The country around Traverse City is the main reason to come. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore sits 25 miles to the west and is one of the great landscapes in the Midwest, with towering sand bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan and ferries out to the Manitou Islands.
The two peninsulas each reward a half-day of unhurried driving, with wineries, orchards, and bay views at regular intervals. Old Mission Peninsula runs north from the city to a lighthouse on the 45th parallel, while the larger, more varied Leelanau Peninsula reaches northwest with more than 25 wineries spread across rolling hills and forested ridges.
The charming small towns of the region make good lunch stops: Suttons Bay on the eastern shore, reachable by the car-free Leelanau Trail, and Leland on the Lake Michigan side, whose weathered Fishtown is the most atmospheric corner of the peninsula. Further east, Torch Lake draws summer crowds to its improbably turquoise water.
