Adventure Attractions & Tours
Get your adrenaline going at Battle GR Tactical Games & Sports, Cannonsburg Ski Area, Grand Rapids Grand Prix and TreeRunner Adventure Park. Hit our mountain biking and fat biking trails. Battle it out with powerful steelhead and salmon in local rivers and lakes. Surf and kiteboard on Lake Michigan, as close as 30 minutes from GR. Ride high-flying roller coasters at Michigan’s Adventure Amusement Park and America’s only natural-ice luge track at Muskegon Luge Adventure Park, both 40 minutes from GR. Visit our Adventure Vacations page for more thrilling possibilities.
Charter a fishing boat or pleasure boat for a river or lake adventure. Take a self-guided tour of the Grand River by paddleboard, canoe or kayak. Hike a segment of the 4,800-mile North Country Scenic Trail at your own pace. Visit our Trails page for additional places to plot a hiking, biking, rollerblading, skateboarding, cross-country skiing or paddling adventure.
Animal Attractions & Tours
Meet 2,000+ animals, including born-in-2025 Hugo the pygmy hippo and Juniper the snow leopard, at John Ball Zoo. See the Zoo’s new river otter exhibit, featuring underwater viewing areas and four feeding cannons, opening Memorial Day 2026. Learn about the native-to-Michigan Wildlife Ambassadors at Blandford Nature Center. Visit Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park, a private zoo whose 1,300 animals includes Michigan’s first Indian rhino. Get up close with 40+ species of animals at Deer Tracks Junction Adventure Park, Michigan’s only drive-thru safari park and hands-on animal park.
John Ball Zoo offers guided tours and animal experiences all year long, including encounters with red pandas, pygmy hippos, sloths, bears and penguins. Blandford Nature Center hosts guided trail hikers, seasonal wildlife experiences and tours of its 1853-era Heritage Village buildings on select dates. You can take advantage of off-season animal encounters at Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park and feed giraffes, bison, llamas, ostriches and more from the comfort of your car on the Deer Tracks Junction safari trail.
Apple Attractions & Tours
Kent County is the apple capital of Michigan, one of America’s top 3 apple-producing states. You can pick your own apples at family orchards, shop for just-picked varieties at farm markets and enjoy fresh-pressed apple cider in fall. Attend May’s Cider Week GR, an annual celebration of local apples and the hard ciders we make from them, and the Michigan Apple Fest in small-town Sparta, 20 minutes from GR, every September.
Take a self-guided tour of Fruit Ridge Farm Markets to see how the area’s unique topography and Lake Michigan-influenced climate make it one of the world’s top fruit growing regions. Visit Robinette’s Apple Haus & Winery and other family farms for fall harvest celebrations featuring wagon rides, corn mazes, petting zoos and more.
Art Attractions & Tours
USA Today says Grand Rapids is one of America’s 10 best cities to see amazing art. ArtPrize, the world’s most-attended public art event, fills Grand Rapids with 1,000+ diverse works of art each fall. The Grand Rapids Art Museum hosts major touring exhibitions along with its own collection of 7,000+ objects. Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park positions 200+ large-scale sculptures from renowned artists including Auguste Rodin, Richard Serra and Ai Weiwei in beautiful outdoor settings. The Grand Rapids Lantern Festival at John Ball Zoo features an all-new, all-dazzling collection of handcrafted Asian lanterns each spring.
Explore downtown GR’s vast public art collection on self-guided tours of City Center murals, Heartside murals, Community Legends sculptures, Downtown East sculptures, Downtown West sculptures, painted ticket booths and “RAD” women electrical boxes.
Beer Attractions & Tours
The Beer City USA titleholder since 2012 and a six-time USA Today Best Beer City winner, Grand Rapids is home to 35+ excellent craft breweries within 30 minutes of the city center. (Eight of them are right downtown.) Use the Beer City Brewsader® passport app to check in to eight breweries for a free t-shirt and 30+ breweries for a free sweatshirt. Attend the Winter Beer Festival each February to sample beers from around Michigan and the Beer City Brewers Fest each fall to taste innovative Pro-Am beers and vote for your favorite to win.
You can use the Beer City Ale Trail map to plan a self-guided tour of Grand Rapids-area breweries, many of which offer guided facility tours. Tours Around Michigan and Grand Rapids Beer Tours host public and private tours of downtown breweries, while the Grand Rapids Party Pedaler and Great Lakes Pub Cruiser are “party bikes” that use your own pedal power to transport you around downtown breweries and other locations.
Craft Beverage Attractions & Tours
USA Today calls Grand Rapids America’s Craft Beverage Capital because our expertise goes way beyond beer. Visit local cideries, cocktail bars, coffeehouses, distilleries, juice bars and more to taste artistry in liquid form, and don’t miss Cider Week GR every May – it’s nine days of tap takeovers, pairing dinners orchard tours and other activities leading up to a community Cider Festival in downtown GR.
You can use the Beer City Ale Trail map to plan a self-guided tour of Grand Rapids-area cideries, distilleries and wineries. Long Road Distillers, the city’s first and most acclaimed distillery, offers ticketed tours and tastings every Saturday. Tours Around Michigan offers both a distillery tour and a winery tour of Grand Rapids. Raise a Glass Wine Tours conducts private tours of the city’s best wine spots.
Downtown Attractions & Tours
Downtown Grand Rapids is home to some of the area’s most popular attractions, including five first-class museums and a year-round schedule of cultural festivals and celebrations. There are 300+ cultural attractions, entertainment venues, restaurants and shops within a 10-minute walk of 13 downtown hotels.
Downtown highlights include DeVos Place and adjoining DeVos Place Performance Hall, which host large-scale consumer trade expos and lavish Broadway shows, respectively. Van Andel Arena is home to professional hockey, basketball and women’s volleyball teams, and it’s a popular stop for the country’s hottest touring music, comedy and family shows. The new Acrisure Amphitheater begins welcoming big-name music and comedy acts to its outdoor riverside setting in May 2026. Search our Events calendar for upcoming shows, performances and sporting events.
Food and drink are a huge part of the appeal of downtown GR, from the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, which Tasting Table ranks one of America’s Top 13 Must-Visit Food Halls, to summer’s GR Foodie Fest and fall’s International Beer, Wine & Food Festival, to 170+ restaurants offering virtually every imaginable kind of cuisine. Downtown is also filled with breweries, distillery tap rooms, coffeehouses and juice bars that craft a huge variety of luscious libations. You can order an adult beverage from 60+ participating businesses and walk around the Downtown Refreshment Area – which covers most of the city center – with it.
Tours Around Michigan conducts walking tours exploring different aspects of the downtown Grand Rapids experience, including city landmarks, the riverfront, art, breweries, wine, history and more, all year round. From Memorial Day to Halloween, the DeVos Learning Center at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum offers free 90-minute walking tours focused on places and experiences from Ford’s life here in Grand Rapids. Taste of GR leads walking food tours of downtown on Saturdays from May-October. Get a free tour of the Meyer May House, a meticulously restored Frank Lloyd Wright Home in downtown’s Heritage Hill historic home district, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Visit our Downtown Grand Rapids page for more to see and do, all within a 10-minute walk of 13 first-class hotels.
Entertainment Attractions & Tours
Grand Rapids is home to professional ballet, opera, symphony and theatre companies in addition to 100+ live-music venues, so barely a day goes by without a must-see show. Broadway Grand Rapids hosts the nation’s hottest touring plays and musicals direct from New York, while Actors’ Theatre Grand Rapids produces off-Broadway-style fare and Grand Rapids Civic Theatre presents big crowd-pleasing favorites. If you like game-style entertainment, try Big Mini Putt Club, Gimme’s Par & Grill, Grand Rapids Game Show and House Rules Board Game Lounge, all in downtown GR, and Gun Lake Casino, about 40 minutes from the city center. Other entertaining ideas include arcades, comedy clubs, disc golf, escape rooms, pickleball, sporting events. Use above links and our Events calendar to customize your own entertainment tour of Grand Rapids.
Museum Attractions & Tours
Downtown Grand Rapids is home to five first-class museums: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is a tribute to the life and times of a local legend; Grand Rapids African American Museum & Archives explores the history and culture of the local Black community; Grand Rapids Art Museum is a beacon of art in an art-loving city; Grand Rapids Children’s Museum promotes learning through hands-on play; and Grand Rapids Public Museum is a place of inspiration focusing on science, history and culture. All five museums (and other attractions) are included in Attraction Pass GR, a digital pass offering big savings over the price of individual admissions. Visit our Museums page for 20+ additional museums and museum-adjacent experiences.
The Grand Rapids Art Museum offers docent-led or self-guided tours, gallery chats and more. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and Grand Rapids Public Museum are happy to schedule group tours. Take a self-guided walking tour of Heritage Hill, one of America’s largest urban historic districts, or a guided tour on the Annual Heritage Hill Weekend Tour of Homes each May. Get a free tour of the Meyer May House, a meticulously restored Frank Lloyd Wright Home in Heritage Hill, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Family Fun Attractions & Tours
The British Broadcasting Corporation ranks Grand Rapids the #4 Place for an Enriching Family Trip. Family-focused attractions include Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, Grand Rapids Public Museum, John Ball Zoo and the Lena Meijer Children’s Garden at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. For flat-out family fun, try Craig’s Cruisers Family Fun Center, Robinette’s Apple Haus, and local parks and playgrounds. For more ideas, see how Grand Rapids lets kids Play Their Way, and discover more Family-Friendly Things to Do with Kids and Things to Do With Teens.
Get in on the Grand Rapids Dragonflies Downtown Scavenger Hunt to learn about the city’s amazing public art collection as your family searches for 25 bronze dragonfly sculptures. (Get a map at the Children’s Museum or online here.) Take a self-guided tour of the trails at Blandford Nature Center, meeting Wildlife Ambassadors and farm animals along the way. Enjoy guided animal encounters at John Ball Zoo. Take hayride and horse-driven wagon tours of family farms and orchards on The Fruit Ridge.
Festival Attractions & Tours
Cultural festivals and celebrations bring more than a million people to Grand Rapids each year. ArtPrize (Sept-Oct) is our biggest festival, World of Winter (Jan-early March) is the longest, LaughFest (March) is the funniest and the Christkindl Markt (mid-Nov to late Dec) is the merriest. There’s a festival virtually every weekend during warm-weather months.
Take a self-guided tour of 1,000+ diverse works of art in downtown Grand Rapids during ArtPrize. Take a guided walking tour of large-scale art installations and light displays that are part of World of Winter. Explore your own and other heritages at the Homecoming of the Three Fires and GR Asian-Pacific Festival (both in June), West Michigan Italian Festival (July), Sparta Celtic Festival, A Glimpse of Africa Festival, GR Hispanic Festival, Greenville Danish Festival, Dozynki Polish Festival and Greek Cultural Festival (all in August).
Food Attractions & Tours
One of America’s Top 20 Foodie Cities, Grand Rapids is known for farm-to-table dining featuring fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Get a taste of GR at the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, which Tasting Table ranks one of America’s Top 13 Must-Visit Food Halls – it’s home to 20+ artisan food vendors and restaurants under one roof. Get the free Flights of Flavor® digital pass to discover the area’s best food and/or drink flights (and win prizes for trying them). Search our 1,200+ restaurants by cuisine, location and other amenities to find just the right breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and/or late-night meal spot.
Take your taste buds on a culinary tour at food-focused festivals including Noodle Fest (March), GR Foodie Fest (July) and the International Wine, Beer & Food Festival (November). Take a self-guided tour of the family farms and orchards on The Fruit Ridge to see where your food comes from.
History Attractions & Tours
Explore millions of years of history at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, which includes a locally unearthed mastodon skeleton, an exhibit devoted to the region’s original Native American inhabitants and a ¾-scale recreation of an 1890s-era Grand Rapids streetscape.
Delve into more recent history at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, a tribute to the life and times of Grand Rapids native son Jerry Ford, the 38th president of the U.S. Visit the Grand Rapids African American Museum & Archives to discover the often-unsung histories of local Black families. Head to Muskegon, 40 minutes from GR, to learn about local maritime history at museums and lighthouses.
Explore the history of Native Americans, African Americans, fine furniture, craft beer and agriculture on a self-guided Heritage Tour. Take a self-guided walking tour of Heritage Hill, one of the Midwest’s premier historic districts, featuring 1,300 homes built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Get a guided tour inside select historic homes during the Annual Heritage Hill Weekend Tour of Homes each May. Get a free tour of the Meyer May House, a meticulously restored Frank Lloyd Wright Home in Heritage Hill, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Take a guided Tours Around Michigan tour of historic homes, churches and/or haunted sites.
Music Attractions & Tours
Grand Rapids is home to more than 100 live-music venues, including two 12,000+-seat sites hosting the biggest names in music: Van Andel Arena is a year-round concert destination while the new-in-2026 Acrisure Amphitheater offers bowl and lawn seating in an outdoor riverfront setting. DeVos Performance Hall and St. Cecilia Music Center welcome nationally known music acts in smaller settings with pristine acoustics. Visit our Concerts & Live Music page for additional venues and upcoming concerts.
Take an aural tour of diverse musical styles and artists at multi-act music festivals, including downtown GR’s Upheaval Festival (July), Breakaway Music Festival (Aug) and Return to the River Festival (Aug). See a full list of local music festivals.
Outdoor Attractions & Tours
Ranked the #3 most outdoor-friendly city in America by Cairn Consulting Group, Grand Rapids is filled with activities to keep outdoor explorers busy in all four seasons. Hike and bike, golf, fish, paddle, skate, ski and more just minutes from big-city entertainment and culture in downtown GR. Visit 120+ city, county and state parks offering a range of activities and amenities. Explore native flora and fauna at Blandford Nature Center and Calvin University Ecosystem Preserve and Native Gardens. Wander through themed outdoor gardens at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. Soak up the sun at 20+ sugar-sand beaches on Lake Michigan, 30-45 minutes from GR. Visit our Outdoors & Sports page to plan your own nature adventure tour.
Shopping Attractions & Tours
Grand Rapids offers the best shopping between Chicago and Detroit. Browse 100+ brand-name stores under one roof at both Woodland Mall and RiverTown Crossings Mall. Save up to 70% on designer fashions and more at Tanger Outlet Mall. Discover unique treasures in the independent boutiques of East Grand Rapids and Uptown Grand Rapids. Stroll quaint downtown shopping districts in Ada, Lowell and Rockford. Shop antique shops, bookstores, secondhand stores, record shops and other unique shopping destinations all over town. Visit our Shopping page to plot a tour of our shopping destinations.
Sightseeing Attractions & Tours
If you’re into urban landscapes, downtown Grand Rapids offers a charming blend of historic architecture and contemporary design along with an abundance of public art and a scenic river. Keep your camera ready as you stroll the downtown core, which has been ranked one of America’s Top 14 Walkable Cities. If you prefer natural landscapes, you’ll find all manner of picturesque subjects in 100+ parks and on 100s of miles of land and water trails, all just minutes from downtown. The gorgeous sugar-sand beaches of Lake Michigan – which is basically an ocean, only without salt and sharks – are just a 30-45 minute drive away.
Take guided walking tours of the downtown riverfront, art & murals, historic homes, churches and more with Tours Around Michigan. Explore downtown at your own pace on our self-guided walking tours of historical buildings, murals and sculptures. Visit farms, apple orchards, covered bridges and much more on a self-driving countryside tour. Check out our best Instagram-worthy spots and best places to watch the sunset. Board The Grand Lady Riverboat for sightseeing cruises on the Grand River from May-Oct.
Water Attractions & Tours
Wherever you go in Grand Rapids, you’re never more than a few miles away from a body of water – beginning with the Grand River in downtown GR. You can fish for steelhead, salmon, smallmouth bass, lake trout, catfish, bass and walleye just steps from hotels, restaurants and attractions. Accessible kayak launches in downtown’s Canal Park (reopening summer 2026) and nearby Riverside Park, open up the Grand River to virtually anyone with a paddle. Millennium Park, 10 minutes from the city center, offers swimming, boat rentals and a six-acre beach. Lake Michigan, the largest freshwater lake entirely within the U.S., is 30-45 minutes away from GR and offers everything from swimming, surfing and kiteboarding to sportfishing, pleasure boating and scuba diving.
Charter a fishing boat for a guided expedition of local rivers and lakes. Take a self-guided paddleboard, canoe or kayak tour of area waterways. Download the Lower Grand River Water Trail Paddling Guide to plot a personal course along the 96-mile route. Check out Grand Rapids pools, splash pads and parks for more water fun.
