Editorial Policy

What we publish

This is a free, independent guide, written to help you plan a real trip up north. We would rather publish a short page than a long one padded with guesses, so some pages are brief and some sections stay out until we can find a good source for them.

Always check before you go. Hours, dates, fees, accessibility, and whether a place is open at all can change at any time, and we will not always catch it. Before you make the drive, confirm the details that matter to you (especially accessibility) directly with the business, park or organizer.

How we research

Sources first. We work from official sources where we can: event organizers, towns and counties, visitors bureaus, the National Park Service, the Michigan DNR, park systems, and the places' own websites. Each page lists the sources we used, so you can check them too.
We try not to guess. When we cannot find a good source for a date, an hour, a fee or an amenity, we leave it out rather than fill the gap. We mostly skip hours and prices altogether, because they change too often to keep current.
Original writing. We summarize verified facts in our own words and never copy descriptions from other websites.
Dates are labeled. The events calendar uses dates the organizer has published. When the next dates are not out yet, we say "Dates not yet announced."
Distances and drive times are estimates. Distances between places are straight-line estimates from map coordinates. Drive times come from OpenStreetMap routing with no traffic, so treat them as a rough guide, not a promise.
Two dates on every page. "Facts last checked" is when we last looked at the sources. "Page updated" is when we last edited the page. Things can change the day after either one.

Human review

Research and drafting may be assisted by software tools, including AI. A person reviews pages before they go live, but no review catches everything.

Independence and listings

A company related to the site's owner owns vacation rental property in the region. That is one reason this guide covers the smaller inland towns and lakes as carefully as the famous ones, but it never decides what we recommend:

Any business we link to that has a connection to that property, such as managing it, carries a disclosure next to the link. Any place to stay owned by the site's owner or a related company is labeled the same way.
Any paid or sponsored listing is labeled "Sponsored."
Lodging links appear in Places to Stay sections, never inside editorial recommendations.
No business pays to be included or ranked in a travel guide.

Photos

We use only photos we own or that are licensed for reuse. Most come from Pexels and are used under the Pexels License (see our terms). We do not label a photo with a place name unless we know that is where it was taken.

Corrections

If something is wrong or out of date, please tell us. We read every note and fix what we can confirm, as time allows.