Mackinac Island transforms into a serene winter wonderland, and this podcast highlights the unique experiences available during the colder months. While the main tourism season runs from May to October, the winter offers a chance to enjoy the island's quiet beauty, perfect for hiking, skiing, or simply curling up with a good book. Heather discusses essential information for visitors, including lodging, dining options, and winter activities, ensuring you know what to expect during your visit. She also shares details about upcoming events like the Christmas Bazaar and the Great Turtle Drop, which are delightful ways to celebrate the season on the island. Join Heather as she explores all the winter wonders of Mackinac Island and encourages you to embrace its slower pace and charm.

Once again I turned to the trusty tourism page of Mackinac to share all that is happening and open during the winter months. Mackinac is open year round it just is a different vibe during the winter months as not as much is open. But definitely a place to go to relax with a good book, snow shoes or attend the Christmas tree lighting.

www.mackinacisland.org

www.totallymackinacislandpodcast.com

Located on the crystal blue waters of Lake Huron lies Mackinac Island.

She is tucked in between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

Indulge me as I share all the ins and outs of the place that stole my heart.

This is totally Mackinac Island.

Hello and welcome to Totally Mackinac Island Podcast.

I am your host, Heather.

I hope you all are doing well.

I got our decorations all up and I'm kind of glad because it ended up kind of being a poopy weekend.

And it was nice when I did it last week so I didn't have to worry about my hands getting super dry and cold, although they are already starting to get really dry.

So I actually ended up moving my salon to a different salon prior to beginning of next year.

So it's been a little crazy this week.

So unfortunately I have been lacking on information available on Instagram, but it's kind of okay because it's not peak season.

So I share what I can.

But what I wanted to come on here today though, and talk about is the winter information because whether or not we like it, it is here.

Now.

How I'm gonna say this is that this is probably gonna be my last podcast of the year.

With that being said, because of me moving the salon, my hours are just kind of all over the place and I do not know when I'm going to have time to really sit down and do the shows for the rest of the year.

And I just thought I better just make this the last one.

Just has been a little more hectic.

It always is this time of year as it is for everyone with Christmas and Thanksgiving and then moving salons, it's just.

And when I do that, because I do booth rental, it's not difficult to do that.

It's just readjusting to the location, figuring out everything, you know, just getting comfortable again.

Super excited though, for the new place I'm going to.

And it's a cute little house.

It reminds me of this one salon I was at many, many years ago and it just has just a different environment.

And not again that the other one was bad.

There wasn't any of that.

It just.

This works better for me as far as booth running options, so going to be able to add a few more hours with that.

So with that being said, I'm going to go into this saying that this is the last one.

Now, I could surprise you and have an opportunity to record another one, but I just don't want to put that out there that I'm going to because I don't know how that's going to happen.

So I wanted to go into the winter information that is available right now because I feel it's important for you to know if you do not go on to mackinacland.org this is where I get a lot of my information from.

It's the tourism page up at the top they have in bold red winter information.

They had that with the ferry information when that was going all on.

So I'm just going to go off of what they are sharing on here.

But the hearty few that visit find a completely different Mackinac island to experience which is unlike the spring, summer or fall travel season.

This is a time to enjoy the quiet beauty of the island, hike, ski, snowshoe, take beautiful pictures and read a good book.

Okay in asterisks they have public restrooms are available at Arnold Transit Co.

Ship store, the ticket office while the boat is running.

Okay so if there is an ice bridge, know that there is not a public restroom there.

There are restaurants that are open that I will tell you about, but I'm going to guess that they're going to prefer that if you're coming in there you eat there.

But don't quote me on that.

I'm just going off of what most places like transportation.

This is what they've got.

Sheplers Ferry Arnold Transit Company open until route freezes over.

I'm guessing with each month that is going to change.

Fresh Air aviation open.

Okay, so for lodging above Mackinac condos this is open all year.

Again that's above Mackinac Condos.

The Lilac Tree Suites open Dec.

5 and 6th and then Dec.

29 through Jan.

1.

Small Point Ben breakfast, open Dec.

6 through the 8th.

Village Inn Suites, open all year.

Okay, so of those the above, Mackinac condos is going to have a full kitchen for you to use.

The Lilac Tree and Suites has a mini fridge and a microwave, and they have like a little mini, like, I guess you could say wet bar area.

So keep that in mind if you want to take food up there, because you can get it at Doubts.

Pontiac Lodge, the same.

They have like a mini fridge and a microwave.

Small Point Bed and Breakfast.

I'm guessing because they're bed and breakfast, that they just have the bed and breakfast and then the Village and suites.

They.

They have kitchens.

Full kitchens.

So dining.

Kingston Kitchen, open November, 8am to 8pm Monday through Saturday, December through April, 8am to eight p.m.

daily.

And then the Mustang Lounge is open daily.

So for shopping, you've got the Arnold Transit Co.

Ship store, slash ticket office, open during winter service operations.

If you're wondering where that's at, where this Starline fair used to come in, there is a.

You would come in and you would see the pink pony and the.

It says on the top, it says, it will say Arnold Transit again.

And it's right in the front there.

We actually had gone in there because they were selling a lot of the Starline stuff.

And I got a really nice blanket from there that's got all the fairies on it that say Starline, which I thought was going to be neat, but I love the blanket.

So that is where the ship store is that you can go in.

You can get fairy memorabilia and different things.

Okay, so Dowds market, open all year.

The Island Hardware, which is open all year, Monday through Friday and weekends if there is snow.

Joann's Fudge, which is open Dec.

30 through the 31st from 11am to 3pm Store next to Nephews of Mackinac Little Luxuries, open Dec.

6.

Through 8th Thursdays in December, Dec.

28 through the 31st and of course you can always go online for little luxuries.

Bring your own equipment for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

State Board State Park Trails are open for hiking, biking and geocaching.

So for the Christmas Bizarre weekend and with that being in the Christmas tree lighting.

So for the Christmas tree lighting you can watch that live on their Facebook page.

So if you want to you can stream it and see what's going on with that.

If you've never watched a tree lighting, it's actually really fun to go around there.

What they do is ringing the holidays at the annual Christmas Tree Lighting.

There will be carols and cocoa and plenty of holiday cheer and it's right on Main street across from Arnold Transit Company dock and the Great New Year's Eve Great Turtle Drop is ringing the New Year with the Great Turtle Drop.

Join in the countdown as festive turtle is loaned from the lowered from the top of the Lilac Tree Hotel.

It is uniquely Mackinaw celebration.

So I've just been seeing on here, I know that there is nothing I've seen on here yet has.

If you go to the home page around Cyber Monday and Black Friday, there will be a lot of sales that will come on and a lot of the stores that aren't open do have online stores.

If you go to the main page, that will take you to all the places that do have online shopping.

And usually once it gets closer to Thanksgiving, all the places will get listed.

I will share all of that, of course, on social media with you guys so you can see.

So be sure to watch that as it gets closer to Thanksgiving because I'll keep an eye out for that.

Sometimes they have it ahead of time, but we're still a little bit ahead of since Thanksgiving's a little bit later this year, that kind of messes things up with it.

So the winter schedule is out and you know, hopefully when you if you guys do decide to go for the Christmas tree and I know for the turtle drop that there is snow, I'm not seeing any.

I know that there was a little bit, I think in October after we had left there, but I'm not sure with that.

So.

All right, guys, there you have it.

The winter season schedule as of now.

Stay tuned on all socials.

I will share what I do, find out for everything when I do come across it.

And like I said, I'm just going to put this out there that this could be it for the year.

But you never know.

I could pop on and surprise you with that.

So that concludes this week's episode.

I look forward to talking to you next time about our favorite place, Mackinac Island.

Totally.

Mackinac island is written and produced and edited by me, Heather.