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Map

Map of Grand Rapids

All 28 places we cover in Grand Rapids, plotted and grouped by area. The map below needs JavaScript and a graphics-capable browser; the index under it does not, and carries exactly the same places as links. If you are planning on a phone with one bar of signal, use the index.

Where everything is in Grand Rapids

Pins are colour-coded by what a place is. Everything on the map is listed below it, grouped by the part of the destination it sits in.

Browse the full attractions directory

Every place shown on this map is also listed below as a link, grouped by area.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

What the pins mean

All 28 places in Grand Rapids

Beaches & water2

Parks & outdoors9

History & culture9

Town, food & nightlife8

Browse by what it is

Each of these opens the attractions directory filtered to that type — a plain link, so it works without JavaScript and can be bookmarked.

Getting to Grand Rapids

  • Gerald R. Ford International AirportGRR

    13 mi · about 20 min by road

    The obvious way in and an unusually painless one. It sits about thirteen miles south-east of downtown off I-96, it handled a record 4.3 million passengers in 2025, and it is the second busiest field in Michigan behind Detroit. Six to eight carriers fly somewhere north of thirty-five nonstop routes, all of them domestic, so an international arrival connects through Detroit, Chicago or Atlanta. What visitors notice is the scale: you clear the terminal and you are on the expressway in minutes, which is not true of the two big hubs either side of it. Rental counters are on site. There is no rail link and no fast transit, so plan on a car or a twenty-minute rideshare.

  • Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County AirportDTW

    155 mi · about 160 min by road

    Worth checking only when the fare gap is severe or you need a nonstop from Europe or Asia. It is roughly two and a half to three hours west along I-96, a flat and dull drive that turns unpleasant in a February snow band. The saving on the ticket has to cover a rental car for the whole trip plus five or six hours of driving, and often it does not. Where it genuinely makes sense is a trip that starts in Detroit and ends in Grand Rapids, which is a reasonable way to see two very different Michigan cities in a week.

  • Chicago O'Hare International AirportORD

    180 mi · about 200 min by road

    About three to three and a half hours around the bottom of Lake Michigan through Indiana, and the one approach where the clock plays tricks: Chicago is on Central time and Grand Rapids is on Eastern, so you lose an hour eastbound and gain it coming back. Build that into a flight home. The route runs I-90/I-94 through the Chicago and Gary traffic, which is the part that varies, then I-196 north-east through Holland. Many visitors from Chicago skip the drive entirely and take the daily train instead.

  • Vernon J. Ehlers Station (Amtrak Pere Marquette)

    1 mi · about 5 min by road

    A genuine car-free option that most visitors do not know exists. Amtrak's Pere Marquette runs once daily each way between Grand Rapids and Chicago Union Station in roughly four hours, calling at St. Joseph-Benton Harbor, Bangor and Holland. The station opened in 2014 on the south edge of downtown, within walking distance of the Van Andel Arena district and on the free downtown shuttle route. The catch is the timetable: a single train a day, arriving late at night from Chicago and leaving very early in the morning for it, so a day trip in either direction does not work. Confirm current times before you plan around it.

  • US-131 and I-96

    0 mi

    The two roads the city is built around, and the ones every local gives directions by. US-131 is the north-south expressway that runs straight through downtown on an elevated deck — the exits for the arena, the Medical Mile and the west side all hang off it. I-96 is the east-west route, Detroit in one direction and Muskegon in the other, and I-196 peels off it toward Holland and the lakeshore. Between them they explain most of the city's geography: almost everything in this guide is within about fifteen minutes of one of those three exits.

  • Lake Express ferry, Muskegon

    40 mi · about 45 min by road

    The Milwaukee crossing, and a real shortcut if you are coming from Wisconsin. The Lake Express high-speed ferry runs Milwaukee to Muskegon in about two and a half hours, carries cars as well as foot passengers, and saves driving the whole way around Chicago. Muskegon is then roughly forty minutes east to Grand Rapids on I-96. It is seasonal, running from around May into October with a heavier summer timetable, and it does not sail in winter. Check the current season's schedule; crossings can be cancelled in a hard blow.

Distances and drive times are typical, not promised — see today's conditions before you plan a tight connection.