Cars are banned on Michigan's Mackinac Island, preserving the "all natural" theme of a park where time seems frozen. Here you can take in the serenity and enjoy horse-and-buggy rides, bicycling or walking. Many hotels call themselves "Grand," but the island's astonishing entry earns the title. The hotel is grand, great, glorious and grandiose.
As you travel to the island by ferry, the hotel becomes visible over the waters of Lake Michigan. From a distance, it looks like a great Queen Anne-style ship. The hotel's highlight is its 660-foot porch. Opened in 1887, the Grand Hotel is the world's largest summer hotel. It's open only from May through October each year.
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The hotel's 385 rooms are each unique, and a daily full breakfast and five-course dinner (evening dress is required) are included in the room charge. The hotel boasts of many famous luminaries having visited over the years, with four first ladies and five presidents among them.
Stellar attractions are just beyond the porch of the Grand Hotel. Mackinac Island State Park covers 80 percent of the island; Fort Mackinac was built by British soldiers during the American Revolution; and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse aided ships through the Straits of Mackinac from 1892 to 1957.
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