“UNSALTED” reads the sweatshirt worn by a sunkissed teen standing in line with her friends for ice cream on a warm summer night in Elk Rapids, Michigan. “Unsalted,” in this case, refers to Lake Michigan, the freshwater Great Lake that feels as big as an ocean and looks as brilliantly blue as the Mediterranean. Its vastness gives Michigan the bragging rights of having the most freshwater shoreline in the US.

The lake may be unsalted, but this region of the Midwest is anything but bland. Among Northern Michigan’s breadth of experiences, you can explore quaint towns with vibrant farmers’ markets and great vintage shopping; See rolling farmland, cherry orchards, and nature preserves; Spend the day at an expansive golden sand beach right in town; Hike through dramatic forests; Bike along lakefront trails, and other outdoor activities galore. Toss in its impressive drinks and dining scene, and thoughtful new hotels inspired by local craftsmanship, and, well, you could say Northern Michigan is “having a moment.”  But it’s not making a lot of noise about it. That would be counter to what the place is all about. 

Northern Michigan’s nostalgia-tinged, American summers dare you to believe that easy living, undivided communities and countries, and courtesy still exist. What sets it apart even more is how under the radar it feels and how laid back. The pace and the attitude feel different. There’s none of the kind of status anxiety that you find in places like the Hamptons, Muskoka, or Prince Edward County, the kind that makes a vacation as stressful as real life. Dress codes in Northern Michigan are basically: clothes.

This article might contain affiliate links. Read the disclaimer about affiliate links & PR gifting here. 
This hotel stay was hosted by Dexter Hotel, which did not review or approve this story.

Traverse City Horse Show

This vibe carries over even to events that are stereotypically elitist. Traverse City, the biggest town in the region, is home to the Traverse City Horse Show,  a world-class event that runs throughout the summer and fall. For 13 weeks, Olympic and world champion riders descend on Traverse City to compete in classes for multi-million dollar purses. But, in true unpretentious Northern Michigan style, they are taking the stuffiness and intimidation out of that traditionally snooty sport. “We want it to be the fun horse show,” organisers will tell you. For the public, there are free ticketing days that include prime viewing in Adirondack chairs right up against the course, and courses designed for little kids to jump over. The grounds, set against dramatic wooded bluffs, are a great place to come for a drink: Included with your glass of rosé is a chance to see world champions such as top 10 equestrian Kent Farrington or  Canadian  Olympian Erynn  Ballard. 

For the athletes, the location is certainly a draw. And they take advantage of all that is at their fingertips when they are not riding. It’s only a very short drive to Old Mission’s and Leelanau Peninsula’s vineyards, crafted spirits at Ethanology distillery, and charming wine and cheese tastings at places like Bos, a day by the water at spectacular Torch Lake, or to quaint towns like Glen Arbor, Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Harbors Springs, and Northport. There’s the summertime Interlochen Arts Festival, which draws performers like Gladys Knight and Elvis Costello.

Midwest modern cuisine scene

“If you can get a table”  seems to be the opening line to every conversation about dining out in this corner of Northern Michigan, these days. The region’s exciting Midwest modern cuisine scene comprises organic farm-to-table restaurants, cheesemakers,  breweries and wineries. Modern Bird and its Michelin-restaurant trained chefs-owners Andy Elliott and Emily Stewart, Farm Club, which comprises a restaurant, brewery, bakery, and working farm, The Little Fleet, a lively outdoor space built around local food trucks, and music,  or the hyper-local menu at  The Cooks’ House all in  Traverse City, The Mill Cafe in Glen Arbor, or Masala Magic in Elk Rapids are among those on foodie radars.  

Thoughtful hospitality & Unique hotels

A new generation of thoughtful hospitality projects are also helping shape Northern Michigan summers. Michelin Guide-recommended Otis Hotel in Harbor Springs was a derelict roadside motel that’s been given new life as a striking contemporary design destination, filled with curated vintage furniture, art, and collectable design pieces. It looks like the kind of place you travel to Palm Springs to stay at. The mid-century modern-inspired Dexter in Elk Rapids brings city-level quality in design, comfort and food and beverage to a beautiful outdoorsy setting. Both these properties are run by the creative directors of the luxury Detroit lifestyle brand Shinola, and both celebrate Michigan makers and the state’s legacy of design and craftsmanship.

The Dexter’s interior features vintage furnishings sourced from Pernette’s in Northport, lighting from Traverse City-based Britten, and cabinetry, including the hotel’s statement bar, is by Wolf Wood out of Grand Rapids. Under executive chef John Korycki, Noble’s about-to-launch menu will be based on seasonally driven shared plates- Mediterranean-inspired in their use of bright, fresh flavours. Both locals and guests use the lounge area as a common space to enjoy creative cocktails and views over the lake.

In the morning, guests head out into the sunshine for the day’s adventures full of enthusiasm and excitement but not without first joining the queue at Michigander Bakery for an array of artisanal doughnuts and coffee.

Noble Bar, Dexter Hotel, images courtesy of the property.

Among activities not to miss is a trip to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and its enormous dunes and bluffs that tower above the lake. Good Morning America once named it the most beautiful place in America.  Take note of the sign at the top of the bluffs:  “Down is Optional”. This is a 450-foot, 45-degree angle sandhill and even hardened hikers find the two steps forward,  one step back hike back up in the sand challenging. Enough people have had to resort to helicopter rescues that the operation now charges $3000 for an airlift. Most people settle for the breathtaking view from the top. Those that have ventured down and into the lake for a swim look like tiny little ducks from above. 

The region has a lot of stories to tell. But it never shouts to be heard. Its unhurried, unpretentious vibe feels like just what we need right now.

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Curaçao, just 30 miles from Venezuela, is an autonomous country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With its typically narrow, if brightly coloured, gabled homes lined up in neat rows, it certainly looks like a little bit of Holland in the middle of the Caribbean, but it’s a multicultural island where seemingly everyone speaks three or four languages, often in one sentence. The island’s official languages are Dutch and Papiamento—an Afro-Portuguese Creole which also incorporates Spanish, Dutch, English, Hebrew, and Arawak Indian words and embodies Curaçao’s layered history.  

Exploring these museums and places will give visitors an idea just how much Curaçao’s past shapes this constantly evolving and fascinating southwestern Caribbean island.

This article might contain affiliate links. Read the disclaimer about affiliate links & PR gifting here.
Parts of this trip were hosted by Curaçao Tourism, who did not review or approve this story.

Fort Amsterdam

In 1634, a Dutch fleet conquered the coast of Curaçao and took control of it from the Spanish. The Spaniards had already named arid Curaçao and its neighbouring islands, Las Islas Inútiles (useless islands), because they believed that nothing could grow on them. But the Dutch saw Curaçao’s location as a strategic benefit and built Fort Amsterdam at Saint Anna as a barrier against enemies and pirates. After a truce with the Spanish, the Dutch turned their attention from military campaigns to trade, seeing the port as the perfect base between New York (then known as New Amsterdam) and South America.

The Dutch West India Company quickly developed a monopoly on sea trade routes and became immensely wealthy, dealing in goods, and the equally lucrative, but morally bankrupt, human trade. Curaçao was used as a slave depot, where people, taken from Africa, were brought before being sent to the Spanish, Portuguese, British, and French colonies, until 1788, when the last ship of captive people arrived on the island. In later years, the Fort resumed its role as a strategic location, including during World War II. Today, Fort Amsterdam is home to the island’s Parliament and the official residence of the governor. The Fort is built around a spacious quadrangle courtyard, its buildings painted in the vibrant yellow that is ubiquitous around the island. The only building that can be visited is Fort Church, home of the first Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands Antilles. It dates back to 1769. Within its walls are the original pulpit, the governor’s pew, and a small museum with historic artefacts belonging to the Church’s congregation. The lure for the history lover is walking around the buildings and getting a real sense of where Curaçao’s long European history all began.

Savonet Plantation Museum

Located within the Christoffelpark, the island’s largest nature reserve, and a popular spot for hikers, sits the Savonet Plantation, one of many former landhuizen around the island. The big house and outbuilding were turned into an ambitious museum complex in 2016. The Savonet Museum’s idea is to tie all the threads of the textured fabric of Curaçao together – the relationship between its people and its flora and fauna, its archeology and with each other.

The story starts with the arrival of the Caiquieto Indians of the Arawak tribe, who migrated north from South America some 6,000 years ago and ends with a gallery of contemporary photos of descendants of many cultures. There’s a whole lot of history in between, from military campaigns to the arrival of a Shell oil distillery to the labour and race riots known as the 1960 May Revolt to the country’s autonomy in 2010.  Antiques and artefacts displayed in the Main house’s bright, airy and well-restored rooms visually bring all these chapters to life, while videos offering personal stories, songs and historical analysis add extra layers of information. But, given the museum’s location, it’s natural that the main focus would be the plantation house itself, and the people who worked on it, and the people who lived off their backs. Exhibits detailing the structure of plantation society, lives and customs of owners and labourers during slavery, after abolition and well into the 20th century is intimately told.

Afro-Curaçaoan History

Afro-Curaçaoan history is largely defined by the brutal reality of slavery. But it is also one of pride and resilience. Most of Curaçao’s black population is descended from Africans who were captured and forced into labour that created the island’s prosperous economy. Curaçao’s involvement in the slave trade is told through several powerful museums, including The Kura Hulanda. The museum documents the torturous period, though a chilling collection of instruments of captivity, and delves into the legacy of post-abolition racism through words and artefacts. Kura Hulanda’s location is jarring: It’s on the site of a luxury resort of the same name, and was supposedly built to facilitate funding for the property by adding a cultural attraction. Completely incongruous, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s one of the island’s most worthy cultural institutions.

Another is the Museo Tula. You might have seen the movie The Revolt: Tula, starring Danny Glover, about the month-long 1795 slave revolt begun by an enslaved man named Tula. The museum devoted to his story (set in the landhuis where the revolt took place) lays out how Tula travelled from plantation to plantation trying to liberate other enslaved people before being caught and tortured to death. Tula’s legacy is further commemorated with a statue along the waterfront in Willemstad, the island’s capital, and in the gentrified district of Pietermaai, where an innovative urban planning project entitled Tula’s Hand symbolises regrowth.

The indelible Afro-Curaçaoan culture is felt in the island’s cuisine (Curaçao’s national dish is keshi yená, a blend of chicken, vegetables, spices and raisins baked in the rind of Edam cheese, a dish that had its origins in the slave kitchens). It is felt in the vibrant murals of  Pietermaai, which have helped make Willemstad an art city; in the sounds of Tumba music with its influences of Bantu culture and jazz; and in the labour and race riots of 1960 that began to upend the uneven social structure.

Jewish Curaçao 

Past thick mahogany doors lies Mikvé Israel Emanuel—the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. The ornate structure spreads across a full city block in the centre of Willemstad, and was built at a time when thirty per cent of the counted population of Curaçao was Jewish.

Their story began in the 1650s, with the arrival of Sephardic Jews from Amsterdam, who had previously fled Spain and Portugal at the time of the Inquisition. You can’t help but notice the synagogue’s floor is carpeted in sand. This is to commemorate the time during the Inquisition when forcibly converted Iberian Jews used sand to muffle the sound of Hebrew prayer. Adjacent to the synagogue is the Jewish Cultural and Historical Museum, which houses a Torah from 1300s Spain, and a letter from George Washington to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, granting them religious freedom and the right to erect the first synagogue in the U.S. The connection? The first congregants of the 1763 Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island were emigrants from Curaçao. To this day, the Jews of Newport say a prayer of thanks to the Curaçao Jews for helping to build the synagogue on American soil.

Landhuis Chobolobo, where the famous Curaçao blue liqueur is produced, is also worth visiting for those exploring the island’s Jewish history. The liqueur was developed by the Jewish Senior family in 1886, and the distillery has an exhibition displaying a historical timeline of the Jews of Curaçao. The Beit Chaim cemetery, consecrated in 1659,  is known for its elaborate tombstones and counts the remains of Rebecca Spinoza (d 1695), the sister of the great Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, among its buried.

The Handelskade

The narrow, gabled, multi-hued buildings that line the Handelskade (or Waterfront) in Willemstad look like someone took a box of coloured pencils to Amsterdam’s canal houses. The buildings are painted bright colours, because, the story goes, a 17th-century governor blamed the reflection of the strong sun on the formerly all-white buildings for his chronic migraines (dig deeper and you’ll find the man owned a paint factory).

These 17th-century structures were the homes and warehouses of the Dutch and Jewish merchants who helped Curaçao flourish and become a wealthy island (today, they’re mostly shops and offices). The Handelskade is part of Willemstad’s 1997 UNESCO World Heritage Historic City designation,  a source of pride for islanders and delight for Instagrammers. The Plaza Hotel Curaçao, one of the island’s tallest buildings, has recently changed ownership, and its future is unclear at the moment. But if it’s open and there’s a chance to get in and up to the top floor, grab it. You’ll get a sweeping view of the red tiled rooftops and the grid layout, which gives a good idea of what a 17th-century Dutch-designed city, including the original New York,  looked like. You can also see how Breedestraat (Broadway) cuts through Willemstad the way it does in New York.

Modern Architecture

Besides the Handelskade, Curaçao, has some striking architecture. The island is home to some of the Caribbean’s coolest modernism. There are all the bright, happy villas in the historic Scharloo district, buildings that house serious businesses like banks and government offices and look like iced birthday cakes.  Dutch modernist icon Gerrit Reitveld spent time in Curaçao, and left behind, among other things, a de Stijl movement transformer station, as well as private homes that are culturally sensitive de Stijl movement spaces adapted to a Caribbean climate. In the once neglected revamped Pietermaai district you’ll find examples of cool modernism and European Nieuwe Bouwen buildings.   

Where to stay in Curaçao

The  Renaissance Curaçao Resort & Casino, is a sleek, modern hotel set within a historic fort in Willemstad, near the Punta shopping neighbourhood and the nightlife of Pietermaai. The property’s calming, vibrant colours showcase the island’s love for art..

Papagayo Design Hotel, located on Curaçao’s lively Jan Thiels beach, feels very Holland in the Tropics with a good dose of Saint Tropez thrown in. Minimalist design rooms are spread over several buildings, with terraces overlooking the sea and landscape.

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