If you’re looking for an Airbnb Traverse City pet-friendly, with a hot tub, that is absolutely adorable, I have you covered!
The Nook Up North Airbnb Traverse City
Our entire family recently stayed at The Nook Up North. That’s two adults, two toddlers, one baby, and one 65-pound dog! It’s a cute little cabin tucked away on a private drive and we had the best time in the quaint space.
Here are the specifics of the cabin:
- Two queen beds (one on the main floor and one up a very steep set of stairs in the loft)
- Two three-season porches on opposite sides of the house
- Hot tub
- Hammock
- Fire pit with four big chairs
- Full kitchen
- Bathroom stocked with clean shampoo, conditioner, and body wash (I love when I don’t have to pack that stuff!)
- Dining room area with booth seating and stools
- Dog bowls 🙂
It was well-designed, very cute, and functional for such a small space.
They also have the cutest touches that make it more of a personal experience, like a book telling the story of their Traverse City Airbnb and a Polaroid camera to take a picture and add it to the wall of visitors!
Traverse City cabins pet-friendly
Anytime we search for pet-friendly spaces, it’s slim pickings. If you do a search for pet-friendly cabins near Traverse City Michigan, you’re going to find a handful of options on Airbnb, VRBO, and other rental sites. What I have found with pet-friendly options is that they sometimes have a weight limit for your dog (and our dog it’s small!), it’s waaaaay outside of town, or it’s not an experience-type stay. And when we are looking on something like Airbnb, that is what we’re looking for — a fun experience for our family to enjoy. The Nook Up North feels like a hidden gem. Literally.
When your dog it at The Nook Up North, they need to be on a leash, which is totally understandable because even though the cabin is literally in the middle of the woods, there are neighbors close by. They do have little metal hooks in a few spots around the house to hook up your leash.
If we did it again we would have brought Miles’ long leash so he could roam a bit while hooked to the house.
Our dog definitely took advantage of the three-season porch to get fresh air and scope out the squirrels 🙂
Airbnb Traverse City with hot tub — and other fun perks!
Another selling point of this cute Airbnb for us was that it has a hot tub.
Listen. When you have kids, going on vacation is kind of like parenting in a different location. So once the kids are in bed, it’s nice to have things to do in the space you’re staying. Jeff and I had our own little “at home” date nights while we were at The Nook Up North because there was a hot tub, a bonfire pit, and a hammock to complete the cute outdoor space.
Plus the outdoor space is so quiet and private.
The hot tub was clean and we really enjoyed going out there since the evenings and nights are still chilly in northern Michigan this time of year.
The girls also loved the hot tub situation! It was a fun way to transition them to bedtime while we were putting Willa to bed.
What we did on our trip to Traverse City!
We put some feelers out on social media and connected with some friends that live in Traverse City to map out our attack of the town (and where we would eat, obviously!!). Here’s a list of the things we did.
Spanglish
The tacos from Spanglish were amazing!! I told Jeff I could have drank the salsa verde. Apparently, he felt the same about the salsa roja. I guess you can’t go wrong with your condiments there. We had a bunch of tacos, rice, and beans to share, plus a kid’s quesadilla.
Blair Township Community park
The girls were obsessed with this park. We went on Friday to the splash pad and playground and again on Saturday by request to the playground for a solid hour (I went with the big girls while Jeff put Willa down for a nap). It’s a quick 5-minute drive from the cabin, perfect location and great way to get some energy out for the kiddos. It really was a great park!!
Farmer’s Market
We went to the Traverse City Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning. There was plenty of parking on the street that was in easy walking distance. They had the most beautiful peonies at the market. And we also crushed some blueberry and almond croissants. They were DELICIOUS.
We walked on the trail by the lake for a while after the Farmer’s Market and then got a coffee at Mundo. Lake Michigan is so beautiful!
The Blue Tractor
We went to The Blue Tractor on Friday night. It was such a great vibe for kids! We ate outside. There were big picnic tables with umbrellas, live music, and plenty of space for our kids to jump around and not ruin everyone’s dinner around us. We ended up just ordering a bunch of appetizers and sharing everything. It was the best decision and the leftovers were a great snack the next day.
Moomers
We were told no matter how long the wait we had to make our way to the iconic Moomers for ice cream. And let me tell you what — it was worth it. Also, we didn’t hit a line because we intentionally had dinner at 4:30/5pm each night so by the time we got to Moomers it was around 6pm when most people were eating dinner. (p.s. eating that early also gave Jeff and me the space for the little date nights by getting the girls to bed on time and it was so worth it!!)
The girls had Supermoo because they pick their ice cream off on the color 🙂 I had brownie batter and Jeff had banana bread. All were wonderful and we got to watch some farm cows while we licked our cones.  A lovely night cap!
Immaculate Conception Elementary School playground
This is the most random thing on our list, but I 100% recommend this if you have kids in the playground-loving stage of life. We passed this school several times on our way to and from town and the cabin and the playground looked like so much fun. So on our way back on Saturday night we decided to stop. It was one of those evenings where you’re warm in the sun, but chilled in the shade. I kind of love that weather. Anyways, the playground was amazing and it all sits on cushioned turf. Willa was the happiest she was all weekend on that playground (teething sucks!) and I’m so happy we stopped.
The playground is part of the church and school, but available to the public after school hours on weekdays and weekends.
HopLot Brewery
I’ve been to this awesome outdoor space during my friend’s wedding weekend, but I’ve never experienced it with kids. There is a ton of outdoor space and tables so it’s not hard to find a spot. Plus there is one section of the outdoor area that is basically a giant sandbox. We didn’t stay long here because our kids were hitting a wall, but we both had a drink, got the girls a juice box, and enjoyed the space.
Thai Kitchen
Jeff and I LOVE Thai food. And if we are going to get takeout when we are traveling, we check on the Thai options first. We weren’t planning on getting takeout, but the girls were struggling, specifically Willa with her molars coming in, and to their credit, we were in the car a lot. So, we stopped at a local grocery store to pick up Lucky Charms and blackberries for the girls to eat for dinner. And after we put them to bed Jeff ventured out to grab our Thai takeout and we ate it by the bonfire.
We split the Crazy Noodles and a giant tub of Tom Yum soup. Both were really good! The end of the tom yum soup had a distinct pineapple juice taste and there were some chunks of pineapple, which I’ve never had in my Tom Yum soup, but it was still tasty.
Dilbert’s Cafe
Ok, it’s actually a tie between the church playground and this breakfast spot, Dilbert’s Cafe, for the most random things on our list. Sunday morning we planned on meeting up with some friends and playing at the park, but it was dark, cool, and rainy. So we decided to skip making breakfast (so we could skip cleaning up breakfast) and find a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to eat at before packing up and hitting the road.
I don’t think Dilbert’s was expecting our crew of five to come through the doors that morning, but it was one of those situations where I could feel everyone (mostly older couples) get smiley when they saw our girls being mildly wild at the breakfast joint. Our breakfast was really good and the service was too!
Other things that were on our list that we didn’t get to:
- Little Fleet
- Pyatt Lake trails
- Old Mission Lighthouse + trails
- Wineries up by Sutton’s Bay — there are a bunch!
Airbnb Traverse City pet-friendly recommendation
Consider this your recommendation to travel to Traverse City and stay at The Nook Up North! It was a blast. It’s perfect for small families, a getaway with your partner, a double-date couples getaway, or a girl’s weekend. Just the cutest little spot with experience top of mind! Email me if you have specific questions syd@sydnord.com.