09/9-13/2021

I can’t think of a better way to end the warm days of summer by going on a vacation to Door County WI, which is exactly what my boyfriend and I did. If you want to visit a place that has beautiful scenery, great food, fun art galleries, and has great cocktails/wine/beer/ciders then Door County WI is the place for you!

This was my third time traveling to Door County, but after not having visited in almost six years it felt like I was seeing everything again for the first time. There is so much to do throughout this Penninsual and even though my boyfriend and I were able to explore quite a bit of the area there is still so much we missed.

I am so excited to share our adventure with you all and hopefully, I can inspire you to visit Door County.

Day 1

The vast majority of our first day was spent driving from the Twin Cities to Door County. It’s about a five-hour drive, but if you have some good music and snacks it goes by fairly quickly.

After a long drive like that, all you need is a decent meal & a good drink (but we were still full from our lunches so a good drink was first). Once we finally reached the peninsula our very first stop was at the Door County Distillery & Winery (there are two separate links for each space). This building was so fun to wander around, and both the distillery and winery had their own tasting rooms. There is also an olive oil tasting bar but due to covid their tasting bar was closed. At the distillery, I ordered their seasonal special the pumpkin-flavored old-fashioned and it was soooo good!

Then at the winery we each sampled five different wines and my favorites ended up being the Witches Brew, Cranberry Mule, and the Cherry Mimosa.

After our stop at the Door County Distillery & Winery, we decided to head to our Airbnb.

I still can’t believe that we were able to book this adorable cabin for the entire time we were out there. This is one of my favorite Airbnb’s I have ever stayed at, and the view was breathtaking! This Airbnb was the Waterfront Baileys Harbor Studio on Lake Michigan. From this cabin, you can see the Cana Island Lighthouse, hear the waves of the lake all day long, and enjoy a beautiful fireplace on the 2nd floor that has a 360° view of the property. I’d say the only thing about this Airbnb that I didn’t enjoy was the sofa beds, they were very very old, squeaky and flat. We ended up piling up two of the sofa bed mattresses together to get some better sleep, which kinda worked. Other than that the place was great! I mean, just look at these views!

Once we had explored our Airbnb and got all our luggage organized we decided to hike down the road to Cana Island. In order to get to the island, there is normally a tractor to take you across the water, but we arrived after hours and ended up walking through the water to get to the island (bring shoes that you can take in the water if you do this as well). This tiny island was very pretty, and I wish that we could have gone there when the lighthouse and gift shop were open(maybe next time).

To end our long day we decide to get dinner in Bailey Harbor at Clover & Zot. This restaurant was so modern and chic! They have a beautiful indoor and outdoor eating area and also a great food menu.

Day 2

In the morning I was so excited to finally go eat breakfast at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant, the place with the goats on the roof! It had been almost five years since the last time I had their incredible Swedish pancakes and meatballs with lingonberry sauce, and I had been craving it again ever since. Also seeing those goats on the roof is the most adorable thing ever! Al Johnson’s serves breakfast all day, but if you want to have breakfast in the morning and don’t want to wait for forever to get a table then ask if you can be seated at the back bar (only if there are 2 of you eating). This can help you skip the lines and get seated almost immediately.

Once we were stuffed from breakfast it was time to do some hiking. Our goal for our 2nd day was to explore the west side of the peninsula as much as possible.

The first destination of the day was at the Door Bluff Headlands, County Park. This was a pretty small park but definitely worth checking out. I highly recommend going down to the shoreline to see some cool rock formations with trees growing out of the side of the rockface. We ended up hiking some more of the trail into the woods which was pretty, but not as scenic as the rocky shoreline.

After our first small hiking session we hit up Island Orchard Cider, and oh these drinks were good! I ended up buying the Apple Ginger Cider.

After a few drinks, we went and ate at The Viking Grill and Lounge. This was a good stop for a quick bite to eat. I would highly recommend getting the Whitefish or Lake Perch Sandwich.

The next stop on our itinerary was Ellison Bluff State Natural Area. I don’t think this was one of my favorite stops, but the outlook they had there was quite pretty. They did have some longer hiking trails, but we decided to continue on with our day. Maybe next time we will explore that park more.

We continued our adventure by driving down to Sisters Bay. There we walked around the town and did some shopping. I ended up buying a few items at City Sailor, which was such an adorable boutique, and we also picked up a few things at the newer Al Johnson’s Butik. Their newer butik is on the south side of the Al Johnsons beer garden. This shop isn’t updated on google maps yet, but It has the same Scandinavian look so you can’t miss it.

On our drive from Sisters Bay to Ephraim, we stopped at a few different art galleries. If you love art you could easily spend an entire four-day trip in Door County exploring all the art galleries throughout the peninsula (there must be at least a hundred).

Our first art gallery stop was at the Frykman Studio Gallery which had extremely beautiful photography prints of Door County, and there were also a lot of adorable wooden sculptures there as well.

The second gallery we found on our drive was the Fine Line Designs Gallery. This was a massive studio with art from all different kinds of artists.

Then, of course, we had to stop at the famous Hardy Gallery. This is one of the more popular art galleries in Door County so usually, it’s quite crowded, but thankfully there was hardly anyone there when we arrived which made it a lot easier to get pictures of the building and to tour the gallery inside.

One decision I sort of regret making was stopping Wilson's Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor. The last time I was in Door County my friends were raving about how awesome this place was so I figured it was worth checking out. We ended up waiting almost an hour to be able to get some ice cream, and it was definitely not worth it. The ice cream didn’t taste that great and the wait was way too long. I will say the look and aesthetic of the parlor were really neat, but if the wait times are long you’re not missing much by moving on to your next destination.

Our last stop of the evening was getting some drinks and a small meal at Trixie's. This wine bar was super cute! I loved the pink theme throughout the space and the wine and food were pretty good as well. This is definitely the perfect stop for a date or a friend’s night out.

To end our day we did a fun photo shoot session at our Airbnb because how could you not take some fun photos in front of that stunning backdrop?

Day 3

Our third day of the trip was definitely our busiest day! We started with getting up pretty early in the morning so that we could go get some pictures of the Door County Curvy Highway before there were too many people on the road. This little stretch of road is probably one of the most photographed places in Door County and it was worth getting up a bit earlier to check it out before the morning rush.

After taking a few pics at the curvy highway we headed for the Washington Island Ferry Line and decided we would try to get more pictures at that same location again later in the day.

There is so much to see out on Washington Island so I highly recommend getting on this ferry as early as possible, and then stopping for breakfast at the adorable Ships Wheel Restaurant. Seriously this restaurant is super cute and the food tasted great!

With our stomachs satisfied with breakfast we headed for the Washington Island Stavkirke. This rustic Scandinavian church was an incredible work of art. Also while we were there, there were two women doing a cosplay photoshoot of Anna and Elsa from Frozen, which helped to add to the feeling of actually being in Norway.

The next stop was at the Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm & Shop. Unfortunately, we were a bit too late in the season to see the lavender blooming, but it was still a very pretty farm to walk around and take some photos. We also ended up buying a few products in their shop. My two favorite things we purchased were a lavender & eucalyptus spray for the shower, and the lavender syrup to add to cocktails or other drinks.

Before jumping on our second ferry we explored the Jackson Harbor Ridges State Natural Area a bit. There wasn’t a ton of hiking to do here, but it was a nice walk along the beach and through a small section of woods.

Okay, so this is the part of the trip that I really wished I would have done more research on before going. I had no idea that Rock Island State Park was going to be sooooooo beautiful! This ended up being my favorite place to explore throughout the whole trip and I could have easily spent an entire day on this island. Rock Island definitely gave me some major Anne of Green Gable’s vibes, and I wish I could have had a lovely picnic while there. The island was bigger than I had thought it was going to be hours hiking around the entire island would probably take at least 2 hours (or a little less). Here is a link to the map of the island. Also, my camera began dying while we were on the island, and I had left my camera bag in the car back on Washington Island, so a lot of these photos are a mix between my camera and my phone.

The ferry brings you right up to the boathouse, which was just an absolutely beautiful building. I so badly want to be invited to a ball or wedding in this boathouse someday. Just absolutely stunning!

From the boathouse, we hiked up to the Pottawatomie lighthouse, which is about a twenty-minute hike. This lighthouse was so adorable, and the beach below the lighthouse was really nice spot to relax, stack some rocks, and listen to the waves of the lake. Unfortuenly we didn’t have enough time to explore more of the island, but next time I go back to Door County I plan on taking an entire day to just spend time on Rock Island State Park.

Once we were back on Washington Island we stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Jackson Harbor Soup. This was a great way to end our exploration of Washington Island, just chilling next to the lake with a warm bowl of soup.

When we got back to the mainland, we stopped at the curvy highway once more to get a few more pics and I ended up snapping some shots of this deer crossing the highway which was pretty exciting!

Our day ended with a quick bite to eat at Stabbur Beer Garden at Al Johnson's. If you like seafood then you have to get their Swedish shrimp roll, it was so delicious.

Then we drove over to Newport State Park as the sun was beginning to set. This park was very pretty and we were considering staying really late to get some pictures of the stars since it’s been designated as a Dark Sky Park, but it was getting pretty cold so we ended up going back to our Airbnb.

Overall I was pretty satisfied with how much we were able to explore that day.

Day 4

On our last day, we obviously had to stop at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik for breakfast one more time, and we used the trick of asking to be seated at the back bar so we didn’t have to wait for an hour. Seriously, don’t forget this tip if it’s busy or you may have to wait over an hour for a table.

After another magnificent breakfast at Al Johnson’s, we went straight to Peninsula State Park. There is a lot of hiking to do at this park, but our favorite trail was the eagle trail which has a few elevation changes and a ton of cool bluffs to look at. We also parked at the Amphitheater Theater and hiked two trails that were very easy, but very pretty, the Nicolet Bay trail which then connected to the Trail Tramper’s Delight.

Stone's Throw Winery was my favorite place we ate at throughout the whole trip (even more than the breakfast at Al Johnson’s!). Both the wine and food were spectacular. For our meal, we both shared the Antipasti and the Roasted Beet Salad. We tried quite a few different wines, but my favorite one was the Zin 2018.

Cave Point County Park was my second favorite park that we stopped at (my most favorite being Rock Island State Park). The color of the water along the cliffs was breathtaking, and climbing the little cliffs up and down made me feel like a little kid again. This park should be a must-see on everyone’s trip to Door County.

For our last evening in Door County we ended up heading back to the Airbnb and enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing in front of the fireplace and listening to the waves of the lake.

Door County is such a beautiful part of Wisconsin to travel to, and I’m already looking forward to going back again someday!