Best Resorts for Family Reunions

Inn at Watervale
Arcadia, Michigan

The Inn at Watervale is something of a time capsule: a 19th-century main house and 17 cottages, set among sand dunes between Lake Michigan and the smaller, warmer Lower Herring Lake and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the afternoons, the kids catch up with their friends, paddling around the lake in one of the resort’s rowboats, combing the shore for the region’s fossilized Petoskey stones, or hiking the enormous Mount Baldy dune. Wednesday is barbecue night at the inn, with hayrides and locally made ice cream; Thursday brings bingo games in the “casino,” a hall once used for town meetings and dances.

Guest Tip:: “A Fourth of July reservation is hard to come by,” says 73-year-old Carolyn Middleton, who has been coming to Watervale for seven decades, but worth a try. On the holiday, Watervale’s guests gather on the lawn for a cookout, complete with deviled eggs and cherry pie. As the sun begins to set, the group makes its way to the beach with blankets and sparklers to watch the fireworks.

(Doubles from $170, including breakfast and dinner; cottages from $2,075 weekly, plus $32 per person per day for breakfast and dinner.)

—Alison Goran