Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Dunes are a top 10 National Geographic summer trip

National Geographic has selected Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes as one of their ten best summer trips saying:

Traverse City is the biggest little beach town on the “Third Coast” – the U.S. shores of the eight-state Great Lakes coastline. The region’s 180 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline basically trace the upper left edge of Michigan’s “mitten.” Add another 149 inland lakes that are 10 acres or larger and you get a rambling Cape Cod-on-freshwater summer playground: quaint port villages, sandy beaches, historic lighthouses, rolling orchards, family-friendly festivals (including the National Cherry Festival, July 7-14), and summer-only Traverse City Beach Bums pro baseball games (team members bunk with local families).

Head northwest from Cherry Capital Airport to the Leelanau Peninsula and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Michigan’s monumental sandbox is best known for its 150-foot Dune Climb (or roll), but there’s also 35 miles of pristine Lake Michigan beach. Take the 7.4-mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive loop in time to watch the sunset from Lake Michigan Overlook observation deck, perched 450 feet above the water.

Added to the Sleeping Bear Dunes’ designation as the most beautiful place in America by Good Morning America last summer and it’s clear that our region is a white-hot tourist destination. As you can see from the video below from Pure Michigan and the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau, Leelanau & Traverse City are definitely being marketed nationwide as a package destination.

Photo credit: Empire Bluffs trail by Pettman’s Photographic Memories