If you’re looking for a quiet and serene escape from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life, then there’s only one place in mind to consider—the village of Paw Paw in Michigan.
Paw Paw is a small yet vibrant village with a growing community of more than 3,500 residents.
Its convenient location, coupled with scenic and rural surroundings, makes it a perfect getaway for families and friends.
Paw Paw is within close proximity to Lake Michigan and Kalamazoo and encompasses natural sites such as lakes, rivers, and amazing parks.
There is Maple Island Park and numerous flea markets, great golf courses, and cottages that offer activities for the entire family.
The place also brims with local businesses, historic locations, and tons of exciting festivals, earning it the reputation of being a top destination for planned day trips, evening stays, or a full vacation.
Paw Paw maintains a quiet and laidback atmosphere while continuing to be a full-service and business-friendly community, with broadband fiber optic internet connection to all properties.
You shouldn’t miss a visit to this vibrant community.
Plan your vacation now by reading the 15 best things to do in Paw Paw, MI!
rossograph, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Warner Vineyards Winery is located on Kalamazoo St, Paw Paw, which is the most picturesque winery in the Midwest.
Its location is one of the things that make this winery a must-see—nestled along the Paw Paw River’s panoramic banks, featuring a covered bridge, water tower, a historic paid car, and a 100-year-old Michigan historical site-building.
Explore their award-winning wines and champagnes and indulge in wine tastings.
For non-wine drinkers, they also have alcohol-free sparkling juices that you can drink while admiring the winery and the vineyard.
If you want, you may also join their Wine Club and receive the winery’s signature wines with tasting and cellar notes.
Afterwards, you can enjoy a delectable meal at their Waterworks Station Cafe.
Time to put that swing to the test as you play a round or more of golf at the Lake Cora Hills Golf Club along C.R. 671.
Even if the Village of Paw Paw is small, you cannot underestimate its capacity to have its own golf courses.
Lake Cora Hills Golf Club is a fabulous 18-hole course, certified by the USGA, suitable for every type and level of golfer.
If you prefer an easier and more forgiving play, choose the front nine, which features hilly terrain and tree-lined fairways.
For a more challenging play, the back nine offers blind shots, valleys, water hazards, and punishing vegetation.
You can either walk around the course or opt to use the battery-powered carts.
Whichever hole you choose, you are guaranteed a great time golfing at the Lake Cora Hills Gold Club.
You don’t have to go any further than the Paw Paw Brewing Company to taste the best brew in the area, located on Gremps St.
For years, it has been bringing this taste to the people and visitors of the village by using only the best ingredients.
Take delight in their taproom, where you can find more than 20 PPBS brews as well as their own cider, mead, seltzer, and wine.
Pair off your drink with a hearty meal from their own kitchen to help bring out the best taste of your beer.
Then, finish off your visit by heading to their general store to purchase some of the best things you have tried.
What makes the Paw Paw Brewing Company dear to the hearts of the locals is its aim to create a place where the people can gather and celebrate life over a pint of their local beer.
Apparently, Paw Paw residents are great fans of golf.
From the Lake Cora Hills Golf Course, hop to the Heritage Glen Golf Course, located along Heritage Lane.
Built in the mid-1990s, this has been considered one of the most scenic golf courses in Paw Paw, thanks to its well-forested setting in the middle of Michigan’s wine country.
Judging from the landscape, the architect who designed the course had a vision in mind to create intriguing holes that offer numerous amounts of opportunities for golfers to test their skills.
Along the way to the championship course, you’ll see amazing scenery, including some holes that are thick with pines that you’ll feel like you’re in the Northwoods.
Afterwards, cap your tee time with eat time at the Heritage Glen’s Grille for a healthy salad, sandwich, or big burger.
You won’t ever regret coming to the Heritage Glen Golf Course.
St. Julian Winery and Distillery is not only the longest-operating winery in Michigan but is also the most awarded and largest distillery in the state.
Serving for more than 100 years and operated by the same family for four generations, it has always been committed to quality and excellence, offering only the best dry and sweet wines, ciders, and spirits.
With six tasting rooms around Michigan, it offers a wine club that you can join for free, providing complimentary tastings, discounts, and access to club events and unparalleled service.
On 49th Avenue in Paw Paw is the Portman Nature Reserve, home to spring-fed lakes and stunning woods, spectacular sunrises and sunsets, and various flora and fauna.
The reserve spans 189 acres of woodland habitats, savanna, and wetlands, overflowing with water from hundreds of springs, a creek, and three lakes.
As you explore the place, you will be delighted to know that it serves as the habitat to not just a few species of threatened, rare, and endangered plants and animals but to more than 20 mammals, 35 butterflies, 24 reptiles and amphibians, 107 birds, and 447 plants—all species at that.
This rich biodiversity has prompted the conservation community to identify the preserve as a conservation priority for 10 years and counting.
Portman Nature Reserve is not only a habitat, but it also forms part of the headwaters of the Paw Paw River.
This means that it plays an important role in maintaining abundant clean water for Lake Michigan, the watershed, and the broader region.
Want delicious, plump strawberries?
Spend a day at the Mandigo Farms on 41st St., where you and the whole family can embark on a strawberry picking day!
The kids will surely love running around and finding the plumpest, reddest, and most giant strawberries on the farm.
They provide containers so you can fill them with the ones that you want.
If you don’t feel like picking the fruits yourself, you can also just purchase those that have been freshly-picked by the farm staff.
Make your day better by bringing a picnic basket and enjoying lunch with the family under one of the umbrellas with a table.
And because it’s only one block away from 3 Mile Lake, you can also go there or visit a nearby public beach for a quick swim.
Whatever the season, the North Beach Cottage is a great getaway place for the entire family.
This air-conditioned cottage can accommodate up to 12 people and has two bedrooms and a front porch facing Lake Brownwood, accentuated by its quiet country lake setting.
The North Beach Cottage is perfect for outdoor activities thanks to its barbecue grill, fire pit, lawn chairs, and picnic tables.
Plus, it has a lakefront that has a boat launch and a pier or dock.
The kids and kids-at-heart will have a great break at the North Beach Cottage.
Small as Paw Paw is, it is the place where you can find an excellent community theatre group.
The Paw Paw Village Players performs multiple musicals and plays throughout the year in a historic building on Michigan Avenue.
Among the performances they had include Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun, and Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol.
It’s a great way to discover the arts of Paw Paw and the skills of their local talents.
One of the best ways to explore a new place is to feel like a local and explore a town’s local market.
When in the Village of Paw Paw, the Almena Farmers Market is a must-visit.
Behold the place where the locals come together to get their fresh produce and home cooking ingredients.
Located in the Almena Historic Township Hall Pavilion, it greets you with handmade goods and homemade baked goodies.
This is where locally grown, high-quality, and fresh products from local farmers and producers meet with the locals.
There are tons of vegetables, fruits, spices, herbs, potted plants, bedding plants, and flowers to choose from.
So, do come here and head home with a bag of goods.
Aside from strawberries, blueberries are also farmed in Paw Paw.
Visit the Berry Brothers Retail on 30th St and find the best blueberries, baked goodies, and retail products that have become endearing to the locals of Paw Paw.
The Leduc’s farmed this land for 68 years until it was purchased by the Berry Brothers.
Aside from their blueberry retail shop in Paw Paw, they also sell these beautiful berries online all year round.
During the summer months, you can do the u-pick, and over the fall and winter, you can join the events and go shopping.
The kids will surely love this place, so make visiting it a top priority.
Here’s another place where you can find the locals scrambling for their daily fresh stocks of fruits, vegetables, eggs, jams, homemade goodies, and other staples.
Located on Michigan Avenue, it doesn’t only serve as a source for the local people’s food supply, but it also serves to create a sense of community in Paw Paw.
Delve into the market and see a plethora of items that you never thought you’d need but end up buying.
There’s just so much to see here that you’d want to spend at least a half-day here.
This is not your average rock shop because the GeoScape Rock Shop, located on Red Arrow HWY, features a unique selection of fossils, minerals, beads, landscape rock, jewelry, and home decor.
Many locals and visitors come here to get their rocks, which they use for home and landscape decoration as well as for spiritual purposes and as educational tools.
Though they’ve only opened their store in the spring of 2015, they’ve already been selling collections during festivals for five years.
If you’re looking for a souvenir for your friends or family, GeoScape Rock Shop is the go-to place for you.
If your discriminating taste buds are looking for great food, come to the Brewster’s Food and Spirits.
This is the home of the only authentic applewood-smoked specialties of South West Michigan.
Drool over their beef brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken wings, and applewood-smoked Reuben sandwich.
You can’t say no to their traditional American fair food, such as their porterhouse steak and BBQ grilled chicken fritters.
If you can’t choose between strawberries and blueberries, then Brookside Farms lets you have both!
It’s like Berry Brothers and Mandigo Farms in one place.
Their u-pick season lets you take part in a rich family heritage that builds memories that last a lifetime.
There are also freshly-picked blueberries and strawberries as well as homemade jams, pies, maple syrup, smoothies, pure honey, and muffins that await you.
There is indeed a lot of places to see and things to do in Paw Paw.
With all of these offerings and opportunities, you wouldn’t even think it’s just a village with more than 3,500 residents.
It’s a good place for a visit just as much as it is perfect for raising a family.
Come and visit the Village of Paw Paw!
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