This holiday season, gift your family a week of unforgettable fun in Petoskey.
Day 1: Follow the cozy glow of gas-lit street lamps into Petoskey’s supremely walkable downtown—boutiques, galleries and cafes abound.
Day 2: Hit a super kid-cool hangout, SEE-North’s Exploration Center, home to heaps of hands-on activities about Northern Michigan’s plants, animals and habitats. 231-348-9700
Day 3: Cruise Petoskey State Park’s snow-swept dunes, Little Traverse Bay shore or 2.5-mile Portage Trail on snowshoes or cross-country skis rented from nearby Bahnhof Sport. 231-347-2112.
Day 4: Sled, ice skate, sip hot cocoa and ski down a small hill at Petoskey Winter Sports Park. 231-347-2500.
Day 5: Tackle the mountains at Nub’s Nob and Boyne Highlands resorts—both sit just six miles north.
Day 6: See where more than a half million brown and rainbow trout begin each year at nearby Oden State Fish Hatchery. Kids can feed the fish in the pond, walk a mile-long watershed trail and peer through plate-glass viewing chambers to see what’s up underwater in the Oden stream. 231-347-4689
Day 7: At your winter holiday home base, Petoskey’s Holiday Inn Express, wind up with a heated game of Marco Polo in the indoor pool, then wind down with an in-room movie. Nightly stays start at $109, daily breakfast included. 231-487-0991
Prefer a warm-weather trip? Check out ten more reasons to visit Little Traverse.