Charlevoix is a small lakeside town with a year round population of around 3,000 residents. The town is a summer destination for urban residents of Michigan looking for a quiet vacation by the lake. In the downtown area, pretty streets are lined with flowers, with Lake Charlevoix glistening in the background. Not many people drive from destination to destination here, as the lay of the land was made for walking. Restaurants, shops and art galleries abound on the main downtown streets, while lighthouses, beaches and parks surround the perimeter.

Cheboygan is a small town along the mouth of the 38-mile waterway linking Lake Huron to Lake Michigan's Little Traverse Bay. Cheboygan is an area where nature and water merge, and those who love the two will find a visit full of things to do. In the downtown business district, along the Cheboygan River, shops and restaurants line the streets with everything from Italian food and steaks to fresh seafood. The Grass Bay Preserve is a wetland habitat with pools, marshes and flats separated by dunes.

Arriving on Mackinac Island is like stepping back in time. A preserved Victorian era setting, where horse and buggy is still the norm, the island is home to only 500-600 year round residents. Roughly 80 percent of the island is a state park, and noted by National Geographic as one of the top ten state parks in the country. The downtown district consists of four blocks of shopping and restaurants, including the fudge shops legendary to the island. Mackinac Island State Park consists of 1,800 acres of land, covering most of the island. There are around 70 miles of trails to explore via foot or bicycle within the park, and rock formations.

Manistique and Escanaba are the two main towns that make up the southern border of the central portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Escanaba and neighboring Gladstone are home to around 20,000 residents, while Manistique has around 6,000. There are several parks and beaches surrounding Escanaba. Sandwiched in between the towns are the Stonington and Garden Peninsulas jutting out into Lake Michigan and forming small bays around their perimeters. Hiawatha National Forest is also located between Manistique and Escanaba and features the Bay de Noc/Grand Island Trail and the Big Island Canoeing Area.