Waterfront Retreat - Restful River - Private Dock - Walk Short’s Brewery

Well done! Everything was comfortable, and inviting. We plan on returning.

Thank you so much for a wonderful, relaxing vacation! Colleen Ward is an amazing person to work with. She was always available to answer questions about our trip. She quickly responded to all emails. Once we arrived, she checked in with us (by text) to make sure we were all set and had everything that we needed.The home was impeccably clean! It had towels, bed sheets, dishes. silverware, pans, blankets, games, magazines, and canoes-with life jackets available. We enjoyed the music in the home on the surround sound system every day! There was even a dishwasher and washer and dryer! We grilled out a few nights and had smores at the fire pit. The sky was so beautiful. We even saw some shooting stars! We were so close to the small, cute town of Bellaire with little shops and restaurants. We walked there on a few different evenings. Shorts Brewery was wonderful! We used the canoes that were provided on the property and played the games that were in the game closet. We took a trip to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and Turtle Casino. We went to Torch Lake on two different days and spent the day there. We rented sea doos at the lake and had a great time. This was truly a fabulous place to stay! Thank you Colleen for everything! :)

Colleen is a great host. She made sure we were comfortable and provided us with all the needed information. The house is impeccably clean and well-located on the river and close to a small beach and the "downtown" of Bellaire, both easily walkable. Two notes: 1) there is no TV and no wifi. Also, 2 of the three adults did not have phone service due to our carrier (roaming charges). This was problematic for my daughter who needed wifi for work on the first two nights and had to go to town to get service. In general, we liked the break from media, 2) the a/c consists of 2 room units, not central. This worked out fine for us because we had mostly cool nights, but it might be a problem in hotter weeks. We loved it and would return.

This property is a beautiful river setting. You have to catch a sunrise. House is very clean. We are from Missouri where we swim in some of our rivers, so when I asked if we could swim off the dock in the river, Colleen said we could swim off the dock but it is a river..best to swim at the beach public area. I just assumed that meant a lot of people don’t really like to swim in a river. But you really couldn’t swim off the dock, water was not deep at all, very shallow, a few feet with beautiful swaying grass moss plants you could clearly see on the bottom. You would sink into ?? if tried to stand. But that being said, the river is nice, clear and you can see lots of turtles poking up looking for goodies. My kids fished off the dock and caught several fish, tiny but fun for them! We used the canoe and paddled all around. Beach and park area is close by, a small area, good for toddlers and wading around the river. We have 3 older teenagers, so needed a little more of beach area, but you can find several beautiful lakes close by. Colleen was a great host, even invited us over for a swim one afternoon. There is no WIFI and no TV, great stereo. There is no central air, which I knew ahead of time as air was not listed under amenities, but when we arrived we were very grateful they had just put in two window ac units as this summer was hotter than normal. A lot of places up in Michigan don’t have ac.