We are thinking of making a short trip from New York City to visit this museum, where there is an exhibition my friend especially wants to see. I've jsut started reading about it and sounds like a wonderful place to visit.

We are thinking of going this month, July, in case that's relevant to the kind of suggestions anyone might have.

My questions:

1- am I right in thinking Detroit is the right/closest/probably lowest-fare place to fly into?

We'd expect to rent a car unless we find out about a good way to get there without a car.

2- I've read the relevant threads but will ask again as they are a couple of years old - any suggestions about nice places to stay in the area? lower-cost is better.

3-any other suggestions for a trip to this area -- especially any favorite low-cost food places? (local specialties or otherwise)

Hi, Detroit Metro is the best airport to fly into. Renting a car is the best option. If you like Deli, Zingerman's in Ann Arbor is amazing.

Elizabeth,

Consider staying in Ann Arbor (roughly 40 minutes from the Cranbrook museum and half an hour from the Detroit Metro airport). Vibrant town. If you choose Ann Arbor, the two best picks (my opinion) with a lot of character are http://www.belltowerhotel.com/ and http://www.campusinn.com/home.html.

Tons of good restaurant in the area. Pick where you will stay first.

When in July? Consider attending this http://www.artfair.org/ which gets nearly a million visitors over three days for a reason. Too bad you have already missed this http://www.annarborsummerfestival.org/.

Finally, may I ask what brings you from NYC to Cranbrook? I go there almost on a biweekly basis and thus curious.

Detroit is beholden to the auto makers- public transportation is pretty much nonexistent.

Detroit Suburbs Geography 101- you're technically in a new city every 3 streets or so (the suburb borders are laid out based on old farm boundaries- I cannot find a rhyme or reason to them), so don't be alarmed when I mention places in 5 different cities- none are more than a half hour from the rest on surface streets (and none of the lights are synchronized once you cross the city lines). Also, the streets are laid out in east-west numbered Miles (that sometimes are known by their Mile names or by an actual name, depending on the cross streets), and the North-South streets are laid out in a spoke pattern, so they really go Northeast and Northwest instead of just North, etc. The numbers on the buildings do not relate to the Mile numbers at all, and will reset when you cross into another city.

Tom mentioned there's a Holiday Inn on Woodward around 15 Mile in Birmingham, which would be a good base (about 2 1/2 miles south of Cranbrook), or you can do a search for hotels in Birmingham (probably spendy by Detroit standards- it's the status suburb), Troy (lots of business hotels there, really safe area, nice upper middle class area), Pontiac (probably cheap, more blue collar suburb, less convenient to everything), or Royal Oak (trendy party area).

Also, you have to fly Spirit, but they had LaGuardia to Detroit as part of the $1 sale (before fees and taxes out the wazoo). I'm still not sure it's worth it to fly them, but it is cheap!

The local food is a coney dog or a hanni. The hanni is a fried chicken breast, sliced with lettuce, tomato and mayo on a pita. But my food suggestions are:
Noble Fish- on 14 Mile just east of Livernois in Clawson. It's just a sushi counter in the back of a Japanese grocery, but the sushi is as good as I remember the sushi in Japan, and it's really cheap (less than $30 for two). The bento are really fresh too. They are closed on Mondays.

Beirut Palace- On Main (aka Livernois)at 11 Mile in Royal Oak. Good Lebanese, best baklava I've ever had- soaking wet but still crispy. www.beirutpalace.com (but be warned, there's no way to turn the music on the website off)

Blue Nile- on 9 Mile about 3 blocks west of Woodward in Ferndale. Egyptian. So yummy! They have 2 entree choices- everything, or everything but meat. It's about $20pp. www.bluenilemi.com I know they're closed on Mondays, they may be on Sundays as well, but the website doesn't say.

The Ann Arbor Art Fair looks nice, but I don't think I'll want to go to it on this trip - but your useful info raises a question - will people attending the fair be staying in the places I want to go to (Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham, Troy)or affecting traffic where I want to go?

Info so far really helpful, thanks.

Why I want to go to Cranbrook - my friend has a friend with an exhibit there, and in general I was feeling like going someplace - and it sounds nice when I read about it!!

Although I really have no basis to quantitatively assess, I doubt you will have problems getting hotels that far. Still, best to book asap if you are coming in the next ten days! cocontom gave you a detailed roadmap to follow.

Cranbrook is a rather special place, and gets nearly half a million visitors a year. Very distinguished alumni (many are who's who of Fortune 500) and very nice Art Museum and Institute of Science. I know them rather well. I expect you will enjoy your trip (make sure to follow cocontom's suggestions....).

Definitely planning to follow suggestions from Cocontom here - one more question - is there a care or restaurant in the museum someplace?

I couldn't find anything on the website about it.

Bloomfield Hills is far enough from Ann Arbor that few people would stayt that far away from the Art Fair.

I had a ball the year we went to the Fair.

At the end the end of the day, with all our cash gone, we stopped at an Indian Restaurant in a former house. We inquired when we went in, and they didn't take credit cards. They said they took checks, but we didn't have checkbook with us.

As we walked back out, they said we could mail them a check!

They got a big tip

Keith

If I am not mistaken, the Spanish architect, Rafael Moneo, was doing some additions to Cranbrook last time I was there ( many years ago).

I am curious to which part he did. Maybe it is this art museum??

He also did the famous Madrid Atocha station, the addition to El Prado Museum, and some of you may be familiar with the fabulous Merida Arqueológico museum.

Stay at the Townsend in Birmingham. It is lovely, although it is not "low cost" but check it out.

One caveat- the Woodward Dream Cruise (which is a misnomer, it should be the Dream Traffic Jam) is August 17-18. Unless you're a car buff, you probably don't want to be here then (and hotels nearby will be much more expensive for a few days before and after).

Followup - thanks for your help, it really did help me get oriented and make plans. I got nice rooms at the Radisson in Bloomfield Hills on Hotwire for $89 -- it's a totally nice place and the restaurant breakfast was excellent.

Convenient to Cranbrook - with a car - which I loved. I only went to the museum as the show was so interesting and we just had a day.

Then a bit of time in Birmingham, ate in a nice Middle Eastern place - thought it was the one you recommended but it wasn't - this was called Elie's.

Then actually - drove to Novi, another suburb, to see a Hindi movie, though I recognize this isn't what everyone goes to Detroit for. Very nice theatre.