Attractions Nearby Lansing, Day Trips and Excursions

(Lansing, Michigan - MI, USA)

Being located in southern Michigan means that Lansing is within comfortable reach of some of the state's very best attractions, state parks and golf courses within the Lower Peninsula and beyond. Many of these are more than suitable for day trips and are connected by highways and interstates, such as the I-69, the I-96 and the US-127.

Numerous friendly towns and cities are relatively close by and are highly suitable for day trips, as are the beaches of the Great Lakes, the outlying wineries and the endless woodland trails, which offer much seasonal interest.

If you have time on your hands in Lansing, then an excursion to the metropolis of Detroit is a real must, being roughly 90 miles / 145 km to the southeast. As the biggest city in the whole of Michigan, Detroit certainly comes with an exceptional array of attractions. These include science centers, zoological gardens, theaters, history museums, halls of fame and renowned contemporary art galleries.

General Information

Considerably closer to Lansing and making extremely popular day trips are the sights and sounds of Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Jackson, Marshall and Mason. A little further afield and to the north is Mount Pleasant, a small city located alongside the Isabella Indian Reservation and home to the principal campus of the Central Michigan University.

Excursions to Ann Arbor regularly appear at the top of tourists' itineraries, since it is so easy to reach by road or rail. This lively college town is a little more than 60 miles / 97 km away from Lansing and certainly delivers when it comes to tourist attractions, shopping and fine dining.

Ann Arbor regularly stages major sporting events and seasonal draws. These include the Ann Arbor Book Festival each May, the African American Downtown Festival in June, and the Summer Festival every June and July, which is nothing short of a performing arts extravaganza, with live music, theater performances, comedy gigs and open-air movie screenings at dusk.

Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island (in Lake Huron) and Traverse City all have many attractions to tempt vacationers in Lansing. However, their respective distances are too far to make day trips possible and so these destinations really do lend themselves to longer excursions, such as a weekend break or similar. Closer to home is Michigan's second-biggest city of Grand Rapids, which is a comfortable drive to the west and less than 70 miles / 113 km away.