Door County Holidays

With 300 miles of shoreline, you can watch a sunrise and a sunset over the water without leaving the county. See thousands of acres of orchards, explore art galleries, devour delicious cherry pie, sip on local wines and brews, splash in the lake or paddle along the bluffs, stroll through five state parks or tour 11 historic lighthouses. No matter what you're looking to get out of your holiday, the 19 unique communities allow you to live life well.

Door County is defined by its proximity to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. These waterways are why many nomadic settlers would camp here, and they’re how the earliest permanent settlers got around and sustained life. Residents have worked as fishermen, mariners, and shipbuilders, and others worked as loggers and farmers, relying on ships to transport their wares. In the 20th century, Door County’s shipyards were producing as many as five ships a day to keep up with the military’s demand for large boats and other sea vessels.

From a 93-foot sand dune and the jagged walls of Cave Point  to The Ridges Sanctuary and the lavender fields of Washington Island, Door County is a lesser-known treasure trove of ecological wonders. Nature and its endless splendors are woven into both town and city design as well as daily life, as evidenced by passionate locals who operate nature-based businesses, artists constantly inspired by the landscape, and those who’ve chosen to make their homes among pines and rivers and wide-open spaces.

If you want to see into the heart of any culture, start by looking at its cuisine. The menus, recipe books, and dinner tables of Door County are likely to contain cherries, lakefish, meat, cheese, and Scandinavian and Western-European dishes. But food is just one avenue for understanding a culture. Visitors can also look to the roadside Belgian chapels, British-Victorian homes, Swedish-influenced Stavkirke and Björklunden chapels, and Viking-inspired Thordarson boathouse to get a feel for the people who settled Door County and made it what it is today.