Gaylord , Michigan is very nice too if you want a gorgeous , quaint small town with nice people and lots of touristy amenities from which to explore the rugged natural beauty and almost all equally gorgeous other small towns and cities of Northern Michigan . Pentwater is a very nice small beach resort , of which hundreds dot the coast of Lake Michigan , but there ' s so much more up there and you ' d want a central location . Traverse City , Mackinac Island , the various lakeshores , islands , and lighthouses , the sand dunes , Sault St . Marie , the mountains and lake of the Upper peninsula , and so much more . I mean , if you ' re checking into a hotel in Northern Michigan , you ' re not easily going anywhere else , even Detroit would be a day trip there and back . So you might as well pick a central location from which to explore the whole region . If you are from another country , though , don ' t do too much in the Western Upper Peninsula , you will have a very hard time understanding the accents unless the country you ' re from is Finland . I speak English and German , and can decipher the wildest Scottish or backwoods Appalachian accent , and even I have a hard time talking to those people . I don ' t think someone from France using a FrenchEnglish phrase handbook would fare well there at all .