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Reasons to Drive
highlights the thrilling events happening within five hours of your city, giving you every reason to get on the road and start exploring.
If pyrotechnics were a sport, then the Olympics of Fireworks is set to light up the skies over Traverse City, Michigan on September 6th and 7th. The Great Lakes city, located by the proverbial pinky of the state’s northern mitten, hosted the inaugural International Fireworks Championship in 2023, with this year’s spectacle slated to include more competing countries, more teams, and more dazzling explosions.
The action goes down at Turtle Creek Stadium, a venue selected for its relatively remote location and minimal impact on residents and frightened pets, with pyrotechnic talents convening from around the globe, including the Philippines, Finland, India, Australia, and the U.K. Along with Team USA, and a special performance from last year’s winning team, Germany’s ToF Feuerwerk, the two-day event boasts a stacked schedule of entertainment and sky-high theatrics set to music, designed to illuminate the artistry, innovation, and skill involved in blowing off fireworks—all capped off by a panel of judges awarding trophies and a grand finale of custom-made blasts.
Courtesy Traverse City Tourism
Drive Time
4 hours from Detroit
5 hours from Chicago
What to Do Beyond the Fireworks Championship
Traverse City has a well-earned reputation as one of the foremost beach towns in the country. Despite its diminutive size (pop. 14,000, including Pete Buttigieg), the town teems with both indoor and outdoor activities. From its sandy perch on Grand Traverse Bay, the hamlet is lined with numerous beaches—including several dog-friendly destinations. In the summer months, it’s safe to expect a shoreline abuzz with sailors, swimmers, and sun-bathers, but fall and winter bring their own uniquely serene beauty too.
The best place to drink it all in, in the off-season or otherwise, is at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, an otherworldly realm of soaring dunes, shifting sands, forested trails, and lakes both Great and small. If you’d like to get a bit further out on the water, companies like Wind Dancer Sailing Tours provide guided charters and outings, from something as simple as a sunset cruise to trips themed for Sunday brunch, air shows, and even the Goo Goo Dolls.
Back on dry land, The Village at Grand Traverse Commons is an immense new development that holds the distinction of being among the largest historic preservation projects in the country. With the expansive look and feel of something like Asheville’s Biltmore Estate, the development encompasses a smattering of historic buildings on 480 acres of pastoral land—including a former asylum, the Traverse City State Hospital. Shuttered in 1989, the psychiatric hospital lay eerily dormant after a century of use, until The Commons began reshaping the ornate property into boutique lodging, residential and retail, and outdoor spaces designed to capitalize on the natural beauty that drew doctors to the area to implement fresh air and trees into their healing therapies in the first place.
For more Northern Michigan lore, hit up the Dennos Museum Center. Located on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College, the intimate art museum showcases exhibits and installations by artists far and wide, including a popular (and permanent) multimedia display by Inuit artists. The Music House Museum, in nearby Williamsburg, is a deep dive into modern music with a captivating collection of instruments that run the gamut from the 1700s to the 1950s, while the Leelanau Historical Society Museum & Research Center explores the region’s nautical roots, with exhibits that include shipwrecks, lighthouses, and the fur trade.
And there’s always the Great Lakes Children’s Museum, an edutainment offering that focuses its interactive displays (e.g., the Waves of Gravity, Up Periscope, and Fluids 101) on water.
Courtesy Traverse City Tourism
Where to Eat and Drink
Morning: For a different kind of brew, kick-start your day at Good Harbor Coffee & Bakery, a longstanding nook known for its scratch-made pastries (like cafe au lait cookies and in-season cherry scones), and artful lattes fueled by Metropolis Redline Espresso. Hexenbelle, meanwhile, is a Palestinian-inspired cafe, where the dynamic lineup includes everything from cardamom-kissed lattes and peach-infused matcha, to shakshuka and coconut curry fried rice.
Dinner: In terms of proper meals, Traverse City specializes in locally sourced provisions. Maybe the best example is Farm Club, where farm-to-table ascends to new heights with a restaurant, bakery, market, and brewery located on a literal farm. The food, naturally, rotates readily and seasonally, but dishes might include polenta with cashew milk grits, kohlrabi salad with fish sauce vinaigrette, blackened zucchini sandwiches with basil mayo, and roasted whitefish with olive gremolata. Similarly, The Cooks’ House is a comparatively tiny destination where the menu changes almost constantly to emphasize the natural abundance of the lakeside region. Guests can order a la carte, or embark on a multi-course spree of dynamic dishes like chilled heirloom tomato soup, Arctic char with buttermilk sauce and dill oil, and blueberries with granola and shiso ice cream.
Wineries: Vineyards and tasting rooms are a booming business in and around Traverse City. Dubbed the Old Mission Peninsula, the region features several wineries along a designated “wine trail,” including the aforementioned Black Star Farms, Chateau Grand Traverse, Tabone Vineyards, and Peninsula Cellars. Beyond the wineries and estates themselves, top-tier local wine is free-flowing throughout Traverse City, in wine bars and bottle shops like The Tasting Room and Blue Goat Wine & Provisions.
Breweries: Wine doesn’t have all the boozy fun here, though. Craft beer is just as booming. With more than a dozen breweries, making Traverse City among the most brewery-dense cities per capita, options span an array of beer styles and settings, from Silver Spruce Brewing (helmed by a couple of Asheville brewery alums), to The Filling Station, located in a vintage train depot from the 1880s.
Where to Stay
A newer boutique hotel to emerge in Traverse City, the Alexandra Inn is an intimate abode with 32 spacious rooms overlooking its private beach on the East Bay. There’s also a rooftop terrace, a cafe, periodic live music, seasonal beach yoga, and nightly chocolate chip cookies.
For sheer decadence, the Inn at Black Star Farms is like something out of an oenophile’s fairy tale. Nestled on a 160-acre estate, the historic manor is an opulent jewel in Leelanau County wine country (just a few miles north of Traverse City), with vineyard views, an on-site tasting room, miles of wooded trails, and a library. Rooms, with names like the Diadem Suite and Atlas, come dressed to the nines with fireplaces, reading nooks, and views of nearby forests and pastures.
Back on the beach, Tamarack Lodge is another stunner that blends old-world charms with modern amenities. The enormous, timber-clad property possesses big Northwoods energy, from its enormous stone fireplace in the lobby to its collection of antique logging sleds and cozy on-site tavern. Also, the waterfront rooms are all named after trees.
