Anyone rented a cottage in Michigan?
 

I'm considering renting a cottage for my family next summer and since the only other time I did this was in 1990, I have 2 main questions :-)

1. How far in advance would I need to rent? I'm thinking of going in July or August.

2. How hard is it to get a rental for less than a week? Since this is our first time we'd like to just do a long weekend, perhaps Thursday-Sunday or Saturday-Tuesday.

I'd also love suggestions for specific cottages or locations. Our requirements are at least 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, on the water with a sandy beach and a long shallow area, and with a town nearby so that we can eat out for at least a meal or two. We'll have a toddler, about 18 months old, so I'm thinking that an inland lake would be better than one of the Great Lakes because the water would be warmer. We're open to pretty much anywhere in the lower peninsula of Michigan or northern Ohio or southern Ontario. We all live in southeast Michigan and don't want to go much further for a long weekend.

Thanks for any help that you can offer. If this works out, I'm hoping we can make this an annual tradition!

Have you ever been to Indiana Dunes? http://www.indianadunes.com/where-to-stay/cabins/
It's been decades since I paddled a canoe on the Ausable River in Michigan. The river was clear enough that I spotted a beer can (full) on the bottom of the river. It tasted great.

Less than a week will be hard to find, UNLESS you are going off season.

Is New Buffalo too far from you? (I don't know Michigan well at all). We spent 3 nights in New Buffalo in a cute little cottage that we found on AirBNB for Father's Day (Sat-Tue). Our 18 month old and 3 yo had a great time and the town had good restaurants and a high quality grocery store. (The town was not thriving but had enough restaurants, good cafe, ice cream shops, etc. to keep us happy for a long weekend.) There's a playground on the beach and a free local splash playground park nearby.

My friends tell me that South Haven is worth the drive and we will check that out next summer. It seems like many of these places are booked a year in advance but new rentals come on the market all the time so I just keep checking.

Hello Pat,

I'm also a Michigander from S.E. Michigan.

I wonder if you have heard about the Irish Hills area, which is a vacation-tourist-cottage country area out US-12 (old Michigan Avenue) about 20 miles south of Jackson. It's a very pretty area, with countless cottages and dozens of lakes. The Brooklyn-Irish Hills Chamber of Commerce has a website (irishhills.com) which has a large listing of rental cottages on the lakes in the area. I suggest that you take a look at the website and see which if the many places might suit your needs.

As far as when to start your search, I would suggest you start a casual, informal search right away, since many of the cottages are rented year-after-year by the same families, in the same weeks. This is particularly so since you want to rent in peak season, July - August. I would not wait any longer than the first half of January to look in earnest.

Good luck.

I agree with MargaretandTony. Although I suggest that you start looking now.

I have never rented a cottage but my parents have as well as my sister. My sister has rented in the Douglas/Saugatuck area and they have to put down their deposit 1 year in advance.

Caseville may be an option for you. It is on the eastern coast of Michigan.

You are quite right, Diva, the sooner that Pat starts looking, and making a hard-and-fast booking, the better. I guess I phrased my response poorly. I meant to suggest that if they had not made a booking by the first half of January it would probably be too late to book for the following summer.


As far as Caseville, I have spent a fair amount of time there. I am not familiar with the cottages or the beach on Huron, but I remember that Caseville was basically an old farm town somewhat down on its luck. There is not a lot in the way of decent restaurants there, or touristy shops. Perhaps it has changed in the 5+ years since I was there last.

Thanks for all the advice! Wow, as early as January? That's a bit discouraging. It may be hard to pin my family down to commit that soon. But I'll look at the areas that you've mentioned and we'll see. The info is much appreciated.

MargaretandTony, I have not been to Caseville myself but I have seen postings from many friends that have been there in the last few years. It looked nice to me. My family did rent a cottage in Caseville but it has been many years. I was just suggesting an area.

Pat: "Wow, as early as January?"

To reinforce what Diva and I mentioned earlier, Pat, early January would be the LATEST I would try to book a place. After that, I suspect that all of the cottages will be pretty much booked up. Beyond January, you might as well make your plane reservations for Orlando.

Diva: I am sure you are right in that there are many nice beach-front cottages along Lake Huron in the Thumb. I just remember the town itself as not offering much in regard to food, shopping, and tourist activities. I think that whether it was an acceptable area would depend on how "self-contained" a family was, and how much they would want to leave the cottage and do touristy activities. If a family wanted to use the barbeque grill for meals and read mystery novels on the beach and swim, then I am sure it would be fine.