Coolcationing is a hot new trend, according to Conde Nast Traveler. The combo term (that’s now a legit word, per the Cambridge Dictionary) describes a vacation to cooler climes where people can have fun and escape the heat.
There’s lots of buzz around coolcations in the midst of record-high global temperatures that have produced hotter weather than ever in many popular travel destinations. The funny thing is, people have been coolcationing on Mackinac Island for centuries.
Back in the mid-1800s, when Mackinac Island first emerged as a tourist attraction, the journalist and poet William Cullen Bryant remarked on the “delightful” summer climate:
“There is no air more pure and elastic, and the winds of the south and southeast, which are so hot on the prairies, arrive here tempered to a grateful coolness by the waters over which they have swept. The nights are always in the hottest season, agreeably cool, and the health of the place is proverbial. The world has not many islands so beautiful as Mackinac.”
America’s Coolcation Destination, Mackinac Island
For sure, many travelers still flock to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park or any number of other tourist hot spots in the heat of summer. And when they get there, they sweat!
It’s no wonder then that the USA’s Best Summer Travel Destination is also the ideal spot for a coolcation. Here are four reasons why Mackinac Island is America’s Coolcation Destination:
Weather on Mackinac Island
The surrounding water moderates temperatures on Mackinac Island in spring, summer and fall. You don’t have to worry about day after day of 90-degree temperatures. In fact, temps rarely reach into the 80s on Mackinac Island. And when they do, they often dip back down into the 50s at night so the next morning dawns with a pleasant coolness in the air.
3 reasons Mackinac Island’s summer weather is so perfect
Water on Mackinac Island
It’s literally all around! From charming Mackinac Island places to stay with swimming pools to scenic Mackinac Island beaches where you can wade leisurely into the Great Lakes, you’re never far from a cooling dose of H20. Plus, there are lots of great ways to get out on the water when you visit Mackinac Island, whether you prefer paddling a kayak or sipping a favorite beverage on a sunset cruise.
6 extraordinary boat tours around Mackinac Island
Breeze on Mackinac Island
Another perk of being surrounded by water is the ever-present lake breeze on Mackinac Island. Even on warm days the air is always moving. You can feel the refreshing wind in your hair as you pedal a bike all the way around Mackinac Island, for example, or enjoy the comfortable breeze floating past as you dine al fresco on Mackinac Island right along the water – perhaps while enjoying one of Mackinac Island’s iconic frozen cocktails or cool desserts.
Outdoor dining on Mackinac Island
Outdoor Adventure on Mackinac Island
It’s one thing for a vacation destination to offer lots of outdoor activities. It’s quite another to offer activities you can actually enjoy without desperately wanting to get back into the air conditioning as soon as possible. Because you get pleasant temperatures on Mackinac Island even in the peak of summer, you can look forward to horse-drawn carriage tours, bicycle rides and even strenuous hikes through Mackinac Island State Park without withering in the summer heat.
10 ways to have fun outdoors on Mackinac Island
RELATED MACKINAC ISLAND BLOGS:
