Summering in UP or LP (Marquette, Traverse City: real estate, rental homes, condo)

earthlyfather · 05-18-2011, 10:24 AM

Hi,
We will be retiring in two or three years. Since we live in the Deep South, with hot and sticky summers, DW and I thought we might want to try doing a 'reverse' snowbird thing in retirement. We are planning a trip in June 2012 to the UP, North of MI-72 to see if we might like spending a month or two in the summers. That’s a line roughly from Harrisville across to Traverse City. We want to go all the way up to Marquette if that is realistic. Right now we are planning 5 or 6 days on this trip, plus transit from and to home.

We can do a lot of research on the internet and think we already know about a couple of the "hot" spots like Traverse City and Petoskey. As Michigan is a beautiful state, there are bound to be more, on the Great Lakes and inland. Please point out other desirable summer vacation spots.

Finally, there are some things that will be most helpful. First, we might like to be in a neighboring town near a hot spot, but not actually in the hot spot town. Our reasoning is the rents might not be as high in the neighboring town. Any suggestions along those lines will be appreciated.

Does anyone have suggestions for itinerary; where do we go first, next and so forth? We really don’t have a clue at this point about how to lay this out. We are familiar with VRBO and other sites of that nature.

Finally, does anyone know of sources, other than VRBO for summer rentals?

We are an active couple, enjoy the outdoors, but also like shopping, good food and cultural things. Ideally, we would be positioned so that we could enjoy a little bit of all of those. Thanks so much for your help in advance.

cjbailey · 05-18-2011, 02:28 PM

I lived year round in the Petoskey area for 4 years. The UP is beautiful, but the summer amounts to a month or two. It is mostly very rural. If you want peace, tranquility, nature then that's your place.

In what we refer to as the tip of the mitten you'll find both nature and summer culture that can't be beat. It is by far one of the most beautiful places in the US to summer. Traverse City, Charlevoix, Petoskey and Harbor Springs are where you can find an abundance of small town shopping, restaurants, special events and the unbeatable Lake Michigan.

The population triples in these areas for summer and traffic is a bit more tricky. On the outskirts of all these towns it's possible to find both home and condo rentals. If you want waterfront it will always be pricey. But if you want something quaint, near water but not on the water you will have a variety of price points.

You can check Craigslist, VRBO, and various real estate web sites to find rentals. Many of the inland lake associations have their own rental lists.

Luzette · 05-18-2011, 03:15 PM

It's hard to beat the Traverse City area, but you would do well to go to Leland and Glen Arbor which are not all that far from Traverse. Leland is a very quaint small town that is very busy in the summer. This is wine country in Michigan along with Old Mission Peninsula right there in Traverse. Food in Northern Michigan has been high lighted in several magazines as being some of the best in the country. A summer in Michigan is like a trip to Paradise.

earthlyfather · 05-18-2011, 03:47 PM

Thanks for the replies CJ and Luzette.

Hoping we can swing this. Rent will be the tricky part. The board part we'd have anyway. Gotta' eat whether at home or enjoying the UP. Anything else either of you think of, fire away.

michmoldman · 05-18-2011, 04:19 PM

Agree with all the posts. You cant go wrong in that area....amazing!!!!!!

losethatsmile · 05-19-2011, 05:42 PM

If you're willing to live more inland, Gaylord is a beautiful town. It's growing fast, but the rents are still very cheap. And you may not be near the Great Lakes, but you'll definitely not be missing out. There are smaller lakes everywhere, and it's only about an hour and a half from Traverse and less than an hour from Mackinaw City and Petoskey. It's a self-sufficient town with plenty of shopping and very friendly people. (I'm biased - I grew up there

) and very safe. I know it was very popular when I was a kid for summer tourism, and if you look in the right place, you can find a very inexpensive lake home.
Hope you don't mind me throwing my 2 cents in! Let me know if you have any more questions about the area - I haven't lived there for about 15 years, but my husband and I go up every summer and I still have friends/family there. BTW, if you don't want to live in town, the surrounding towns are tiny but cute.
I know absolutely nothing about how to find rental homes, so I can't help you there. But real estate websites and local realtors should be able to point you in the right direction.
I hope you love northern MI as much as I do. I'd go back if the job market was better...I miss it terribly.

Luzette · 05-19-2011, 09:30 PM

earthlyfather,

In addition to having great food and wine up here we also have wonderful local coffee companies. I don't know if you're a coffee drinker, but I've ordered coffee from many online companies only to conclude that none can beat what we have right here at home.

earthlyfather · 05-20-2011, 08:51 AM

Losethatsmile....Terrifc information. This is exactly what we are looking for. We don't need, or want to be right in the middle of a hotspot. Given we'd be there for a month or so, an hour here or there would make good day trips. We'll give Gaylord a look see when we are up next summer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by losethatsmile

If you're willing to live more inland, Gaylord is a beautiful town. It's growing fast, but the rents are still very cheap. And you may not be near the Great Lakes, but you'll definitely not be missing out. There are smaller lakes everywhere, and it's only about an hour and a half from Traverse and less than an hour from Mackinaw City and Petoskey. It's a self-sufficient town with plenty of shopping and very friendly people. (I'm biased - I grew up there

) and very safe. I know it was very popular when I was a kid for summer tourism, and if you look in the right place, you can find a very inexpensive lake home.
Hope you don't mind me throwing my 2 cents in! Let me know if you have any more questions about the area - I haven't lived there for about 15 years, but my husband and I go up every summer and I still have friends/family there. BTW, if you don't want to live in town, the surrounding towns are tiny but cute.
I know absolutely nothing about how to find rental homes, so I can't help you there. But real estate websites and local realtors should be able to point you in the right direction.
I hope you love northern MI as much as I do. I'd go back if the job market was better...I miss it terribly.

earthlyfather · 05-20-2011, 12:53 PM

I'm your coffee guy! If you know them off the top of your head, what are the names of and where are the Michigander coffee brewers. As for the wine, my DW is the drinker in the family. I tink she had a couple of glasses of wine last year. Thanks for the info.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luzette

earthlyfather,

In addition to having great food and wine up here we also have wonderful local coffee companies. I don't know if you're a coffee drinker, but I've ordered coffee from many online companies only to conclude that none can beat what we have right here at home.

Luzette · 05-20-2011, 02:53 PM

Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company is where I get most my coffee from. Their main brewery is in Glen Arbor, but stores carry coffee from this company in a wide range of areas. They're online so check it out. I used to order coffee from as far away as California and all over the country. It was fine coffee at all these specialty places, but you just can't go wrong with products here in northern Michigan. I grind my own beans and enjoy my coffee every day. I'm drinking some great Java Estate right now. I've got some Sumatra Dark on the shelf along with a really nice one called Orange Pizazz. If you like ice cream you need to try some Moomers. They're up in Traverse City.