Watching sunset over the water, wiggling my toes in the sand, checking out a harbor full of boats, dining al fresco, and a slower pace of life are some of my favorite parts of summer. People are surprised to hear that I can get all that more just a few hours from my home in suburban Chicago, in New Buffalo, Michigan, which is less than two hours away (assuming the traffic gods are smiling upon me), in the heart of Harbor Country. It’s also home to the Marina Grand Resort<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nI have to confess, however, that before now my trips to Michigan City have been day trips. I recently changed that when I took my daughter, the soon-to-be high schooler, to the Marina Grand for a quick mother-daughter overnight trip. (And if you want to read more about our trip to New Buffalo, go here<\/a>.) The short version of our review of the Marina Grand Resort in New Buffalo: We loved it.<\/p>\n

We left vowing to return and wondering why we haven’t been there years sooner. Here’s why.<\/p>\n

\u00a01. The Rooftop Deck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The rooftop deck was my favorite part of the property. It’s a lovely place to enjoy coffee in the morning and even better to watch the sunset over Lake Michigan. You can also see the harbor full of boats and it feels like somewhere very far away from the Midwest.<\/p>\n

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2. The Ben & Jerry’s Hotline.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve never seen this before, and hoping I’m seeing it a lot more because the ability to call for a pint of goodness is awesome. I had promised my kiddo ice cream and we were full after dinner so postponed. After we returned to the hotel and enjoyed the hot tub, we were ready for some ice cream, but not wanting to head out again. The Ben & Jerry’s Hotline meant that we had some Cherry Garcia in our hot (or rather, cold) little hands in no time.<\/p>\n

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3. Rainy Days Aren’t a Wash Out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m a bit of a nervous traveler and worry about what bad weather will do to our trip. At the Marina Grand, however, you’re covered even on a rainy day. With the indoor pool and hot tub, the game room, and tables that’d be great for playing games in our suite.<\/p>\n

<\/a>In addition, there’s the Bentwood Tavern<\/a> in the resort, so you don’t even have to go out for food.<\/p>\n

4. Location, Location, Location.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved that the hotel is right on the marina. This is the view of sunrise I took from our balcony. It’s great to be so close, although I have to say I scurried in when someone came out to clean the boat and I realized that we were really<\/em> close and I was still in my jammies.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nOf course, beach proximity is key. It was great to be within easy walking distance of New Buffalo and the beach.<\/p>\n

<\/a>5. Love the loaners.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were able to borrow beach chairs, beach towels, and even bikes from the property. It was great to not have to load up everything for a short trip.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We’re looking forward to a trip back to the Marina Grand and New Buffalo soon!<\/p>\n

You May Also Like: <\/strong>Road trip printables for tweens<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior Post: <\/strong>The Chocolate Pi\u00f1ata at Uncle Julio\u2019s is a big hit<\/a><\/p>\n

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Watching sunset over the water, wiggling my toes in the sand, checking out a harbor full of boats, dining al fresco, and a slower pace of life are some of my favorite parts of summer. People are surprised to hear that I can get all that more just a few hours from my home in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[363,361,362],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5440"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5455,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions\/5455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}