Grand Hotel
CITY GUIDES | MIDWEST
The 12 Best Hotels in Michigan, From Detroit Grande Dames to Lakefront Escapes
By Maria Rodriguez | March 23, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: With a day job that requires constant travel, Maria Rodriguez is likely a regular at your favorite restaurant. She’s reviewed restaurants since 2007 in magazines from Spain to Seattle.
Michigan has long been part of my work territory, which means I have spent a lot of time alone in hotel rooms across the state. Some nights that has meant historic Detroit hotels where the lobby still tries to impress you before you have even found the elevator. Other trips have taken me north, to lake towns where the best hotels understand that half the job is getting the chair, the cocktail, and the water view in the right arrangement.
That range is what makes a list like this worth doing. The best hotels in Michigan are not all trying to deliver the same trip, and thank God for that. Some are here for a polished city weekend, some for a golf-and-spa kind of escape, and some for the old reliable pleasure of waking up near water and having nowhere especially urgent to be. These are the 12 best hotels in Michigan right now.
Amway Grand Plaza , Grand Rapids
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Amway Grand Plaza gives Grand Rapids a downtown hotel with two distinct halves. The Pantlind side opened in 1913, and it still carries the chandeliers, carved ceilings, and formal public rooms that make an old city hotel feel like it has seen things, while the later tower adds the room count and modern setup a current downtown market needs. Then there is the practical part: you can check in, have a drink at Lumber Baron Bar, go upstairs to MDRD, and never once feel like you settled for the hotel option.
Best for: A downtown Grand Rapids weekend with real old-hotel bones
Delamar, Traverse City
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The Delamar puts Grand Traverse Bay right outside the room, which is the first thing that matters here. After that comes the list of useful details: private beach access, indoor and outdoor pools, a hot tub, a sauna, an airport shuttle, and minibars stocked with local snacks. In Traverse City, where the day often starts at the water and ends over dinner, that combination lands exactly where it should.
Best for: A bayfront stay with town still an easy hop away
Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island
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Grand Hotel has served as the grande dame of Mackinac Island since 1887. The 660-foot Front Porch, the formal dinners, the dress code, the gardens, and the clipped lawns all make clear that this is not some charming little inn with a nice view. On an island full of pretty places to stay, this is the one that still feels like the reason people came.
Best for: A classic Mackinac Island splurge
Hotel Walloon, Walloon Lake
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Hotel Walloon sits in Walloon Lake Village and keeps the focus where it belongs, on the water and the time spent around it. Guests get private beach access, a heated outdoor spa, a lakeside fireplace, a billiards room, and dock slip rentals in summer, while the rooms look like they were designed for this part of Michigan rather than shipped in from a corporate warehouse. It is a handsome lake hotel with enough comfort to make staying put look like a plan.
Best for: A refined weekend on Walloon Lake
The H Hotel, Midland
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The H Hotel is a AAA Four Diamond property in downtown Midland that works well for a wedding weekend, a work trip, or an overnight built around dinner and a good bed. It has Café Zinc, ONe eighteen, a bar, and a seasonal courtyard, along with public spaces that are clean, polished, and clearly meant for adults who would like their stay to run smoothly.
Best for: A polished stay in downtown Midland
The Homestead, Glen Arbor
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The Homestead spreads across 500 acres along Lake Michigan beside Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, with a mile of beach out front. The options run from hotel rooms to villas and houses, and the property layers on golf, tennis, pools, hot tubs, water sports, skiing, snowshoeing, and skating depending on the season. This is not a little inn near the dunes; it is the full northern Michigan vacation apparatus.
Best for: A full lakefront getaway
Inn at Bay Harbor, Bay Harbor
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Inn at Bay Harbor is northern Michigan done with a pressed collar. The setup includes the Lake Michigan shoreline, a spa, a beach, a year-round hot tub, several dining options, and access to Bay Harbor Golf Club, which is enough to shape a whole weekend without much outside planning. Some places up here trade in rustic ease; this one is built for people who want the view and the service.
Best for: A dressed-up resort stay on the water
Landmark Inn, Marquette
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Landmark Inn opened in 1930 as the Northland Hotel, and it still feels connected to Marquette rather than just preserved inside it. The best rooms look toward Lake Superior, and the sixth-floor Sky Room has the view that closes the sale, with the shoreline and ore dock laid out below. The history matters, but the location does more than the trim ever could.
Best for: A Marquette stay with history and Lake Superior in sight
Otis Harbor Springs, Harbor Springs
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Otis Harbor Springs takes a mid-century motel form and gives it a sharper finish. Near the Tunnel of Trees, the hotel uses custom furnishings, Frette linens, Flamingo Estate bath products, and a Fireplace Lounge built from stone and wood with a bar that looks intentionally designed. A lot of Up North hotels settle for pleasant; this one clearly aimed higher.
Best for: A stylish Harbor Springs getaway
Saint John’s Resort, Plymouth
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Saint John’s began as a seminary campus, which explains the stonework and scale, but not the minibar or golf package, because those were definitely added later. The property pairs that architecture with a rotating art gallery and The Cardinal, the Raymond Hearn-designed public golf course that opened in 2024. It’s the kind of getaway hotel where there’s enough on site to justify staying put.
Best for: A near-Detroit escape with golf and room to spread out
Shinola Hotel, Detroit
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Shinola Hotel’s Woodward address puts guests in the middle of things, and the lineup within the property, including San Morello and Evening Bar, means the hotel has serious life inside its walls. This is the place to stay when the point is to be downtown, right in the center of a great city’s revival.
Best for: A downtown Detroit stay in the middle of things
Wickwood Inn, Saugatuck
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Wickwood Inn keeps the scale tight, with 11 guest rooms in a historic property downtown. The draw is the size, the chef-prepared breakfasts, and the kind of hospitality that comes more naturally in a place where the staff can actually know who is staying there. In Saugatuck, that intimacy goes a lot further than a bigger hotel trying to manufacture charm.
Best for: A romantic Saugatuck weekend
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