My recommendation would be the Petoskey area and Mackinac Island. Skip Traverse City. It's gotten too big and isn't nearly as pretty as Petoskey, Charlevoix, and Harbor Springs. You are correct about the Grand Hotel...a nice place to visit but a bit pricy. Try the Terrace Inn in Bay View near Petoskey. Not nearly as expensive as anywhere else in the area and perfectly charming. On Mackinac Island, stay at one of the B & Bs. I've stayed at Cloghan Inn a couple of times and like it very much. MackIsland should not be nearly as crowded as summertime. Highly recommend Woods Restaurant in the interior of MackIsl. It is part of the Grand Hotel...good food and ambiance...(try bowling in their one lane alley off the bar before or after dinner) If you go there, you'll book and take the Grand Hotel taxi which will take you to Grand Hotel on the way up to Woods. On the way back from dinner, simply disembark at Grand Hotel (like you're staying there) and have a look around without having to pay the $10pp just to get on the porch! Easily walk back to Cloghan or downtown if you're staying there.

The Straits area will not be crowded in October.

I recommend your getting a room at the Deer Head Inn Bed & Breakfast in Mackinaw City. It is a nice B&B with reasonable prices and only a half block off of Central Avenue. The breakfast is spectacular. This was our room (Wilderness Room) http://www.mightymac.org/09mackinaw04.JPG I see it is still available for that weekend this year. If you book online it says $129/ night, but it is listed at $119 on another page on their web site and if you call and point it out, you should get that pricing.

The fall color hits at different times every year, but from Mackinaw you can day trip north or south accordingly. That early in October, you will most likely be going north and I highly recommend your taking a day to drive to Tahquamenon Falls and to Whitefish Point with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

These photos were taken a week later, two years ago http://www.mightymac.org/tahquamenonfalls.htm

And of course a day on Mackinac Island. If you are in the mood to splurge, do the spectacular lunch buffet at the Grand Hotel. It is $40/person, but the that includes tip and your $10 admission to the grounds is also a $10 credit towards a purchase.

Keith

I would suggest Chateau Chantal,a winery/B & B on Old Mission Peninsula. Memories include sitting on the balcony, watching the sunset over the vineyard. Loved it! I would fly into Traverse City, the drive to Old Mission Peninsula is only a half hour away.

http://www.chateauchantal.com/

I'll add in - Cottage Inn on Mac Isl. stayed there a few weeks ago and really liked it. If you go to the Island, take the ferries from St. Ignace. It amazes me that people go to the area and don't bother to cross the bridge! It's so beautiful to have the views as you cross - assuming your the passenger and don't have to focus on the road!

I agree about crossing the bridge, but would return to Mackinaw City to catch the ferry. The view of the Mackinac Bridge and the Straits of Mackinac is so much better from boats traveling from that side.

Even if you don't stay on Mackinac Island, you MUST visit it - perhaps have tea in the Grand Hotel or at least wander the lobby and veranda.

(If you can stand the saccharine, see the film "Somewhere in Time" before you go - to give you a sense of the era for such hotels.)