Weekend Stay at The Kirby Hotel in Saugatuck, Michigan

Hi friends! I’m so excited to be sharing my first travel collaboration: a weekend stay at The Kirby Hotel in Saugatuck, Michigan. Keep reading for my honest review of The Kirby Hotel and my experience there, what my husband and I did during our trip and what I recommend doing if you’re visiting the area!

THE KIRBY HOTEL

Upon my invitation from The Kirby, I had no idea what to expect because I’ve never stayed in a bed-and-breakfast style boutique hotel before, but I was really excited to give it a try. I’d also never been to Michigan, so everything was totally new to me and I couldn’t wait to experience it all. Justin and I filled our gas tank, grabbed some road trip snacks, listened to some podcasts and made the just under 4-hour drive from Indy. This is the perfect distance if you want to eliminate flight costs, but still reach a beach environment in the midwest. We also got to stop to see one of our college BFFs up in Mishawaka, which was so nice since we’re never up that far north.

We pulled up to The Kirby on Sunday afternoon and were instantly taken aback by how gorgeous it is on the outside. It’s a big, white, victorian-looking house on a pretty plot of land located only a mile from the water. It has a wrap around porch with little tables and chairs and flowers, and I instantly felt like I was back in time or in a movie or something when we walked up.

We stayed in Room 6, which featured floor to ceiling windows and the coziest decor, including a fireplace. It had beautiful wood floors, an updated walk-in shower and was so well decorated. Everything was really modern and felt fresh and so well presented. The bed was comfortable and the room was equipped with a TV, toiletry items, a sitting area, his and her robes (seriously the most comfortable and luxurious robe I’ve ever worn) and plenty of blankets. Just like any other hotel, you have control of the temperature in your room and can change it to whatever you’re comfortable with.

Fun fact: we forgot to take pictures of the room before we got settled, so we remade the bed and hung the robes as close as we could to how it was before we got there so we could snap a few pics. 😂

J. PAUL’S RESTAURANT & WINE LOUNGE

The Kirby team treated us to dinner and a surprise dessert Sunday night at their in-house restaurant, J. Paul’s Restaurant & Wine Lounge. I had crab cakes and Justin had a burger before they brought out key lime cake and a six-layer rainbow cake for dessert. Everything was absolutely delicious and this was probably one of the best cakes we’ve ever had! I’ll be dreaming about that buttercream icing for the next 10 years.

For breakfast, we started with zucchini bread, then I had cinnamon French toast and Justin had their sausage special. Once again, these dishes didn’t disappoint and everything was SO yummy! The owner, Mindy, chatted with us during breakfast and was so sweet to write down a list of must-do activities to do in the area before heading home, which we appreciated so much.

OVAL BEACH

 

It had been a year since Justin and I had been to a beach, so we were most excited to see this. We went in the early evening and only had to pay $10 for all day parking and were able to come and go as we pleased without having to repay the fee. The view was gorgeous with blue water and meadow grass with paths leading to the sand. We knew instantly that we wanted to come back to see the sunset that night after it cooled down.

This was my first time experiencing a sunset on the beach and it was breathtaking! It wasn’t too crowded and we enjoyed watching the boats go by while we sat on the sand. We took tons of pictures and even got the drone up to capture some cool videos. This is a must-see if you’re in the area!

ICE CREAM AT BLUE STAR CAFE

You all already know I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world. The vintage vibes ice cream shop called Blue Star Cafe is across the street from The Kirby and we knew we’d be making a stop there the second be arrived in town. Justin got a brownie sundae and I had a dish of Superman ice cream (who else loves this stuff?!) and I wish we would have made another trip there before heading home because it was just so good (and I couldn’t stop thinking about the root beer floats they had). It’s a super cute spot for pictures and grabbing a treat, and the prices were reasonable!

JUST ADD WATER

This little shop has some cool touristy gifts, as well as come cute clothing items to wear during your trip. I found Just Add Water to be a step above standard tourist gift shops because the items were of higher quality and not corny like you typically see. You can also rent kayaks or other water spot equipment here and they take it to the beach for you — pretty cool! They also have treats if you’re in need of a quick snack.

DOWNTOWN SHOPS

We’d heard there was some fun shopping in the area, so we checked this out before heading home Monday afternoon. I fell in love with downtown Saugatuck and thought it was a great activity for a super hot day when you want to avoid baking in the sun. All the shops were so cute and there are so many local restaurants to check out there too. This is another great spot for pictures and browsing if you’re sticking to a budget — and it’s right by the water! Click here for a list of the stores there with photos included.

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I want to say a huge THANK YOU to the Kirby team for having us! They went above and beyond to make our experience so enjoyable, treated us so well and were so welcoming, and we feel incredibly blessed to have gotten the opportunity to go on this trip. As a blogger, getting to do things like this one day can feel like a fantasy, and I’m pinching myself that I reached this milestone. Needless to say, I’m feeling like a proud business woman.

Have any of you stayed at The Kirby or have been to Saugatuck? I can’t wait to go back one day and I truly can’t recommend it enough! I kept telling Justin this would be the perfect destination for a family reunion or vacation with friends, which we hope to do one day.

Thanks so much for following along and supporting me, helping me to experience cool things like this to share with you guys. I’m so grateful for you all and The Kirby team for making this possible — it was a dream trip! I shared all of my Instagram Story clips under the “Travel” highlight on my profile and tagged all of my photos with #AbbySaylorTravel. Thank you for reading and check back for a new post on Friday!

*My experience at The Kirby Hotel was gifted to me. All opinions are my own.