Best Golf Trips in Michigan: Forest Dunes, Arcadia Bluffs, and More
Michigan is the most underrated public golf state in the country, and most of what gets written about it makes the same mistake this page used to make: treating it as a list of great courses instead of a list of great trips. The courses are why you fly in. Whether the trip actually works depends on where you sleep, what you eat, how far you drive between rounds, and whether the third night still has energy left in it. That's the real test, and it's the one this ranking uses.
With more than 650 public courses across the Lower and Upper Peninsulas, Michigan has more accessible tee times and more variety than it gets credit for. It stays underrated because the season runs May through October — out of the year-round conversation Arizona, Florida, and the Carolinas dominate. That short window is also why the golf holds up: operators with five months to make a year's revenue take conditioning and service seriously, and it shows in a way it often doesn't at courses that never close.
The short version: Forest Dunes, home to Tom Doak's reversible Loop, is the best golf in Michigan. But it's a purist's pick: the golf is the whole reason to go, and the food and lodging around it are there to support the golf. Arcadia Bluffs might be the better all-around trip for a typical group. Golf this good, plus a food and lodging scene built to match it. Bay Harbor is the right call for a mixed group that wants a real evening scene and a marina to wander. Treetops is the value-and-volume play. Below is why, in that order.
Forest Dunes / The Loop (Roscommon)
In our most recent ranking, Roscommon edges out Arcadia Bluffs, but just barely, and the reason is simple — the golf here is that good. Tom Doak's Loop is a genuine first: a reversible 18 that plays clockwise one day and counterclockwise the next on the same ground, and no other American course pulls off the concept at this level. Forest Dunes itself, the standalone course on the same property, is no afterthought either.
What Forest Dunes doesn't have is a food and lodging scene to match the golf. Roscommon doesn't market itself as a destination, and it doesn't try to be one. That's part of the appeal for the golf-first crowd, and it's exactly why this is the wrong pick for a group that includes anyone who'd rather have a good dinner than a second reversible round. Bring the group that's fine eating well but simply at the resort, not the group expecting a night out.
Book this trip if your group is three or four serious players who'd rather talk about routing than restaurants. Skip it if anyone in the group is coming for the trip and merely tolerating the golf — send that group to Arcadia instead. Read our Roscommon golf trip review for the full itinerary.
Arcadia Bluffs
If Forest Dunes wins on pure golf, Arcadia Bluffs wins on the whole trip, and for most groups organizing something that has to work for everyone, that's often the more useful win. It's a two-course property built into the Lake Michigan bluffs near the small town of Arcadia, about 25 miles south of Frankfort. There's no hotel on-site, which is a real trade-off, not just a detail: it keeps the operation focused on golf, but it also means your group is driving to dinner and back, so someone stays sober enough to drive.
The Bluffs Course is the reason people fly in. Rick Smith's 1999 design plays across open clifftop terrain with Lake Michigan in view from nearly every hole, and the wind isn't occasional — it's the format. Club selection swings four or five clubs hole to hole, and the course punishes anyone who tries to play it in a straight line. Play it late in the day if the group can manage the tee time: the wind gets more honest in the afternoon, and the back nine finishes into a sunset that's worth the damage to the scorecard. Golf Digest has kept it inside the top 50 public courses in the country for years, and it's easy to see why.
The South Course, opened in 2018, is the sheltered, tree-lined answer for the group's less windproof players — and it's a genuinely good round on its own, not a day off. For a foursome with a range of ability levels, Bluffs one day and South the next is the correct itinerary, not a compromise.
After the round, Stormcloud Brewing in downtown Frankfort — ten minutes away — is where the day gets replayed over a beer; it's the easy-going lakeside-town bar that makes groups linger. If the trip stretches to Traverse City, Trattoria Stella is worth booking ahead (walk-ins can be difficult in summer), and The Franklin is a good fallback when nobody wants to dress up.
The trip isn't inexpensive, and 2026 pricing pushes it toward the upper end even by Arcadia's own standards — budget for the golf, the cottage or off-property rental (Empire and Frankfort have strong VRBO inventory, often cheaper than on-site cottages and with a kitchen and fire pit), and real dinners out, not just green fees. Read our Arcadia Bluffs full review for lodging-by-lodging notes and the full itinerary.
Bay Harbor
Bay Harbor sits on Little Traverse Bay, about 90 minutes north of Arcadia, and it's built for a different kind of group than either of the above. This is a summer trip first and a golf trip second — the 27 Arthur Hills holes, split into the Links, Preserve, and Quarry nines, hold up completely on their own, but nobody who's actually been here talks about it as a golf-only stop.
The Links nine runs the bluff over the bay; the Quarry threads through the walls of an old shale pit with 40-foot stone faces that make the approach shots feel like a different sport. Play in the morning then don't rush back to the room — Bay Harbor village has a walkable strip of restaurants and a marina that's worth the extra hour. Vintage Chophouse & Wine Bar is the call for a real dinner with waterfront seating; Brandy's Harbortown, a cluster of food-truck concepts overlooking the marina with live music most summer nights, is the better call when the group wants something looser after a long round.
Pricing here has also moved up — budget toward the higher end of the range in July and August, and look at Boyne Golf's bundled lodging-and-play packages before pricing rounds and rooms separately; they're often the better deal than booking each piece on its own.
Who this is for: groups with a real mix — some golfers, some spouses or friends who'd rather shop the village and meet everyone for dinner. Skip it if the whole trip is golf-only players who'd resent a night that isn't built around the round. See our Bay Harbor golf trip guide for the full routing and package notes.
Treetops
Treetops in Gaylord is the value and volume play, and it should be sold as exactly that instead of pretending it competes with Forest Dunes or Arcadia on design. Five courses on one property — Tom Fazio's Premier, Robert Trent Jones Sr.'s Masterpiece, Rick Smith's Signature, the walkable Tradition, and Threetops, arguably one of the most memorable par-3 course in America — mean a group can play four or five rounds in three days without repeating, all without leaving the property. On-site lodging removes the logistics friction that trips higher on this list otherwise ask you to deal with.
The honest tradeoff: you're trading convenience and quantity for golf that isn't quite as good. This is not the trip for a group chasing architecture. It's the trip for a group that wants to play a lot of golf without the bill or the reservations required elsewhere on this page, and it's priced accordingly — the most accessible trip of the four, with twilight rates that make an evening round an easy add rather than a splurge.
Book this trip if the group's priority is rounds played per dollar spent. Skip it if anyone's coming specifically for the golf itself — send them to Forest Dunes instead. See our Treetops Resort guide for course-by-course notes.
Worth the detour, but doesn't quite compare
Greywalls at Marquette Golf Club sits on Lake Superior bluffs in the Upper Peninsula and is one of the most visually striking courses in the Midwest — but budget a full day of driving to get there, and treat it as the anchor of a broader UP trip, not a stop you tack onto a northern Michigan itinerary.
Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor is a strong Jack Nicklaus design that's underrated in national rankings and easy to reach for anyone flying into Chicago or Grand Rapids. Book this one for the golf and the easy access, not for tournament pedigree it no longer holds.
How to plan it
Michigan's season runs May through October, tightening further north. May is soft and cheap but some facilities open late depending on weather. July and August are peak everywhere — best weather, highest demand, and, at Arcadia especially, the highest prices. September used to be the insider move across the board; that's no longer a safe assumption anywhere on this list, so check current rate sheets before you build a trip around a shoulder-season discount. October is available and often the better value, but it carries real weather risk, especially north of Traverse City.
Traverse City (TVC) is the gateway for Arcadia Bluffs and the northwest corridor, and Arcadia is about 45 minutes south. Bay Harbor is close enough to work from TVC as well, though Pellston Regional (PLN) sits closer to Petoskey if your dates line up with its more limited service. Grand Rapids (GRR) is the better gateway for Harbor Shores and southwest Michigan. Detroit (DTW) is the fallback for anyone without a direct TVC option, at the cost of three extra hours of driving.
A well-built northern Michigan trip that wants both ends of this list anchors two rounds at Arcadia Bluffs (one Bluffs, one South) and adds a day at Forest Dunes for the golf-first players in the group, or Bay Harbor if the group needs an evening built around something other than the round. Four days and three nights gives you three to four rounds without feeling rushed, and the drive up from Traverse City along the Lake Michigan shoreline is worth doing slowly.
For trip planning methodology, see our guide to how to plan a golf trip. For comparison against other Midwest destinations, see our breakdown of the best golf trips in Wisconsin.
Michigan rewards the golfer willing to look past the marquee states, but which trip you book should depend on what your group actually wants at 7pm, not just what they want at 7am. Browse our golf trip rankings to compare Michigan against other top destinations.