Towering sand dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. [TRAVERSE CITY TOURISM]

On any summer day, in the middle of the state’s largest cherry orchard belt, folks in Traverse City, Michigan, are busy enjoying its natural splendor — swimming, sailing, hiking or relaxing in Adirondack chairs by the beach. And its cultural and culinary vitality make it worth more than just a pit stop.

About 250 miles northwest of Detroit and scattered among rolling farmland and hardwood forests, Traverse City has dozens of lakes and waterways, historic lighthouses, and ships and boats that travel its bay and inlets. Best of all, it has Lake Michigan in its backyard — including the bucolic Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where sand dunes tower up to 400 feet above turquoise-colored water.

“If you want to get away, get out in nature and spread out, this is the perfect place to do it,” said Jillian Manning, public relations manager for Traverse City Tourism.

Traverse City also has become known for the quality of its wines (it has more than 40 wineries in the area) and craft breweries and is getting national attention for its imaginative local cuisine.

The town has much to offer in the way of museums, theaters, shops and galleries and is home to The Dennos Museum Center, which has the largest collection of Inuit art in the country.

Its climate has made it an ideal place to grow all types of cherries, but it’s one of the leading producers of tart cherries in the United States, Manning said.

And cherries aren’t the only crop this fruit-forward place is famous for growing. Because of its location along the 45th parallel, which is halfway between the North Pole and Equator, the region is ideal for growing grapes. It’s at the same longitude of the great grape-growing regions of Spain and France, Manning said.

Traverse’s agricultural bounty has made it into a rich culinary destination, with restaurants ranging from French to Vietnamese to farm-to-table to taco stands. This summer, Manning said, outdoor dining will be expanded to a two-block downtown area on Front Street (between Park and Union streets). The area will be closed to traffic and additional outdoor seating has been added so diners can properly practice social distancing.

Two downtown architectural and historical gems are the State Theatre and the City Opera House. The State, built in the early 1900s, was the first in Traverse City to offer a “talkie film” and features the annual Traverse City Film Festival, hosted by filmmaker Michael Moore. This year it was canceled because of COVID-19.

The 1891 Victorian, brick opera house — one of 50 opera houses built in Michigan in the 19th century — is one of a handful that are still standing. It was closed in 1920 but fully restored in 2005 and hosts concerts, dance performances and appearances by noted writers.

The Grand Traverse Commons — a complex of galleries, shops, restaurants and residential areas housed in pale yellow, Victorian-Italianate buildings built in 1885 — is surrounded by meadows and forests and was once a state mental hospital.

For more information, visit traversecity.com.

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2020-07-09T06:01:00Z

Traverse City MI

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