Ah, Michigan. The only state where you can visit both Hell and Paradise. No really. Look it up. 😉 Michigan is special. We love all the weird names; Bad Axe, Big Beaver Road, Christmas, Germfast, and the list goes on.

My family and I decided we’d take the hour long drive, yes only an hour, to Hell, Michigan.

Despite the short drive, I booked a stay with Baymont Inn in Howell.. check-in Friday, check-out Sunday. We actually left Saturday night. Not a place a recommend staying.

We arrived for check in around 6pm. Our room was supposed to be ready by 3pm, which is standard for most hotel chains. The woman at the check-in counter gave us a key for our first floor room. As soon as we opened the door we backed out. The room was a disaster. The beds torn apart, bedding thrown on the tv, and food crushed into the carpet, plus the smell. Uhm, no thank you.

I went back up the counter and expressed the issue to the woman. It just so happened to be that they were booked full due to a few different festivals going on. She ended up switching our room with one on the second floor. No big deal. Except! The queen beds were actually not queens, and were fulls. Not fun when your squeezing six people (3 kids, 3 adults) in a room. The room was on the smaller side, but included a microwave and fridge. Well, our microwave shorted out and caught a paper plate on fire, the first night we were there. (They hadn’t come to fixed it by the time we left Saturday night around 8pm.) Then let’s not forget the fact that the entire side of the second floor hallway that we were on, smelled like weed. That wouldn’t have bothered me, if it was constantly there or if my children weren’t with me. It honestly wouldn’t have bothered me if we could have used the pool for a majority of the night, but the water was so cold the kids could only stand to be in the water for five minutes. And no hot tub.

They offered a “free” continental breakfast, which we did check out Saturday morning. It was awful. The doughnuts were old and almost rock hard and they ran out of almost everything within the first hour, with no one to replace any of it for some time.

Again. Not a place I would recommend staying. Spend the extra money and stay at the Holiday Inn down the road.

Before check-in, we stopped at the Castaway Play Cafe. It’s like Chuck E. Cheese, but with inflatables and better food. There were three inflatables the kids could slide down or jump in, a huge play structure with multiple slides, games and rides, laser tag, build a stuffed animal cart and a Ninja Warrior course. We ordered a pizza and garlic knots. It was tasty and the kids had a blast. We probably spent a good 4 or 5 hours there, if not more.

One plus side of the Baymont, was that it was right behind the Tanger Outlets, more premium outlets that I don’t really enjoy shopping at due to the price of items.

I did, however, end up buying things at a few stores that are not near us. Mostly new sandals for the boys and my husband got a tshirt.

They did have a small mini-golf course, 9 holes, in the middle of the outlets. It was reasonably priced at 2.50 per child, five for adults. Mini-golf is one of my child’s favorite things to do, so he was ecstatic to have one super close to the hotel.

Saturday morning we woke up around 7:30am to get our lack-luster breakfast and make a plan to visit Hell for the day.

The drive from Howell to Hell was a nice drive. About 20 minutes and green.

We visited Screams first. That is after all where you purchase mini-golf rounds.

We played one round of mini-golf, everyone got a hole in one, except me. I got two. Skills. 😉 The course was way cute, and of course fit the theme. The holes were a nice mix of easy to challenging.

After our round of golf, we headed back into the Screams to check out the rest of the store, where we had ice cream from the Crematory and purchased fun souvenirs.

They have a cute Locks of Love bridge in the back space, next to the dam. You can bring your own lock, or purchase one from the shop for 9.99 that comes with a certificate of undying love.

You can walk down to the river/ dam, enjoy the scenery.

Next door to Screams is the Hell Hole. It’s a cute little restaurant with serve your self drinks and menu with a variety of food, some named to fit the town theme. The service was a bit slow, but the food was delicious.

After a while, we drove down the road to Halfmoon Lake State Park. We were unprepared for the trip, but let the kids play on the beach for a while anyways before heading back to the hotel.

A place we would have loved to have visited was the Hell Saloon. If we didn’t have the children, Brian and I would have eaten there. It smelled absolutely amazing!

I was a bit bummed to leave Saturday night, I was hoping to take the kids to the melon festival the next day. Oh well, we have next year. =]

Have you been to Hell? Now is a great time to visit before it freezes over.

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