After the fourth of July, we took our first real family vacation! Our kids are ages 5, 4 and 2, and it felt time to just get away. As I was looking for a beach we could drive to (that wasn’t too long of a car ride!!). I kept hearing about Michigan. In St. Louis, it seems to be a common destination for families in the summer. I wanted to see what the hype was all about!!!! So we decided to plan our first Michigan family vacation.

As I looked into WHERE in Michigan to go, there was one town that stuck out at me as I was reading about the different towns. It was a beach town was called Saugatuck. It had been described as an artsy town on the water (yep, I am sold), with an awesome culinary scene and storefronts. And very walkable! It seemed exactly what we would love. Everything about this town just felt like us.

I had never been to Michigan before, but my friend Ashley goes with her family often and I consider her a Michigan pro (I first started seeing her MI trips on her IG Colonial in the City). Before our trip, Ashley and I met up and she shared some of her favorites in the Saugatuck area and it was sooo helpful to talk to someone before our trip!! So much so that I wanted to write this post because I truly think it helped having a rough game plan of what we would do, where to stay and the different public beaches to go to. I want to be able to help others like Ashley helped me!!!

Now - Chad doesn’t like to plan at all, but with kids and going to a city we have never been to… I needed a rough itinerary of things to do, beaches to go to and places to eat.

And before I start with the recs, I will say the top reason why I loved vacationing in this town... was that life kind of just slowed down. The houses and shops were so cute, too, and it kind of felt like we were in some fantasy town that wasn’t real life. With such pretty beaches and amazing weather (cool mornings/nights and warm days). I am understanding why people go to Michigan. It’s an oasis! And it was only about a 6-hour drive from St. Louis, which wasn’t too bad!!

This Michigan family vacation guide is more centered around a stay in Saugatuck with young kids. There are wineries and hiking, but with our kids, we more focused on the beach and walking around the downtown Saugatuck area. I think there is something there for every age (and even a getaway with your significant other), but this round up is vacationing there with small children!!

Our days on this trip involved getting breakfast/coffee and heading to a beach for a few hours, then resting and walking around downtown Saugatuck where we did boat rides/playground/dinner/ice cream. There are a lot of neighboring beach towns around Saugatuck, so we will likely venture to more next time, but this vacation we did a lot right there in the downtown Saugatuck area and the nearby beaches.

WHERE TO STAY

I highly recommend staying somewhere that is walking distance to downtown Saugatuck. We brought our stroller and walked to the downtown multiple times a day! There is a playground the kids love, and tons of cute coffee shops and restaurants and ice cream. A toy shop. And it’s right on the waterfront, so restaurants on the water. (I also noticed so many cute Inns in downtown Saugatuck, if we didn’t have our kids with us, I feel like that would be fun to stay at one.)

We stayed in a house here and loved it sooo much, it was so cute and perfect. We will definitely return! It was a short stroller walk into the downtown. Before we found the house we stayed in, I looked into staying here and it’s also walking distance to the downtown.

Ashley has stayed here before and looks like it’s located between Holland and Saugatuck.

I noticed that peak season (July) was more expensive than if you go earlier in the summer (late May/early June) or later in the summer. I hear the off seasons are less expensive and less crowded, but Saugatuck was such a quaint town I didn’t notice it being overly crowded and we loved the July weather, it was perfect for the beach!!!

BEACHES

All my oldest would talk about before the trip was going to the beach! She was so excited for it!!! So the beach was definitely a highlight of our trip and why I am so glad we went in July - because the weather was hot during the day. If you are looking to enjoy a lot of beach time like we were, I would pick that peak of summer to go. When we were at the beach, it felt like FL … but no sharks or jelly fish to worry about :)

Here are the public beaches near Saugatuck that we went to…

Oval Beach is a super short drive from downtown Saugatuck and it pretty, clean and fun! It’s $10 to park and you walk right on to the beach, so it was easy and accessible. There is a SUPER cute bike rental + coffee shop called Outside Coffee Co on the way to oval beach. (And across from the coffee shop is a huge root beer barrel that has food and looked like such a fun stop with kids to eat after the beach)
Douglas Beach is near Oval Beach but a lot smaller and a great option if you want shade in the mornings. There are a lot of big trees on the shoreline. There are some stairs you have to walk down to get to the beach after you park (there is free parking), but it wasn’t too many steps! This was a peaceful beach in the morning.

Two other public beaches I looked into visiting but we didn’t make it this trip were Laketown Beach (there are a LOT of steps - 300+!! - so I was hesitant to go with my kids, but it looked sooo pretty!), and South Beach in South Haven.

On our way back to St. Louis on the last day, instead of doing a beach nearby, we left Saugatuck in the morning and about 1.5 hours into the drive we stopped at Porter Beach at Indiana Dunes State Park. It was SO fun!!! There was a main building at the top of the beachfront with food (a walk-up window where you could get fries, hot dogs, ice cream etc), and then there were showers and a changing area. So we stayed a few hours at the beach, ate and then changed and the kids slept right away when we got back on the road! It was a great stop to break up the drive and enjoy the day at the beach!

ACTIVITiES

In downtown Saugatuck, it’s on the water, so one fun thing we did was go on the Star of Saugatuck boat ride! It was a little pricey but a 90-minute ride with food and drinks and it was such a fun experience.

We also rode the Chain Link Ferry across the river. It is super, super short, but has a lot of history and my kids loved riding on it before dinner on our first night.

We took a drive over to Holland, Michigan on Saturday morning after the beach to go to brunch and the Holland Farmer’s Market. It’s just a 15-20 minute drive from Saugatuck. We ate brunch down from the market at a cute and yummy place called Bowerman’s on 8th.

And one thing we didn’t get to but will do next time is the Saugatuck Sand Dunes Rides. It looked fun and is popular!

A lot of the attractions you have to get tickets the day of. So be sure to call the morning of to get tickets for the boat rides and sand dune rides.

PLACES TO EAT

We loved all the places to eat in Saugatuck. There are so many, but here are the ones we checked out or wanted to check out!!!…

Lunch/Dinner:

One thing we loved was that they had waterfront restaurants. We ate on the water at The Butler. Other great waterfront options are The Mermaid Bar & Grill, The BARge, The Southerner and The Old Boat House. There is something about eating at a restaurant on the water that just feels like vacation.

Pennyroyal is a super neat place to eat, but you have to drive to it - it’s outside the downtown area.

The Grilled Cheese Shack was such a fun, causal place to walk up and order a sandwich and sit outside in downtown Saugatuck.

Coffee:

I loved a cute little camper by The Grilled Cheese Shack that sold coffee called Basecamp. Another popular coffee shop is Uncommon Coffee Roasters. Those were two coffee shops I went to!

Ice Cream:

We got ice cream a lot! There were three ice cream places we checked out in downtown Saugatuck. Boardwalk Deli & Ice Cream, Kilwin’s and Round the Corner Ice Cream.

Breweries:

After the beach, we stopped by Saugatuck Brewing and ate outside. There was live music and it was family friendly! You have to drive to it from downtown Saugatuck, but it was on the way home from Oval Beach so it was convenient. There are a lot of other breweries in Saugatuck, but this one just seemed like a classic (maybe it was the name that got us) that we had to visit!

The Grilled Cheese Shack and Basecamp Coffee

FINAL NOTES

This was our first Michigan family vacation and we loved it so much, we will definitely be back! I found the entire Saugatuck area really magical. I am sure I missed other beach towns and activities around the area, but this guide is what we did on our first trip there and it was great! It was laid-back and we played on the beach a lot and overall it was a great family vacation. I highly recommend Michigan by the water in one of the magical beach towns like Saugatuck.

If you visit, hope you love as much as we did!