Flying to Mackinac Island

[dtzl]

Would like to take the wife on a "$100 hamburger weekend" to Mackinac Island, Michigan. Looks like about a 3.5 hour flight to get there. Was doing some research on it and came up with the following questions that I thought some of you could chime in on:

1) Where to stay? Price is not a factor, but would like to hear of any cool places to stay besides the Grand Hotel. I have often found that staying away from the best-known places can be a better route to take.

2) If I fly onto the island, I have to make a fuel stop on the way up there since they do not have fuel. Is it just as easy to fly into St. Ignace (they have fuel), park the plane there and take the ferry over?

3) If I do fly directly onto the island, are there certain arrival/departure times to avoid due to heavy volume? I have heard that if you fly onto the island itself at the wrong time, you can wait awhile to get a transfer to your hotel.

4) What other modes of taxi service is on the island besides horse and buggy? Do they have electric vehicles or magnetic levitation?

Thanks for any input.

 

[U-I pilot]

What other modes of taxi service is on the island besides horse and buggy?

They have bicycles built for 1, 2, and prolly more....

I have done the ferry before...dunno about the schedule but as I remember it runs pretty regularly and I've never had a problem.

Be sure to get some fudge...its the best...
have a good trip!

 

[HS125]

dtzl,

1) As for a place to stay on the island check out the following web site http://www.mackinac.com/. Lots of very nice places to stay besides the Grand Hotel.

2) For fuel, if the weather is good, stop in Boyne City (N98). The fuel is very nicely priced (Less that $2.50/gal) and is sold on the honnor system. Just pump your own fuel and fill out the fuel slip and the city will mail you the bill later.

3) This time of year, most of the fudgies have gone home , and the island will be very peacful, and flying to the island is no problem, with abundant parking. Just radio ahead for a taxi (horse & buggy) and it should be there shortly after you land.

If you have any questions that you think I could answer, just PM me.

 

[JohnDoe]

At this time of the year (post labor day), traffic shouldn't be that bad. You can call ahead on the unicom/ctaf and ask the airport guy to call a "cab" for you. That should reduce a little of your wait time. I've never seen it take longer than about 20-30 minutes for one to get up to the airport anyway. Its approx. 3 miles or so to town. The fare is roughly $7.00/person.

Other than the horse and carriage, bicycle is the only mode of transportation, but there are no rental places at the airport.

As far as places to stay, I've only stayed on the island three times(out of about 25 visits). Once was a bed and breakfast, the other two a hotel. There are alot of both b&b's and hotels to try. If it is still busy up there, and finding a room is a problem, you can call the tourism office (i believe it is) and they will usually have a listing of who may have room available.

The ferry should still be running pretty regularly. If memory serves it is about a 20 minute ride. You should fly in though. If you made it that far............no reason not to go the rest of the way.

Hope this helps....

 

[nascarpilot]

We were up at Mackinac just before the Michigan race in August. My driver stayed on the Island (at the Chippewa, I believe). I elected to stay in St. Ignace which is just over the bridge from Mackinaw City.

I elected to stay there for a couple of reasons......

1. I stayed at the Quality Inn Lakefront for about $80/night vs. triple that on the island.

2. There are some really good places to eat on the mainland (and a couple of really good fish places in St. Ignace) and I wanted to be able to get to them easily.

3. My King bed room had a beautiful view of Mackinac Island. I spent a lot of time on my balcony just decompressing and enjoying the waterfront.

4. If I wanted to go to the island (and I did), I can just go down to the ferry and head over. The ferry leaves every half hour to and from the island.

5. We flew into Pellston (we fly a Citation) rather than fly into the island. It was easy to rent a car there (and affordable). It's only 20 minutes from the airport to the Mackinaw Bridge. The other option would be St. Ignace's airport. From my balcony I was watching the airplanes make the base to final turn all weekend.

6. Mackinaw City is also worth seeing/shopping. If you're a fish person there is a fish market one block off main street in Mackinaw City. I brought back 10 pounds of beautiful lake trout fillets that they packed for travel back to North Carolina for us.

One of our favorite spots. Happy to give more info if you email.

 

[snoopy_1]

You don't need a taxi, the walk will take less than an hour to town, it's peaceful, no cars, walking the Island is the only way to go.

 

[wmudriver]

MCD

I flew into Mackinac during Labor Day weekend.
The tourist season in Michigan pretty much winds up around Labor Day. There is a cool hotel in town on the Island that over looks the main drag (the name is Peach Tree hotel I think, but not sure). Parking shouldn't be a problem, there is a a landing fee of $10 +/-.
Its a about a 1.2 mile hike from the airport into town. A horse drawn taxi will pick you up at the airport, but you have to wait about .5 hours for it.
We fueled up in Gaylord (Otsego Co., has an ILS or LOC apprch).
Private message me if you have any questions.

 

[wmudriver]

Oh yea, forgot...though the island beauty is stunning, the smell of horse manure and fudge does get nausiating

 

[WMU_Drew]

Since you are going now you can find great deals on everything on the island housing, food, etc. I was up there during an October weekend a few years ago, we were in some bar (the one with tons of different beer) on the main drag and the owner of the bar was trying to close the bar for the season in the next few weeks so he sold us any brand bottle of beer (like really good import/rare beer) for $1 each and then he let us take as many as we could carry in a brown paper bag for $1 each.

My point is that since its not "in season" now great deals are all over.

Mission Point is a great place to stay great view, almost as nice as the Grand Hotel and not as expensive. But if you are going all out do the Grand Hotel.

Only bikes and horses for primary transportation.

Drew

 

[dtzl]

This is why I love this message board. Great information guys, thank you very much!