5 Reasons You Should Be Hiring a Travel Agent from Ludington, Michigan

This site uses affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

If you have the pleasure of knowing anyone from Michigan, you know that we LOVE OUR STATE.

My college roommate (who grew up in Georgia) once told me something that I feel really sums it up: she said that she’d never met people that love being from where they’re from more than Michiganders love being from Michigan.

I grew up in Ludington, which is on the west side of the LP (lower peninsula) and sits right on beautiful Lake Michigan (which is the GREATEST of the Great Lakes, by the way).

There’s something special about having a hometown, and something EXTRA special about having a hometown as beautiful as mine.

I really believe growing up in Ludington, along the shore of Lake Michigan and within driving distance of the best Dairy Queen that’s ever existed (if you know, you know) helped me to become the travel planner I am today. Here’s why:

1) In Ludington, we really value hard work and entrepreneurship

There are COUNTLESS small businesses in Ludington (and every town nearby), including within my own family. I grew up surrounded by entrepreneurs working hard every day, I saw them every time we went into town, I had them for neighbors, as teachers, as friends - growing up in Ludington meant growing up with examples of strong work ethic and creativity everywhere you looked, and I guess you could say it rubbed off.

After three years of planning travel for people going all over the world, I am so proud that every single review that’s been left for me on Facebook and Google is five stars.

2) My standard for beautiful places is HIGH

I spent almost EVERY DAY surrounded by nature at its finest - whether I was at Stearns Park beach along Lake Michigan, or at the State Park floating down the river, or enjoying the beach, or camping, or hiking, or a million other things, or at Peter Pan Land, or the other cool secret spots that only the locals really know about.

When I book your trips, I’m going to send you to the touristy sites because they’re touristy for a reason (hell-OOO, Rome???) but I’m also going to suggest beautiful places you should check out besides the touristy stuff - and you know it’s going to be worth it.

3) I’m always going to build in down time for you to ENJOY your adventure

Growing up in Ludington, some of the very best days of my life were those ‘do-nothing days.’ You know the ones, right? The days where you don’t really have any actual plans, but you find yourself with your best friends and favorite people cruising around south of town, laughing and forgetting to put on enough sunscreen when you stop to lay in the sand at Buttersville Park, and by the time the sun sets someone has already started the bonfire and you spend all night playing games, telling jokes, and feeling the bliss that only comes from a perfect, do-nothing day.

What I’m saying is - down time is important.

Time built in to your trip to just wander and explore and let your adventure unfold as it will is IMPORTANT.

And I’m going to insist you have some down time built in to your trip to make that happen.

4) I know for a fact that sometimes the FREE experience is the BEST experience

As a high school kid with a part time high school kid job, I didn’t have a lot of spare money in my pocket by the time I got my drivers license - but this didn’t stop me AT ALL from doing amazing things as often as I could.

Growing up in Ludington, of course, there is always something beautiful to look at or place to hike or view of the lake that you just can’t miss, but I’m talking about stuff like knowing what time the S.S. Badger is pulling back into port from Manitowac, Wisconsin, so we can be sure to be out at the end of the breakwall to wave at the passengers up on deck.

I’m talking about driving around south of town and taking a picnic to have in the bed of my blue pickup truck while we watch the windmills and laugh the afternoon away.

I’m talking about really KNOWING a place, so that when I send you there I can tell you about these amazing things you can do that don’t cost anything.

Sometimes, the free option is WAY better than the expensive one.

5) There’s no room in my network for people that don’t do good work

I guess this sort of ties back into my first reason, about strong work ethic and entrepreneurship. The network I’ve built within the travel industry is INTENTIONAL.

While I haven’t yet been everywhere myself (though it is on my list), curating this network is what empowers me to make recommendations and itineraries for places I haven’t visited.

The honeymoons and destination weddings and adventures I create for my travelers are possible BECAUSE of the network of people I work with.

So if I haven’t yet stayed at the hotel in Bali I’m recommending to you, you can rest assured that the hotel, the staff, and everyone involved has been vetted by me, and I trust them to do good work.

I’m launching a WEEK IN LUDINGTON itinerary soon, and if you haven’t visited this beautiful place I recommend you make plans to do so ASAP. I think you just might love it as much as the locals do.

P.S. - ‘travel agent’ and ‘travel planner’ mean the same thing, but I like to go by ‘travel planner’!