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Grand Rapids, MI |
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| Hotel: - Your choice of hotel | ||||||
| View baggage fees Flights : - Your choice of roundtrip flight from Chicago |
| Package prices include all tax recovery charge & service fees | |
| Leaving Thu, Dec 3 | |
| Returning Sun, Dec 6 | from $330 per person |
| Returning Mon, Dec 7 | from $343 per person |
| Returning Tue, Dec 8 | from $362 per person |
| Leaving Fri, Dec 4 | |
| Returning Sun, Dec 6 | from $309 per person |
| Returning Mon, Dec 7 | from $241 per person |
| Returning Tue, Dec 8 | from $260 per person |
| Leaving Sat, Dec 5 | |
| Returning Mon, Dec 7 | from $302 per person |
| Returning Tue, Dec 8 | from $321 per person |
| Leaving Thu, Dec 10 | |
| Returning Sun, Dec 13 | from $328 per person |
| Returning Mon, Dec 14 | from $341 per person |
| Returning Tue, Dec 15 | from $360 per person |
| Leaving Fri, Dec 11 | |
| Returning Sun, Dec 13 | from $297 per person |
| Returning Mon, Dec 14 | from $311 per person |
| Returning Tue, Dec 15 | from $331 per person |
| Leaving Sat, Dec 12 | |
| Returning Mon, Dec 14 | from $291 per person |
| Returning Tue, Dec 15 | from $309 per person |
Grand Rapids, MI: Why Go
Metropolitan galleries, historic architecture, and infamous sculptures are at home in Grand Rapids-- where big city entertainment mixes small town feeling.
Where the locals go: The Big Old Building in downtown, or "BOB" as locals call it, consists of three floors of cosmopolitan bars, clubs, and award-winning restaurants that will satisfy everyone from Aunt Sara the art historian to teens looking for adolescent romance.
Editor's favorite watering hole:The elegant spirits along with the best views of the city will make anyone feel like an aristocrat at the Tower Club Lounge inside the historic Amway Grand Hotel. Gaze into the Grand River long enough, and you'll swear you can spot the salmon sprinting by.
Place we love even if it's touristy: Grand Rapids is the hometown of the 38th U.S. President, and it honors him with an eponymous museum. The Gerald R. Ford Museum contains tools from the Watergate break-in, letters attacking Ford for pardoning Nixon, details on popular first lady Betty Ford, and cool '70s artifacts to entice baby-boomers who lived through it all.
Chill-out spot: The Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park has a variety of gardens perfect for a long stroll or a picnic with a certain someone. This place also boasts one of the largest children's gardens in the U.S., in which kids and adults alike can play, climb, and hang on touchable plants, a birds' nest big enough to sit in, and the Great Lakes fountains. Stop by the American Horse sculpture, a huge equine piece originally planned by DaVinci, completed by Nina Akamu.
Did we mention it's free? Crowds flock to the viewing platforms each spring and fall to watch salmon and steelhead jump graduated steps up and over the Sixth Street dam from Joseph Kinnebrew's Grand River Sculpture and Fish Ladder.
Take a hike: Take a walking tour of the Heritage Hills area, a remnant of the era when Grand Rapids was the center of furniture manufacturing for the U.S., now a national historic district. Located five blocks east of downtown, the area is home to 1300 properties that represent over 60 different architectural styles. Make sure to check out the Meyer May House, built in 1908 by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Recommendations & Suggestions
Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park
1000 East Beltline Avenue NE
Phone: 616.957.1580
The 125-acre Gardens and Sculpture Park features the monumental Leonardo da Vinci's Horse, indoor and outdoor gardens, Michigan's largest tropical conservatory, nature trails, sculpture galleries and over 100 world-class sculptures.
Admission:
Adults $7, seniors (65 and older) $6, students $5, children (5 - 13) $3.50, children (4 and under) free.
La Grande Vitesse
Calder Plaza
Ottawa Avenue between Michigan and Lyon NW
Phone: 616.459.8287
La Grande Vitesse means "the great swiftness," or "the grand rapids." Internationally known sculptor, Alexander Calder designed this dramatic 42-ton wrought iron piece specifically for its site in front of City Hall. It was installed in 1969.
Meyer May House
450 Madison Avenue SE
Phone: 616.246.4821
Situated in the posh Heritage Hill Historic District, his 1908 masterpiece of the prairie-style design is one of the most complete restorations of a Frank Lloyd Wright house in existence. Most of the furniture inside was also designed by Lloyd Wright and the lead-paned ceiling windows are a sight to behold. Admission is free.
Rosa Parks Circle
Market Street at Monroe Avenue
Phone: 616.459.8287
Named for the civil rights activist and designed by Maya Lin, Rosa Parks Circle is located in downtown Grand Rapids. Best known for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Lin implemented her now-famous technique of using stone, water, and earth to blur the lines between sculpture and architecture for this piece. Water is featured in the frozen, liquid and vapor states in the park, the heart of which is an ice skating rink in the Winter and a fountain in the Summer. Embedded in the ice and water and shining up through them in the evening are fiber optic lights arranged to resemble the stars over Michigan on New Years Eve 2000. The warm weather also brings festivals and concerts to this city center.