Heading to Northern Michigan this November? There are plenty of places to relax with fabulous wine, great deals, no crowds, creative packages with pampering aplenty, and how about a Thanksgiving
 dinner delivered to your condo or cabin door?

Bed, Breakfast—and Beer: Bellaire

The slow season means time to relax at the Bellaire Bed & Breakfast—chatting with the owners, indulging in your fresh-baked cookies enjoyed fireside in the Carriage House rooms, lingering over a good book from the inn’s library—or chilling out with the pub brewer from nearby Short’s Brewing Company. Book the Short’s Brew Weekend, November 14—15, and fun starts at the inn’s “Beer Hour” tasting and brewmaster chat. Later, there’s a production facility tour and a five-course meal paired with Short’s beers ($85/person in addition to the cost of two nights accommodations).

 

Bed, Breakfast—and Wine: Traverse City

A new mulled wine travel package is never so welcome as during a November chill. At a prearranged time, Chateau Chantal winery innkeepers will deliver a warmed pot of mulled cherry wine to your room overlooking the vineyard and Grand Traverse Bay, served with two logo mugs (yours to keep), a cheese plate and baguette fresh from the oven ($30 above room rate cost). A little-known guest perk also lets you do some self-serve wine tasting, after hours, at the tasting room bar, toss some logs on the sitting room fireplace, as if it were your own country manor. Stay any November Sunday, get half off Monday rates.

The Inn at Black Star Farms, on the nearby Leelanau Peninsula, offers its best rates of the year come November: $150–$315 a night, or up to $100 less than you’d pay peak season. Settle into a room named after a star and you’ll feel like one with your free bottle of Red House wine, cozy robe, fireplace and spa tub (in some rooms). Stays all include a wine and cheese reception in the Pegasus bar and gourmet breakfast. Book the night of November 12, and you can add on the inn’s harvest dinner, featuring duck, cranberries and wine.

Keep the Zen: Thompsonville

Don’t wait for a New Year’s resolution to inspire you to join a health club. With Crystal Mountain’s Holiday Spa and Fitness special ($99 added onto any room rate), the personal training session comes before the holiday binging, as does the stress-relieving massage and as much time as you care to take lounging by the blissful fireplace meditation room, sipping tea in the Winter sun, warming in the steam room or soaking in a bubbling hot tub on an outside patio. The idea, resort spokespeople say, is that you stave off chaos with a pre-holiday break.

 

Simple Thanksgiving: Boyne Falls

Gather your relatives into a roomy slopeside condo at Boyne Mountain, and be sure to answer the door when room service knocks with a tray full of turkey and traditional fixings, and voilà—a stress-free holiday. An afternoon nap remains an option, but so does a slate of weekend family fun: ziplines, sleigh rides, an indoor waterpark, wine and beer tasting, family movies (with popcorn), skiing and snowboarding (if weather allows) and more (Nov. 27–30). Or anytime in November, head to light-filled Boyne’s Solace Spa for a soak in the giant spa tub, a pedicure at slope’s edge, or a pumpkin-scented massage that’ll have you reliving holiday dinners past, minus the calories.

 

More Northern Michigan Thanksgiving

Wine Pairings with Thanksgiving Dinner

Northern Michigan Fall Red Wines

Food and Drink Events in Northern Michigan