Take a Mackinac Island Day Trip

Mackinac Island is known for it’s fudge, horse-drawn carriages, and bicycle friendly streets. In an era long before this one the island banned cars. To this day the ban still holds. Because of this, the island is a unique and special place to visit.

I grew up just about 3 hours from Mackinac and yet, in my 41 years of life I had never been. I had heard it was quite expensive, and so while my desire to explore the island was there, I pushed it out of my mind in favor of cheaper places.

But, there’s something about your oldest child being one year away from college age where you feel like you need to make memories while you can before they are off on their own, and so we made a point to go this year.

Today I want to share with you what you can do with a one day itinerary of Mackinac. I’m going to share with you how you can save money so that no matter your budget, you can go!

EXPLORE MACKINAC ISLAND ON A BUDGET

So, here’s the deal. You’ll end up spending money on a trip to Mackinac, but it doesn’t have to mean going into debt for it.

Now, you definitely won’t be staying at the Grand Hotel – the most gorgeous, most expensive hotel on the island. (Though, I do recommend staring at it in awe when you see it as you take the island across.)

But, you can still enjoy your time there like we did!

How Long is the Ferry Ride to Mackinac Island?

The ferry takes 16-26 minutes depending on where you depart and which ferry you take. You can depart from Mackinac City or St. Ignace. We departed from St. Ignace. The difference between the two is just that each location is on opposite ends of the Mackinac Bridge.

There is a toll for the bridge so naturally we wanted to take the ferry from the side that was closest to where we were coming from so we didn’t have to pay the toll.

Our ferry took 16 minutes but you can take a more scenic ferry ride that is 26 minutes long. That will cost you a little more though, of course. Both our kids and us found the 16 ferry ride to be scenic enough. It was one of the most enjoyable parts of the day.

You can buy your tickets online or in person. You can save $2 a ticket if you buy them online.

Food on Mackinac Island

This is the biggest way we saved money. We packed all our own food in a backpack for the day. Food on the island is incredibly expensive.

Of course, food is often part of the travel experience and so normally I would definitely indulge. But with two teenagers and a pre-teen we decided this was the best way to save money.

You don’t even have to go all crazy and prep your food at home. When we travel through the states (we live in Canada) we love to stop at Walmart and buy those pre-made salads, some granola bars, and some fruit.

They are still a cheap option compared to buying at a restaurant. And we were able to sit down on the grass at Marquette Park and watch all the action in go by in front of us while we enjoyed our picnic.

Of course, I made a point to buy a coffee on the island because coffee is life to me.

Riding Bikes on the Island

If there’s one thing you splurge on while on the island, I recommend renting bicycles. For 5 of us it wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was worth it.

We rented bicycles for two hours and rode around the whole island. We were able to make stops along the way to take in some sights, like the arch pictured below.

Without bicycles we wouldn’t have been able to do this.

After comparing the cost from the multiple places you can rent bicycles from on the island I found all the places had very similar prices.

You can also bring your own bicycle onto the ferry but it costs 21 dollars. This might be cost effective if you plan to spend the weekend there and bike around multiple days, but for a day trip it really isn’t cost effective.

Plus, I found their bicycles kind of fun!

As we biked around we saw amazing sights, like this one below where there were a bunch of sailboats on the water.

Purchasing Fudge

Mackinac Island is known for it’s amazing fudge. There is no shortage of places you can buy fudge from. If you are going to buy anything on the island, I recommend at least a little bit of fudge.

If you are lucky you might just find some samples at the fudge stores. Before we went on our trip I read that there were tons of free samples at the Mackinac Island fudge stores but we didn’t experience that when we went.

We did find a couple places that offered free samples, but it definitely wasn’t every store. That being said, we were there on a holiday weekend that was excessively busy, and that could be why.

Where to Stay

We took a day trip to the island and decided to stay in nearby Sault Ste Marie, Michigan so that we could go visit Tahquamenon Falls in Paradise, Michigan (another worthy spot, trust me.) We found Sault Ste. Marie to have the post affordable prices and it’s only about 45 minutes away.

Some people like to stay in St. Ignace, or Mackinaw City. Both places are nice to visit, but I will say they are more costly.

Of course, they are still cheaper than the island.

Other people camp at some local campgrounds on the mainland, and that’s an option as well. That would obviously be the most affordable choice.

Of course, if you want a luxurious vacation, the Grand Hotel is the famous massive hotel on the island. So famous that you can buy tickets just to go explore the grounds.

Other Things to do on the Island

We kind of kept it just to bicycling around the island and stopping at all the scenic locations, exploring the fudge stores, a trail walk, and checking out the local library (we have a book obsession problem.)

But there are so many other things to do such as:

• Carriage Ride
• Fort Mackinac
• The Butterfly House
• Fort Holmes
• Sugar Loaf

….and so much more!

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our time on the island. My only regret was not going in autumn as I hear it’s quite beautiful. However, it’s gorgeous during summer as well. They also have a lilac festival in June which would be an amazing time to visit, especially if you love lilacs like I do!

Here’s a fun fact about Mackinac Island. There are about 600 year round residents. They even have a school on the island for kids! When the ferry can no longer run due to the ice they can only travel to the mainland by plane.

It would be quite an experience growing up on the island, don’t you think?

While most of us will never grow up living a lifestyle like that, we can experience island life for a short time with daytrips or weekend trips.