Southwestern

Southwestern Michigan covers the entire western and south-central Lower Peninsula, the broad agricultural-and-urban country running from Lake Michigan east to Lansing and south to the Ohio and Indiana lines. The terrain shifts from the long Lake Michigan shoreline (sand dunes, beach towns, small harbors) east through the fruit-belt orchards of the western counties to the rolling till plain of central and southern Michigan. The Grand, Kalamazoo, and St. Joseph rivers cut across the region. Twenty-three counties cover the region. Kent County holds Grand Rapids, the largest city; Ingham holds Lansing (the state capital) and East Lansing (Michigan State University); Kalamazoo holds Kalamazoo; Calhoun holds Battle Creek (the cereal-industry headquarters); Ottawa holds Holland (with the Tulip Time Festival each May) and Grand Haven; Muskegon holds Muskegon; Berrien holds St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Saugatuck and Holland anchor the lakeshore artist communities. Most trips here run lakeshore-and-city focused. The west-coast beach towns from St. Joseph north through South Haven, Saugatuck, Holland, Grand Haven, and Muskegon pull summer crowds; Grand Rapids handles a multi-day food-and-craft-beer itinerary (the city has more breweries per capita than most U.S. cities); Lansing runs the state-capitol itinerary.