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Mackinac Island Carriage Tours

Experience history and charm on your narrated carriage tour of the island…

Prepare yourself for a tour like no other! What you will experience is by far the most enjoyable and authentic way to view the island. Keep in mind there are no set departure times. You will be on the next available carriage once you have purchased your ticket at the ticket office.

THE TOUR INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING STOPS:

SURREY HILLS MUSEUM

Enjoy a leisurely visit through Surrey Hills Carriage Museum displaying historic carriages including a horse-drawn hearse, still used today, and an antique fire department pumper. Browse the on site gift shops or have lunch or a snack before boarding our open 3-horse hitch carriage for the second part of your tour. WINGS OF MACKINAC BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY

(Additional Admission Fee) Open Mid-May through early October only. Discover life’s most beautiful insects! Enjoy a unique experience, strolling among hundreds of butterflies dancing and chasing each other in our climate controlled conservatory filled with lush flowers. 200 different species are represented. www.wingsofmackinac.com ARCH ROCK

The next stop is Arch Rock for an approximately 5 minute viewing of this breathtaking natural limestone formation. Reboard your carriage to continue your tour. FORT MACKINAC AVENUE OF FLAGS

(Additional Admission Fee) Open early May through early October only. Experience the sights and sounds of living history preserved in this American Revolutionary Era fort. As passengers depart arriving carriages, you may reboard as space is available to continue your island tour. www.mackinacparks.com RETURN TO SURREY HILLS MUSEUM

Board our 2-Horse carriage to return again to the downtown area. GRAND HOTEL

(Additional Admission Fee) www.grandhotel.com You may elect to end your tour at Grand Hotel, however, you would not be able to reboard other tour carriages after this stop. It is just a short walk down the hill to the downtown area from Grand Hotel, or you may call for horse-drawn taxi service at additional charge.

Please note that casual resort wear is appropriate at Grand Hotel during the day. No tank tops or cut-offs are permitted.

After 6:00 PM, evening wear is required in all areas of the hotel: coat and tie for gentlemen, and dresses or pantsuits for ladies.

Visit Mackinac Island Carriage Tours Website >>>

Since motor vehicles are not permitted to intrude on the natural beauty of Mackinac Island, there is no better way to visit this historic isle and see the legendary points of interest than by carriage. Carriage tours are available either by group tours, private tours or drive yourself carriages.

Mackinac Island Carriage Tours  offers both group and private tours.

Gough Livery  offers private tours and wedding carriage rentals.

Jack's Livery Stable   offers drive yourself carriages and saddle horses.

CARRIAGE RENTALS AND TOURS

Mackinac Island Carriage Tours

Review Highlights

“ The tour took you from the visitor center to the Grand Hotel, then up into the state forest, and finally back down next to Fort Mackinac . ” in 8 reviews

“ Our second part was with Jeff and the "Waffles" and he was so informative and had some great off the cuff jokes and folklore!! ” in 7 reviews

“ Eventually this two-horse drawn carriage reaches the Carriage Museum where everyone gets out. ” in 2 reviews

Location & Hours

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7278 Main St

Mackinac Island, MI 49757

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106 reviews

We bought the carriage tour through our ferry boat at a discounted rate. We are glad we did! You get great views of the island and they drop you off at a few places where you could explore at your leisure and get back onto different carriages whenever you were ready to go on to more. We would definitely do it again. They also give you a lot of history about the island as you're riding around.

Thoroughly enjoyed our carriage tour of the island recently. Nathan was the driver for the first half and he made the tour interesting and fun. Lots to see and lots of interesting history to learn.

See all photos from Karne N. for Mackinac Island Carriage Tours

An update only to add a copy of a brochure for the Carriage Tour company. May, 2023.

Brochure back. 2023.

Flyer front. 2023.

Visiting Mackinac Island for the first time, I was looking forward to taking a carriage tour of the island -- even if it was a touristy thing to do and my husband was less enthusiastic. (He wanted to more actively rent bikes). Mackinac Island Carriage Tours was established in 1948, and advertises that it is the world's largest horse and buggy service. It has 100 carriages, pulled by more than 400 horses. the We purchased our tickets at the ticket booth (Adults/seniors: $30.50; Kids (5-12): $11. There was also a combination ticket available that included Wings of Mackinac (Butterfly Conservatory) for an additional fee. There are no set departure times; two-horse led carriages depart when the carriages are full. The line for boarding our 2-horse led carriage was short, and we were seated in the carriage in about five minutes. If memory serves me correct, there were about 5 rows with about 5 people per row. Con: our carriage was crowded. More people were packed into our row than was comfortable for a long ride on a warm day. Seeing the island, including the historic district and the interior part of the state park, the cemetery, etc. by horse carriage was a pleasant experience. However, our driver/narrator had only been on the job for two weeks and it showed. While her control of the horses was fine, she seemed to be sharing memorized narration with us -- and was sometimes forgetting her lines. She was also limited in her ability to respond to questions. The number of "stops" on the tour is very limited, often requires an additional fee, and the narrator didn't sufficiently tell us what was available at the few stops. *Surrey Hills Museum, Wings of Mackinac Butterfly Conservatory ($), and Grand Stable. This is a mandatory stop because, oddly, you need to change carriages here. The museum houses some historical carriages, including a horse-drawn hearse that is still in use and an antique fire department pumper. This building also houses a pricey gift shop and, in theory, some options to grab a bite to eat or snack. (They were closed when we were there). There is also a restroom here. We didn't visit the Butterfly Conservatory; we weren't interested enough to pay the additional fee. We also didn't visit the Grand Stable, as we hadn't realized that it was there, nor that it was available to visit. After our visit the Museum, we entered the line for the next segment of the tour. *Next stop: Arch Rock. We transferred to a 3-horse horse carriage with a new driver. This driver was more seasoned, but repeated some of the canned stories already told by the first driver. Arch Rock was a stop that allowed passengers to disembark but only for about 5 minutes. Arch Rock is a stunning natural limestone formation, through which there's a view of Lake Huron. Some passengers also used this an opportunity to take photos with the horses. *We then continued our journey on to the Fort Mackinac Avenue of Flags ($). This Is an American Revolution era fort, and also a fee area. You can depart the carriage here; re-boarding is space dependent). *Shortly thereafter, our carriage reached the Grand Hotel (another fee area that also has a dress code). At that point, we were given the option to: (1) continue on the carriage to return to Surrey Hill where the tour concludes. From there, you can board one of the 2-horse carriages going downtown; (2) disembark and walk the short, but somewhat steep, hill down to downtown; or (3) disembark call for a horse-drawn taxi ($). Many passengers were confused, and the driver had to repeat the options numerous times. Ultimately, most, including elderly, disembarked. We, too, walked down the hill to downtown. Extra bonus: there were some nice views on the short way down. Overall, we're happy that we took the tour. It was a good way to spend two hours, and we were unlikely to have seen the interior of the island without it. We were also pleased to see how well they took care of the horses. (For instance, allowing them to rest after climbing a hill). That said, our carriage was too crowded and it felt quite inefficient to have to change carriages at Summit Hill. Also, there were many aspects of the tour that felt like a money-grab for tourist dollars. For instance, a photographer took a group shot of the carriage passengers with the photo available for purchase at Surrey Hill. Surrey Hill itself had the extra fee butterfly observatory and an expensive shop. (I looked at a refrigerator magnet that was $6 that I later purchased in town for $3). It would've been nice to have more of a hop-on, hop-off feature so we could've explored the interior more. My husband, who was initially a skeptic, is also happy that we took the tour -- but now it was time for HIS activity -- renting bikes to ride the 8 mile perimeter tour.

Good customer service, & friendly drivers. They offer one carriage that has wheelchair accessibility. Dispatched to our locations within a reasonable time frame (patience is key here, it's a horse & buggy, and there are lots of people calling for pickups across the island.) Used their service multiple times over the past four years. Great job.

You just have to do this tour while on Mackinac Island. We had excellent drivers who were very fun and informative. All the stops were interesting and the views are beautiful. We purchased tickets on Main Street and were given a time to get on a carriage. We walked around for about an hour and came back in time for our assigned tour time. Very convenient.

There are only three ways to tour this epic island; walk, bike or by horse. We chose the horse carriage tour. Maggie was terrific with great historical information, Native American legends, and well delivered puns and delightfully funny corny humor suitable for all ages. The horses are not the Clydesdale breed, which they clearly point out, since everybody thinks so (including us). They're beautiful and remarkable creatures. The island is drop dead Gorgeous! Old, gigantic Victorian homes, long verandas, flowers - especially jaw dropping hydrangeas. The Grand Hotel, breath taking lake shore views, tons of quaint small business shops, so many options for food or spirits... If you're in the area it would be almost criminal not to visit??

Called for a taxi. They said they were busy but would get a taxi to us as soon as possible. We were texted saying they were dispatched and we waited 40 minutes. I figured they were busy so I waited until then to call. I called and was told "they arrived and no one was there". Sure...thanks. Now I've waited an hour to go to dinner. I would walk but we're in nice shoes for dinner at the grand. Extremely disappointed in this company. Update: we're walking. What a joke...

Taxi service: rude and poor customer service When I called to ask for a reservation, the dispatcher was extremely rude and unhelpful. In fact, he hung up on me before I was able to finish asking questions, such as where I wait to be picked up at the grand Hotel. While I was waiting 20 to 30 minutes for a taxi to artive, another taxi drove by and I asked where I should wait. She yelled at me and said I should've talked about that when I made my reservation and I should've known better. (Unfortunately, I don't know her name, but she appeared maybe middle aged with long sandy blond hair.). While I was waiting, I witnessed another taxi driver very rudely demand payment from other people. All of these experiences made me not want to take the taxis and if I didn't have a long walk to the Mission Point, I wouldn't have. The driver that arrived was from Romania and he was very nice. I was speaking a staff member at the grand hotel, and he said the taxi service is often rude because they don't have competition.

Overall this was a fantastic experience. I would highly recommend this tour if you're looking for some history of the Mackinac Island or if it's your first time on the island. We had two different drivers/guides for the 1hr 30 min tour. They were both great. They kept their audience engaged and knew so much interesting information. They were also very helpful if you had any questions about literally anything on Mackinac Island. The tour took you from the visitor center to the Grand Hotel, then up into the state forest, and finally back down next to Fort Mackinac. They made a pitstop halfway through the tour so you could get off and check out the carriage museum and the Wings of Mackinac. I would recommend checking both out as they were both great experiences.

My friends and I decided to purchase a carriage tour through this company during our girls trip on the island. My friend had her infant with us, so we didn't want to take the long hike up to arch Rock, but it was the one thing we specifically wanted to do during our trip. We had been looking up how to get to that area by horse, and this was the tour that was supposed to take us up there. We were rather disappointed to discover, during our carriage ride, that they were rerouting the horses and skipping the one stop that we booked the ride for. The driver also didn't tell us that we weren't making that stop. We had to ask about it, and there wasn't really an answer as to what happened to change the plans other than possibly there was a water leak from the bathrooms at the top. We knew it was an expensive way to get up to the top but were willing to pay to do it because of the baby, and them entirely neglecting to include this stop was extremely unfortunate. Had we known beforehand, we would have just hiked it ourselves and skipped the rest of the tour. When we return to the island, this company sadly won't be on our list of things to do, and between the cost and the lack of communication, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others either.

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Mackinac Island, MI

Sep 24, 2024 - Oct 1, 2024

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Experience Michigan's crown jewel, Mackinac Island. The village has no motorized vehicles... only the slow-paced clip clop of horses.

8 Day(s) | 13 Meals

• Deluxe Motorcoach
• 7 Nights Hotel including a stay for 2 nights on Mackinac Island at the Island House Hotel and 1 Night in Niagara Falls, Canada
• Horse Drawn Carriage Island Tour
• Henry Ford Museum & the Greenfield Village
• Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• 13 Meals: 7 Breakfasts & 6 Dinners
• Friendship Tours Escort
• A Valid U.S. Passport Required

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Experience Michigan's crown jewel, Mackinac Island. The village has no motorized vehicles... only the slow-paced clip clop of horses.

We head to MICHIGAN and HENRY FORD COUNTRY. En route visit the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM in Cleveland, Ohio. Spend 2 nights at the DOUBLETREE HOTEL DETROIT-DEARBORN. Dinner in the hotel tonight.

Enjoy a visit to the HENRY FORD MUSEUM with exhibits illustrating inventions and mementos of American History and the automobile and also GREENFIELD VILLAGE, America’s hometown and stroll the quaint streets, view homes and browse through the workshops and mills - a great slice of Americana. Dinner at a local restaurant.

Head north today to MACKINAC ISLAND, here we stay for 2 nights at the ISLAND HOUSE with its beautiful VICTORIAN GUESTROOMS. The village has no motorized vehicles… only the slow-paced clip clop of horses. Dinner in the hotel tonight.

Breakfast at the famous GRAND HOTEL with the world’s largest porch at 660’. Hop aboard our HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE ISLAND TOUR, with views of Arch Rock, Surrey Hill Carriage Museum, Fort Mackinac and more. Enjoy an afternoon and evening at leisure to explore the Island...don’t forget to try their famous fudge!

Back on the mainland we travel south to FRANKENMUTH, the fairytale Bavarian Village. Overnight at the BAVARIAN INN LODGE FRANKENMUTH, MI. Dinner at the BAVARIAN INN RESTAURANT. Before dinner you’ll be transformed into German bakers while you learn the proper PRETZEL ROLLING method. Enjoy your delicious pretzels at the end.

Say goodbye to our friends in Michigan as we head towards home with an overnight at the RADISSON HOTEL NIAGARA FALLS, CANADA. Farewell dinner in the REVOLVING DINING ROOM of the SKYLON TOWER.

Homeward bound after our MACKINAC ISLAND ADVENTURE…

Departure Locations

Depart: 7:00 AM

Return: 7:30 PM

Farmington Park & Ride Commuter Lot, 575 Colt Highway (Rte 6) & South Rd, Farmington, CT

Depart: 7:30 AM

Return: 7:00 PM

Manchester, Park & Ride Commuter Lot, Buckland Street & Pleasant Valley Road

DOUBLE - PER PERSON

SINGLE - PER PERSON

TRIPLE - PER PERSON

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Cancellation policy, trip protection policy.

Trip Protection Coverage is strongly recommended. Trip Protection offers coverage for Cancellation for covered medical reasons, Interruption, Emergency Medical, Travel Delay, & more.

The AON/NTA Travel Protection Plan offers 3 levels of insurance: Basic or Enhanced or Enhanced with Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR). The Pre-existing medical condition exclusion can be waived by purchasing the Enhanced Plan within 14 days of your deposit or initial payment. The Enhanced Plan with the add-on of CFAR must be purchased within 14 days of initial deposit. CFAR allows you to cancel for any reason up to 48 priors to departure and reimburses up to 75% of your nonrefundable trip cost.

To enroll: https://nta.aontravelprotect.com Tour Operator Location # 076068 OR call AON 1-800-388-1470.

Premiums are non-refundable once paid. Terms & Conditions apply. Plan details are available at https://www.friendshiptours.net/protection-plan . Call Friendship Tours 860-243-1630 for assistance in enrolling.

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PRIVATE TOURS

Discover mackinac island your way. you choose the path..

Enjoy a private tour aboard one of our livery carriages. Your knowledgeable driver can customize the tour just for you, and take you to areas undiscovered on our public tour. The livery carriages will seat up to 8 persons and are rented by the hour with a one hour minimum.

Private livery carriages may be reserved for longer than one hour, in half hour increments, pro-rated at the hourly rate.

Rates (per hour)

• 1 - 4 People $210/hour ($315/1.5 hours)
• 5 People $262.50/hour ($393.75/1.5 hours)
• 6 People $315/hour ($472.50/1.5 hours)
• 7 People $367.50/hour ($551.25 /1.5 hours)
• 8 People $420/hour ($630/1.5 hours)

Reservations

Private Livery reservations are taken on the same day only. Please call our Carriage Tours Ticket Office at (906) 847-3325 between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM daily and ask for the Private Livery department in order to make a reservation.

For special events requiring private carriages for groups, please call our business office at (906) 847-3307 to make advance reservations.

*A one hour minimum rental is required.

Reservations: (906) 847-3325

• Phone: (906) 847-3307 (business office)
• TAXI Office: (906) 847-3323
• Fax: (906) 847-6482
• Email: [email protected]
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Carriage Tours, Walking Tours, Saddle Horses & Bicycles

ABOUT OUR ISLAND

The jewel of the Great Lakes. Enjoy beautiful vistas, shopping, and carriage rides during the day, and watch the city transform at night with its happening music and bar scene. Mackinac Island has something for everyone.

Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau 7274 Main Street Mackinac Island, MI 49757 (906) 847-3783 www.mackinacisland.org

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