Area Guides
Written from the top of Building 50
Six guides, years in the making: the routes we drive, the tables we book, and the answers we give when a guest asks what to do. Read them before you come, or pull them up on the drive.
The Whole Town
A Local's Guide to Traverse City
Everything in one place: what to do, where to eat, when to come, and how the seasons change the answers. If you read only one guide, read this one, then come back for the deep cuts below.
Read the guideThen, from our door outward
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Down the stairs
The Grounds
The Grand Traverse Commons
The old state hospital turned into our neighborhood. Its history, the restaurants downstairs, and how to find your way around.
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Six minutes to Front Street
Food & Drink
Traverse City Food & Drink
The tables worth booking ahead, the counters worth the wait, and the coffee we start every morning with.
Read the guide -
Twenty minutes up the peninsula
Wine Loop
Old Mission Peninsula
One road, ten wineries, water on both sides. Our half-day loop with the stops in the order we drive them.
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Half an hour into wine country
Wine Loop
Leelanau Peninsula
Rolling farmland, small towns, and Lake Michigan shoreline. The longer wine day, mapped the way we run it.
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Forty-five minutes to the bluffs
Day Trip
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Sand bluffs over Lake Michigan, voted the most beautiful place in America. A full day, stop by stop.
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We update these the way other people mow lawns. If a place has changed by the time you visit, tell us and we'll fix it.
Reading from the road?
Every guide starts at the same place: The Observatory, our loft at the top of Building 50, in the middle of everything above.
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