10 Days In Grand Rapids, MI: Here’s What We Did

I remember seeing a photo of Grand Rapids, MI a few years ago and thinking that it looked like a cute city with a river running through it. I also knew it had a ton of breweries, so I was looking forward to our stay there.

Unfortunately Grand Rapids turned out to be a bit of a bust. That’s because at some point in the last few years the city government appears to have implemented some very strict rules regarding where dogs are allowed to be at eating and drinking establishments – even on patios. That means there are far fewer pet-friendly breweries than there used to be, particularly downtown.

As a result, we didn’t visit a bunch of breweries as we like to bring Truffles with us, although that’s probably a good thing seeing as we went over budget in July despite that! Our time there ended up being an opportunity to catch up on some work, plus we spent a fair bit of time planning out next year’s travel up to Alaska. We’re visiting Alaska from late May to early July 2024, so we wanted to get as much accommodation booked ASAP before availability started drying up and/or prices started going up.

We did get out and about a few times though, so here’s what we got up to in Grand Rapids, MI.

Where We Stayed In Grand Rapids

Homewood Suites Grand Rapids Downtown

Back when I thought that Shae was going to be away on some other trip this summer – and when I thought most breweries would be dog-friendly – I’d booked a stay at the Homewood Suites downtown so that I could walk to the breweries and not have to worry about driving all week.

Although that brewery plan didn’t work out, it was nice staying downtown as it meant other places were within walking distance and, overall, it was a nice hotel to stay in. You can read my full review here.

What We Did In Grand Rapids

Frozen Musical

Shae has some relatives who live in Kalamazoo which is about an hour south of Grand Rapids. They’d gotten tickets to the Broadway musical version of Frozen in Grand Rapids, but they weren’t able to make it to the show. We were in the city during that time, so they offered us the tickets and so we went to see that.

It was a decent adaptation of the movie with some fun, magical elements that I won’t spoil in case you’re planning to see it. The performer playing Elsa had a particularly amazing voice, so much so that Shae said she was surprised that she’s not the star of a show on Broadway in New York.

Holland, MI

Several people had mentioned the city of Holland as being a beautiful place to visit; so many in fact that I knew we had to go check it out. Holland is about 30-40 minutes southwest of Grand Rapids and is near Lake Michigan. It gained its name thanks to its Dutch heritage and hosts a tulip festival every year, although we missed that.

It was a lovely place to visit even though we missed out on the tulip festival. Its downtown was very quaint and, unlike Grand Rapids, incredibly pet-friendly. There were so many pet-friendly stores, restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. In fact, some of the stores displayed a list of all the pet-friendly establishments downtown and that list numbered 55+ locations.

 

Shae and I loved Holland so much that it’s made our list of potential cities to live in for a while once our road trip finishes at the end of 2024. One of our biggest concerns had been Michigan’s winters – particularly being able to take Truffles on walks – but it turns out that Holland has a fascinating way of dealing with that. The city has almost 700,000 sq ft of heated sidewalks and streets, so the city is far more walkable than your average northern city in the winter.

Saugatuck Dunes State Park

20 minutes southwest of Holland is Saugatuck Dunes State Park, a state park with a beautiful, pet-friendly beach. There’s a shaded 0.75 mile trail from the parking lot to the beach, so in the summer you don’t have to hike there in the blazing sun.

The beach was wonderful; despite it being mid-July, it wasn’t anywhere near as busy as we might’ve expected. The water was also much warmer than expected, so Shae spent much more time in the water than expected.

The fact that this pet-friendly beach is so close to Holland is another reason that living there seems so appealing.

It also gave Shae the opportunity to dress Truffles up in her dog bikini. Yes, that’s a thing and yes, she has one! Check out this post for how that came about.

John Ball Zoo

One day while I was working Shae headed to John Ball Zoo early in the morning for Breakfast With The Animals. She had a wonderful time there, so read her post to find out more about that experience.

Downtown Wandering

One of the nice things about staying in downtown Grand Rapids is that it made it easy to wander around the city. Thankfully we only did that in the rain once 😉

Break Room Therapy Rage Room

(This part is written by Shae)

Break Room Therapy is a rage room near Grand Rapids, MI. I had some feelings to work out and this seemed like a great option. I’ve always been interested in visiting a Rage Room, but it’s been outside our budget. Not at Break Room Therapy though.

I went on a Friday evening and it was only $30 for 25 minutes AND it included 25 glass bottles to break. There’s as much safety gear as you want, you’re given a safety briefing, the music rocks and you’re allowed to buy more items in case you get through your items early. You can also bring up to 10 glass bottles with you for free, as well as other approved items for a small fee. The staff were fantastic and the entire experience was wonderful. I HIGHLY recommend Break Room Therapy if you’re in the Grand Rapids area.

Where We Ate & Drank In Grand Rapids

Founders Brewing Co

Although we didn’t end up going to a bunch of breweries, we did check out one which is perhaps Grand Rapids most well-known brewery – Founders Brewing Co.

It’s not pet-friendly, so we left Truffles at the hotel and walked the 0.7 miles from our hotel to their brewery downtown. I like dark beers like porters and stouts, so I was pleased to see that they had numerous dark beer options. I got a flight so that I could try four of them:

• Breakfast Stout
• KBS 2018
• KBS Blueberry
• KBS Chocolate Cherry

All four beers were very good, but the chocolate cherry was my favorite.

Shae isn’t a beer person, but she decided to try their Blushing Padre which is a Tequila barrel-aged Belgian-style raspberry ale. That was apparently a great choice as she loved it!

Kilwins

Kilwins is a chocolate, fudge and ice cream shop with locations all around the country, although it started in Petoskey, MI. We visited their store in downtown Grand Rapids next to Rosa Parks Circle to get some ice cream and it was delicious.

New Holland Spirits

After visiting Holland and Saugatuck Dunes State Park, we made our way to downtown Saugatuck. This was another quaint town that’s home to New Holland Spirits which is why we stopped by there. I’d planned to do a whiskey tasting, but it became a little more extensive than I’d originally planned!

As you can see, they have lots of different whiskeys that you can taste in 1 oz pours. I originally ordered five, but then the bartender mentioned that their Dragon’s Milk Origin is their most popular whiskey, so I got that too. The cinnamon honey whiskey also sounded good, so I added that too.

The thing is, it turns out they don’t have a cinnamon honey whiskey – they have a cinnamon whiskey and a honey whiskey, so I’d accidentally ordered two more rather than one.

All of the whiskeys were very good with some distinct flavors. The sweet heat whiskey had a spicy peach flavor, the honey whiskey was very honey-y, the beer barrel bourbon definitely had a beer aspect to it, etc.

As you might expect, eight 1 oz pours of whiskey was quite a lot, but I wasn’t quite finished. When I went in to pay they mentioned that there were a couple of other whiskeys I hadn’t tried. At that point I figured why not, so I ordered those too!

Thankfully Shae was my designated driver. As a result, she only had one drink – a prickly pear margarita. She enjoyed it so much that she took a four-pack of cans to go.

Brick And Porter

The aunt who’d given us their Frozen musical tickets was able to come up to Grand Rapids to meet us for dinner on a different night. It was lovely weather out, so we ate outside at Brick And Porter.

Shae got a steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli, while I ordered their Meat Wagon burger which is described as follows:

Our 1/2 lb. burger seasoned, grilled, and topped with shaved ribeye, ham, applewood smoked bacon, melted swiss & cheddar cheeses. Served with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and garlic aioli.

I don’t like cheese, so I ordered it without the swiss and cheddar cheeses. It was a pretty good burger and, as expected, was very filling. Their fries were decent too.

What We Missed

Here are some things we had on our list to do in and around Grand Rapids that we didn’t end up getting to:

• Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park – not pet-friendly
• West Michigan Whitecaps – has corgi races
• Vander Mill Grand Rapids
• Brewery Vivant
• Grand Rapids Brewing Company
• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
• Coppercraft Distillery in Holland