We recently returned from a fantastic week on Bear Lake! The location was great - on a quiet road with the lake right outside the front door. A large deck with lots of chairs for everyone to sit on, the dock was a popular spot for sitting with our feet in the warm water. The kids loved the shallow, warm water. It was perfect for my 2 year old nephew in that it didn't get deep quickly. My oldest daughter went for a nice kayak ride on one of the days when it wasn't too windy. There were floats for the kids/adults to use as well, which was great! The house has recently been updated, and we loved the new floors! Super clean, very easy to maintain.
We took a trip up to Sleeping Bear Dunes to see the sights, as well as over to Pierpont to visit "Old Faceful" to fill our water bottles and visit Lake Michigan. There was a nice farmer's market on M22 that had blueberries, raspberries, and sweet cherries as well as other veggies for sale. They also had locally made jams, michigan craft beer, and some fun sodas for sale (try the cherry root beer!). We went into Manistee several times to go to the beach (1st street beach is great! Several playgrounds and a snack bar) and out for dinner at the Blue Waters Cafe which had really tasty food! We also went to Benzonia a few times to visit the Hilltop Soda Shoppe (homemade ice cream) and to play putt-putt nearby. We swam in Crystal Lake in Beulah one day on our way home from a nice canoe trip on the Platte River. The kids loved that since the one thing they missed on Bear Lake was sand to dig in and build with!
The only recommendation we have is to possibly provide larger cooking pots - we had a large group and it was sometimes difficult to cook (especially potato salad) with one mid-sized pot. We brought our own large crock pot which was helpful!
Overall, we had a great time and will strongly consider returning next year! Thank you for opening your home for us to rent!