littlelamb

My husband and I are beginning to plan our annual trip for this fall and we need some help. We are going to take our trip Sept. 13 - Sept. 20. We want to visit Northeast Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.

We would be flying from Georgia. Need to know which airport to fly in to. We like to fly in and out of same airport if we can.

We are both 51 years old and we like to do moderate hikes, love small towns, country stores, farms, beautiful scenery, and neat places to eat. We don't mind just driving and looking at scenery. We also like to stay in bed and breakfast inns if we can.

Just need some ideas to get us started with a plan. We have heard that this area is beautiful and we can't wait to see it. I know that we don't have very many days to explore, but we want to see as much as we can.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Keith

Michigan's large airports are in the southern part of the lower Peninsula. That said, I have sometimes found good fares to Marquette and Escanaba in the UP, but your best chance for that area is probably Green Bay.

You could have used all of that time in the UP, but since you are including NE Wisconsin, you will need to be more selective. Destinations which I would look at from west to east include Lake of the Clouds & Porcupine Mountains, Copper Harbor & Brockway Mountain Drive, Munising & Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Fayette Historic Townsite, Tahquamenon Falls, Whitefish Point & the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, the Soo Locks, and Mackinac Island & the Mackinac Bridge.

Given 5 nights, you could squeeze all of those in, though I would probably skip the Locks unless it really caught your fancy. A lot of people would visit fewer places and spend more time at them, but you sound like the type of traveler that would enjoy that pace.

Include one night on Mackinac Island.

littlelamb

Thanks Keith........I have been checking airfare and have found Milwaukee to have considerably lower fares. Would it be doable you think to fly in and out of there for this trip, or not?

Also thought of flying into Milwaukee and out Detroit or the other way around.

Hope we can get to all of the places you mentioned . Wish we could take a couple of weeks for this trip, but that is just not in the cards for us.

Keith

You can certainly drive to those areas from Milwaukee or Detroit.

Most of my trips are to Mackinaw City at the northern most tip of the Lower Peninsula and I have flown into airports as far away as Detroit and Chicago, but when the fares & flight options are good, I like to fly in to somewhere closer.

Chicago is really too far, but it made sense one time for other reasons. Only one airline has non-stop flights to Detroit form my market and their fares are often less competitive. If I am going to have to change planes anyway, I would much rather go into an airport that is farther north.

Up until recently, the place with the best fare/flight combination has often been Flint.

littlelamb

Have been checking airfare pretty regularly and Milwaukee seems to always have better prices. I keep checking Sept. 13-20 dates.
The farthest northern area from Milawaukee that we plan to visit is the Copper Harbor area and the farthest Eastern destination would be Mackinaw Island. All that said, if we arrive in Milwaukee mid morning, would it be better to head north to Copper Harbor or to make our way to Mackinaw Island. I thought we would do sort of circle tour either way. We don't mind staying in a different place every night and we want to see as much as possible in the time we have. Just need someone to give me some direction and suggestions. Thanks.

WhereAreWe

Have you also looked at flights to Minneapolis to see how they compare to Milwaukee? Minneapolis is about the same distance to Copper Harbor as Milwaukee, but a couple hours farther away from Mackinac Island. I would also check rental car prices from both airports and factor that into the overall cost.

ronko

I would suggest a trip to Northern Wisconsin -- fly into Minneapolis - Duluth-Superior -- and go to the Apostle Islands near Bayfield Wisconsin -- their is the National Park Apostle Islands composed of 22 islands and Madeline Island - quaint shops in Bayfield - and on Madeline Island - you can take boat excursions to the Islands and see the lighthouses and shipwrecks - hike - take the ferry -- the scenery is outstanding - and you might see the changing of fall colors - If you look at the history of development of the West -- Madeline Island has La Pointe which was an early fur trading capitol -- it was instrumental in the development of the West - trading and logging - a lot of US history going back to the 1600's -- long before Chicago or Milwaukee. Their is a great museum at La Pointe. Recently they had the 'ice caves' which made national and international news -- they will be gone before you get here - but if you kayak and take a boat trip you can see the tremendous rock formations on the mainland but also on the various islands. I hope you have a great trip wherever you go.