National Geographic Traveler