Horse-drawn carriages loaded with passengers passed me on the road, their hooves knocking against stone. There was no traffic buzzing or car horns blaring. There were no billboards or neon fast-food signs, just small wooden signs hung outside of family-run shops. I peered into windows where men folded fudge by hand and cashiers handed sweet samples to kids over the counter. It felt like a scene most of the United States had left behind a hundred years ago.
Where to Play, Eat, and Stay on Michigan’s Car-Free Mackinac Island
I was visiting Mackinac Island, located in Lake Huron between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island stretches about eight miles around its shoreline, and cars have been banned since 1898 after carriage drivers complained that the vehicles were scaring their horses. Biking, walking, and carriages are the primary modes of transportation.
The best time to visit is May through October. I got there in June when the peak season was just starting and everyone who’d spent the winter there was busy preparing for the busy summer months. There were white and purple lilacs all over downtown and flyers up for the annual Mackinac Island Lilac Festival that month. The locals told me the best time to visit is early summer, while the lilacs are in bloom, or later in fall once the leaves turn.
Things to do on Mackinac Island
Take a self-guided walking tour
Photo: Rachel Geveden
Start your visit to Mackinac Island by walking Main Street. Most of the shops are family-owned and -operated, with roots that go back generations. That includes Doud’s Market, the oldest continuously operated family-run grocery store in the US, where you might see locals hauling their groceries home in wagons hitched to the backs of bicycles. Stop by Little Luxuries for local beauty products, homemade goods, and souvenirs. Most of the island’s tour and experience bookings run through Main Street shops, too.
I spoke with Mary Jane Barnwell, who has owned The Island Bookstore on Main Street since 1989 and encourages travelers to take the time to learn the island’s history. One way to do that is through Mackinac Jane’s Audio Tours, a set of self-guided walking and cycling tours that Barnwell and her husband, Mark, built using the VoiceMap app, narrated by people who’ve spent decades on the island. Various tours take you past landmarks including East Bluff with its historic summer cottages; British Landing, a rocky beach and historic War of 1812 site; and filming locations from the 1980 film Somewhere in Time.
Explore the island by bike
Photo: Rachel Geveden
Biking is one of the most common ways to get around Mackinac Island, and there are many places to rent bikes on Main Street, including Mackinac Island Bike Shop and Mackinac Wheels. Cruise the car-free eight-mile loop around the island via Lake Shore Boulevard and stop along the way at notable features such as Arch Rock, a limestone archway on the eastern shoreline. Park your bike at the bottom and climb the 207 steps up to the natural formation. The views of the lake and crystal clear waters below are well worth the hike and make for a great photo opportunity.
Book a Sip n’ Sail Cruise
Sip n’ Sail Cruises was a top recommendation from every Mackinac Islander I met. The operator runs two boats: the 55-foot, glass-bottomed Robin E and the 81-foot Isle Royale Queen III. Choose between sails like the Michigan Craft Beer Cruise, the Sip n’ Sail Sunset Cruise, and the Bloody Mary & Mimosa Bridge Tour (the bridge in question is the Mackinac Bridge, a five-mile suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron). Unfortunately, my group had to take a rain check on our cruise — something to keep in mind if you’re booking a cruise during the spring.
Stock up on fudge
On Mackinac Island, fudge is an experience, not just something to eat. The tradition dates to 1887 when the Murdick family opened the island’s first candy shop. The sweet treat quickly became a souvenir of choice for visitors to the island, and several other families have since staked their claim with their own recipes. Two of the most famous shops are Murdick’s Fudge and Joann’s Fudge. While in town, peer into the window of one of these shops, and you’ll find someone folding the fudge across a cool marble slab. The technique makes for a good show but is also essential to the texture; working the fudge as it cools is what gives it that melt-in-your-mouth finish rather than a grainy one.
Go for a hike
Photo: ehrlif/Shutterstock
More than 80 percent of Mackinac Island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park, Michigan’s first. It was created after the island’s brief run as the country’s second national park (Mackinac National Park was decommissioned and turned over to the state 20 years after being established in 1875). Upwards of 70 miles of trails wind through the state park, beneath evergreen tunnels and wildflower patches if you’re out in spring or early summer. There are also several geological landmarks worth tracking down: Fort Holmes, for one, is the island’s highest point, with views of the Straits and bridge below, and Sugar Loaf is a limestone stack that rises 75 feet out of the forest floor. Follow the West Bluff Trail for lovely views of the island’s Victorian homes, while the Croghan Water Trail, on the island’s far side, is best for spotting wildlife.
Experience a carriage tour
Photo: Rachel Geveden
The most distinctive way to get around Mackinac Island is by carriage. Operating since 1869, Mackinac Island Carriage Tours will take you on a 1.5- to 2-hour guided loop around the island, stopping at highlights along the way like Arch Rock, Surrey Hill (a carriage museum with a butterfly conservatory and a blacksmith shop), and the Grand Hotel (the island’s largest and most storied resort). Beyond the public tour, Mackinac Island Carriage Tours also runs a 24-hour horse-drawn taxi service by dispatch (cash only) that will take you anywhere on the island, a good option for travelers with different mobility needs. Private carriages are available for a more customizable route, and for a hands-on experience, you can drive the buggy yourself at Jack’s Livery Stable.
Where to eat and drink on Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island Cookie Company
Type “best cookies on Mackinac Island” into Google, and this shop comes up first. Kate Conlon runs the Mackinac Island Cookie Company with her mom and sister, turning her mom’s recipes into what the shop advertises as “homemade cookies the size of your head.” The family opened their first shop about a decade ago in Hessel, on the mainland, and brought a second location to Mackinac Island’s Arnold Transit Dock in 2025. The cookie company has built such a following online that tourists have been known to jump from carriages to take a photo with Conlon. I didn’t get a chance to meet her, but her oatmeal cookies made a convert out of me.
Mackinac Island Cookie Company: 7271 Main St, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Watercolor Café
Watercolor Café is a Main Street mainstay known for its Poppies: the cafe’s fresh-baked take on Pop-Tarts. This teal-colored breakfast and lunch spot has tables against the window overlooking the water, a full coffee menu, and other beverages like smoothie and boba tea. Food options range from customizable oatmeal and a breakfast burrito to a whole toast menu, sandwiches, wraps, and salads. It also hosts art classes and open studio hours daily with art supplies included, so you can sit and paint once the food service has finished.
Watercolor Café: 6939 Main St, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
The Straits
The Straits is a fine-dining restaurant at the Inn at Stonecliffe that’s open for breakfast and dinner. Much of what lands on the plate is either grown on the property or sourced from regional farms. I went back for the green smoothie three times during my stay and would go back again for the white fish and spring gnocchi for dinner (although the cotton candy walleye was the chef’s recommendation). Finish with a nightcap in an Adirondack chair on the back lawn by the firepit.
The Straits: 8593 Cudahy Cir, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Woods Restaurant
Photo: Rachel Geveden
Woods Restaurant — the Grand Hotel’s dining room set in a Bavarian-style house reachable by carriage, bike, or a walk through the woods — was the best meal I had on the island. The wild boar meatballs, green goddess salad, and wild mushroom ravioli are all worth ordering, and the service was superb: no pretense, just a staff that was quick with a joke and still knew what it was doing. Dress is casual, but reservations are recommended for dinner.
Woods Restaurant: 8655 Cudahy Cir, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Pink Pony
Pink Pony has been a Mackinac Island fixture since the early 1900s, starting as a cafe inside the Chippewa Hotel before becoming a cocktail lounge in the 1930s. It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a collectable pink pony duck on the rim of cocktails. The restaurant sits right on the water, and the best table is on the back deck, watching sailboats and ferries come into the harbor. I ordered the patty melt (sirloin smothered with caramelized onions and mushrooms sandwiched between toasty rye bread with sweet potato fries) and cleaned my plate.
Pink Pony: 7221 Main St #103, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Where to stay on Mackinac Island
The Inn at Stonecliffe
Photo: Rachel Geveden
The Inn at Stonecliffe operates out of a 1904 Tudor mansion that was originally built as a summer home for meat-packing magnate Michael Cudahy. In 2024, it underwent a $40 million renovation, though the property was able to keep some original details, like stained glass and fireplaces in the mansion rooms.
There are now 16 rooms in the mansion, 32 rooms in the adjacent summer house, and new private cottages that guests can book. Each of the mansion rooms has a distinct yet luxurious style while the summer house rooms skew more practical, with pull-out sofas and private patios that work well for families. Also great for families or anyone seeking privacy, the cottages come with comfortable sofas, full kitchens, fun wallpaper, and all of the inn’s amenities, including a gym and sauna, an adults-only pool and a separate family pool, lawn games, an open garden, and cozy firepits under the stars.
On-site dining includes The Straits, as well as a garden-set spot serving wood-fired pizza and a Western-themed pub with a fireplace. Both of the property’s lawns (one on each side of the mansion, including the water-facing Straits Lawn) have hammocks and Adirondack chairs, and the property keeps its own chickens and beehives, feeding eggs and honey back into the kitchen. Luxury, to me, means feeling taken care of, and the Inn at Stonecliffe truly nailed it: a complimentary pizza-making class, s’mores on the back lawn, walks to local lookout point Sunset Rock, and a staff that seemed to actually want to be there.
The Inn at Stonecliffe is also a Humanitarian Hotel, meaning all net profit goes toward building a better future for the community, and the inn also hires asylum-seekers looking to build a new life on the island.
And a little insider secret: the best fudge I had on the entire island was the raspberry chocolate fudge only found in the gift shop here, made exclusively for the Inn at Stonecliffe by the Mackinac Island Cookie Company.
The Inn at Stonecliffe: 8593 Cudahy Cir, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Getting to Mackinac Island
Photo: Rachel Geveden
Delta flies daily into Pellston Regional Airport (PLN) from Detroit, and United runs a seasonal summer route from Chicago. From there, you have two options for getting to Mackinac Island. First, by ferry: a shuttle or taxi covers the 12 miles into Mackinaw City in about 20 to 30 minutes, and from there, a short ferry ride drops you right in downtown Mackinac Island. Second, and my personal favorite: hire a small plane via Fresh Air Aviation from PLN to Mackinac Island’s airstrip. The flight only lasts a few minutes and yields some spectacular views of the island from the sky. Then you can arrange a carriage to pick you up from the tarmac and take you straight to your hotel. 