Trip builder

Lake Michigan Circle Tour

1 day, 2 stops and about 1 h 12 min behind the wheel. Change anything below; the link always holds the latest version.

Total driving1 h 12 min

Distance69 mi (111 km)

Days1

Stops2

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Day 1

Around Chicago

1 h 12 min driving69 mi (111 km)
1. 01
  
  Trip starts here
  New Buffalo Town · MI · Lake Michigan
  Later: New Buffalo Remove: New Buffalo
2. 02
  
  1 h 12 min · 69 mi (111 km) from New Buffalo
  Chicago Town · IL · Lake Michigan
  Earlier: Chicago Remove: Chicago
Directions for day 1 in Google Maps

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Your route suggests the bases below. Consecutive nights in one town are combined; no stay is assumed after your final day. These are planning suggestions, not reservations.

No overnight stay is implied by this itinerary. Find a stay before or after your trip.

Experiences along the way

Explore the places on your route without assuming a tour fits your schedule or the weather.

Day 1 · New Buffalo, Chicago

A car for the journey

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Check cross-border and ferry permissions before renting. Cars cannot be taken onto Mackinac Island.

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Lines join your stops in visiting order; they are not roads. Use the directions links for turn-by-turn routes.

Black-and-white basemap by OpenStreetMap. Great Lakes highlighted in color. Hold Ctrl (or Command) while scrolling to zoom. Use two fingers on touch screens.

Lake outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). Town centers: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Not for navigation.

Good to know

How the trip builder works.

How are the drive times calculated?: Drive times and distances come from OpenStreetMap road data routed with OSRM, calibrated against typical published travel times. They assume ordinary traffic and include island ferry crossings where a stop needs one. Allow extra time for summer weekends, construction and border crossings.
Can I save or share my trip?: Yes. The whole trip lives in the page address, so bookmarking or sharing the link saves everything: stops, days, start date and starting point. Nothing is stored on our servers and no account is needed.
Can I take my trip into Google Maps or a GPS?: Every day has a Google Maps directions link (long days are split into parts, because Google Maps allows nine stops per link). You can also download a calendar file with one event per day, or a GPX file for GPS units and apps such as OsmAnd and Gaia GPS.
What does “Best order” do?: It reorders your stops to shorten the total drive, keeping your starting point fixed and finishing back home if you chose a round trip, then spreads the stops over the same number of days so each day's driving is as even as possible.

Drive times and distances: OSRM routing over OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), calibrated to typical travel times. Times are estimates for planning, not navigation. Check road, border and ferry conditions before you travel.

More planning tools: circle tour planner, ferry or drive calculator, northern lights forecast, water temperatures and the ship watcher.