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MAP BY JOE ELBERSON
A Colorful Lake Escape
Travel the coast of Lake Michigan from Chicago to Holland, Michigan, to enjoy a spring road trip bookended by tulips and rich with activities in between.
By Amity Moore Joyce
When the shelf ice along Lake Michigan thaws and tulips push from the planters on Michigan Avenue, visions of dune walks, ripening berries and a touch of Dutch come to mind. Spring presents the perfect time to leave Chicago’s skyscrapers behind to drive the southeastern coast of Lake Michigan in time to appreciate the annual Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan. Spread the roughly 150-mile scenic drive (one way) across a couple of days to make the most of this slice of Americana, where perch dinners, artsy downtowns and blazing sunsets round out the attractions.
Navy Pier, Chicago
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The Urban Farewell
From downtown Chicago, pick up Lakeshore Drive heading south to catch the best Lake Michigan views on your left. Depending on where you pick it up, you might pass Navy Pier (immediately recognizable by its iconic Ferris wheel) or what’s known as the Museum Campus, where The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium huddle beside the lake. Within several miles of what is now Highway 41, the concrete, glass and steel-dotted skyline fades in your rearview mirror as you leave Illinois and enter Indiana. The first sights, while not pastorally scenic, showcase a backbone of industrial America—the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. Steam forms plumes above the stacks and serves as a marker for the southern end of the lake, which, due to the mills and the inland turn of I-94, is no longer visible.
Boarded walkway in Indiana Dunes National Park
The Sands of Time
Follow I-94 past Gary and deeper into Indiana, then exit to Highway 12 to again pick up the scenic route. The lake peeks from between just-leafing hardwoods as you approach Indiana Dunes National Park, a stretch of pristine beaches rimmed by sand dunes. It’s worth hopping out of the car to walk the short path to Mount Baldy, a towering dune that is no longer open to public hiking but is worth seeing. If the winds are strong enough, you can see the sand swirling at its 126-foot-high crest, a phenomenon that is partly responsible for the dune’s movement inland of 4 feet per year.
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Michigan City Lighthouse & Pier with the Chicago skyline in the distance
ADOBE STOCK
Nostalgia and New Beginnings
Continue your drive north to Michigan City, a beach community that has long been a weekend refuge for Chicagoans—and is gaining favor again, thanks to the resurrection of the South Shore Line train that connects to Chicago in just over an hour. The Michigan City station stands right downtown and is undergoing a transformation as developers erect multiuse, multistory buildings beside the tracks. Brick downtown sidewalks lead to quaint restaurants and charming boutiques—all within two miles of lakefront beaches; the small, but mighty Washington Park Zoo; and a Lakeshore Drive lined with waterfront mansions fit for the pages of “Architectural Digest.” You could easily park for the day and night to enjoy these attractions, splash in the cool waters at Washington Park Beach or take youngsters to ride the steam train at the Hesston Steam Museum. For dinner, head inland on rural roads to Heston’s, a bastion of succulent prime rib, dirty martinis and a housemade pub cheese that goes best with the supper club’s crunchy breadsticks.
Where Beach Towns Meet Agriculture
Crossing into Michigan—and the Eastern Time Zone—the road bends toward New Buffalo, a once-sleepy beach town now flourishing with seasonal visitors. Check out Beer Church Brewing, where you can commune with craft beer in a former sanctuary, and pop into the Unsalted No Sharks store (there’s also one in Michigan City) for apparel that celebrates Midwestern lake life. On the north end of town, pull into Skip’s if you missed Heston’s. The prime rib is equally fine and the supper club vibe just as strong.
Still on the scenic route, now the Red Arrow Highway (which was the main drag into Michigan before I-94), you’re also on the Michigan Wine Trail. This part of Michigan is dotted with vineyards and tasting rooms as well as remnants of days gone by—fish shacks serving fried perch, vintage Texaco gas signs, antiques stores, and a mix of humble ranch-style, mid-century homes and modern, sprawling estates. In between the hardwoods, you can catch glimpses of two shades of blue, where the lake and sky meet.
Father and son walking Weko Beach
AMITY MOORE JOYCE
Pull over in Bridgman at Weko Beach to walk a rambling network of boardwalks. The sand-coated wooden steps and walkways rise, fall and straighten out with the topography of the dunes. The beach itself kisses 960 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline and offers a public restroom, concessions, kayak and paddleboard rentals, and two, 50-foot Mobi-Mats that make the beach wheelchair accessible. Bridgman is also one of the towns on Southwest Michigan’s Makers Trail. It is within minutes of more than 40 independent wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries where makers showcase their signature pours.
St. Joseph North Pier lighthouses
Midway and the Return of Nostalgia
Make your way to St. Joseph, perched on a bluff high above Lake Michigan, for one of the most iconic views along the drive from Lake Bluff Park. Down near the water’s edge, the town’s lakefront Silver Beach Carousel, with its hand-carved wooden animals, nods to a bygone era when families flocked here for lakefront vacations. Slightly north and just across the St. Joseph River from the carousel, the red North Pier Lighthouse still stands as a sentinel on the end of a breakwater, its silhouette often the backdrop for striking sunset photos.
Silver Beach Carousel, St. Joseph
Grab an easy lunch at Plank’s Tavern, a AAA-approved restaurant inside the AAA Four Diamond Inn at Harbor Shores. Ask for a table near a window or dine al fresco on the patio to enjoy views of the river, which flows into the lake.
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Outside exhibit at Michigan Maritime Museum
BRIAN JOYCE
Beyond St. Joseph, pick up the Blue Star Highway, wooded on both sides. The lake is hidden from view, but it appears again in also its sparkling glory in South Haven. One of the larger towns on this drive, it buzzes with maritime activity, thanks to a bustling harbor, white-sand beaches and a long history of drawing summer daytrippers. Learn about the town’s lake-faring history at the well-curated and approachable Michigan Maritime Museum, where one of the favorite exhibits whisks visitors back in time to the days when luxury steamboats ferried the well-heeled on Great Lakes cruises from Chicago, often stopping in South Haven for a picnic or longer resort stay.
Kalamazoo Replica Lighthouse overlooking Kalamazoo Lake
The Art Coast of Michigan
Continue north, passing over Kalamazoo Lake to reach Saugatuck, a community regaled for its arts scene. In fact, downtown faces Kalamazoo Lake and the Kalamazoo River, which connects to Lake Michigan, but up here lakefront is lakefront. The Lake Michigan coastline is preserved in the undeveloped Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area and is accessed from Oval Beach. The natural scenery is what has drawn artists since the early 1900s. Today, fine art galleries, the Ox-Bow art school and the Saugatuck Center for the Arts form the foundation of the harbor town’s cultural scene.
Holland Michigan’s tulips are at their peak in May.
Welkom to Holland
Holland’s Dutch influence isn’t noticeable right away. Like a good gardener, you have to dig a little. It’s first evident in some of the homes, which reflect a kind of Dutch Colonial style. Then, as you pass through the historic city center and steer north on Lincoln Avenue to the winding drive that leads to the entrance of the Windmill Island Gardens, more of the European version of Holland comes into view. Acre after acre, row after row of red, pink, white, yellow and orange tulips burst into a kaleidoscope of springtime color. The Tulip Time Festival, when the tulips are at their peak, runs May 2-11, 2025. Everywhere you look, the bright flowers are popping up, but locations like the Windmill Island Gardens, Veldheer Tulip Gardens, Window on the Waterfront Park and Centennial Park present some of the best viewing. Don’t miss the Tulip Immersion Garden—The Journey of the Tulip, created by Dutch horticulturist Ibo Gülsen, which sees visitors walking among 50,000 raised tulip beds arranged in a way that tells the history of the tulip, from its origins in Turkey, to its popularity in the Netherlands and, finally, to Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan. In addition to the flowers, enjoy Dutch folk dancing performances, parades, a tulip dig and more—all near the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan.
If you are planning a Michigan road trip, visit AAA.com/TripCanvas for places to stay, activities and more.
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