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Premier Beach Town Meets
Creative Community

Grand Haven, one of Michigan’s featured beach towns, is a renaissance city that has become a beacon for those looking for simplicity in a scene of natural beauty. From its roots as a highly commercial port-of-call for ferries and passenger liners, Grand Haven has evolved to become a place of serene family enjoyment, hosting lively outdoor recreation and festivals on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Grand River. Grand Haven is also home to the world’s largest musical fountain, pristine boardwalks, beautiful beaches, lighthouses and historic downtown.

Grand Haven’s diverse economy includes the large number of retail and hospitality businesses as one might expect from a community that derives a significant amount of its annual revenue from tourism, but it is also home to more than 200 manufacturers and a large number of services and institutional organizations. Grand Haven is known nationally for being on the cutting edge of technology. It is the first municipality in the country to provide a city-wide wireless internet service.

Grand Haven residents occupy everything from homes directly on the shore of Lake Michigan to apartments above the thriving downtown.

Visit Homes.com to view available homes, apartments and condos in Grand Haven.

Grand Haven’s surrounding communities offer a variety of living styles to suit the tastes of its diverse population. To learn about Grand Haven’s suburbs, click on the following communities for more information.

Ferrysburg
This community is located just north of Grand Haven. Families are able to enjoy an array of parks and waterfront while being nestled in a quiet residential community.

Fruitport

Fruitport is located on the northern branch of Spring Lake. It is home to Fruitport Community Schools, offering its residents the perfect mix of lake lifestyle with quality education.

Spring Lake

Located just across the Grand River from Grand Haven, Spring Lake offers the community its very own lake. Spring Lake is a clear and spring-fed lake, giving their residents a getaway only a couple miles from home.

grand haven kite festival

The Grand Haven area is filled with a vast selection of great food, fine dining and memorable restaurants from romantic hideaways, sidewalk cafes, and neighborhood favorites to those serving up elegance, spectacular harbor views and downtown charm. You will find an abundance of fun things to attend including theatre productions, museum exhibits and festivals throughout the year.

Central Park Players is a community theatre organization dedicated to providing high quality theatre at affordable prices to Grand Haven and the Tri-Cities area since 1959.

Coffee Gallery opened for business as an upscale art gallery with a creative and innovative coffee bar in 2001.

The Grand Haven Arts Festival is set-up along Grand Haven’s beautiful downtown.

The Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival has become a premier event with attendance of over 350,000 people including the nation’s highest ranking Coast Guard dignitaries from Washington, D.C.

The Grand Haven Convention and Visitor’s Bureau offers a complete list of dining options.

Grand Valley State University offers many performances, lectures, and concerts that are open to the public in Allendale and Grand Rapids.

The Harbor Restaurant Guide lists the restaurants located on the water.

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company seeks to offer performances of Shakespeare’s works to Michigan audiences in a variety of non-traditional theatre venues.

The Salmon Festival is an outdoor, waterfront festival featuring live jazz music; gourmet salmon cook-off contest; fine art fair on the waterfront; Big King Salmon fishing contest; and more.

The Tri-Cities Historical Museum provides visitors an opportunity to look through the windows of time into the history of Northwest Ottawa County, including the communities of Grand Haven, Spring Lake and Ferrysburg.

With so much good happening in West Michigan, it’s easy to make your mark. If you want to make a real impact in the community you live in, we are the place to be. As a region, we rank above the national average in hours spent volunteering, and rank second in the nation in philanthropic giving.

Visit the United Way’s website to view the latest volunteer opportunities in the Grand Haven area.

The Johnson Center for Philanthropy offers a non-profit directory.

Feeding America West Michigan exists to ensure good food is available to the hungry in the community. By saving good surplus food from going to landfills, they can distribute that reclaimed food to pantries, shelters, and other local anti-hunger organizations in West Michigan counties.

The Center for Women in Transition exists to respond to, reduce, and prevent domestic and sexual violence against women. This is achieved through education, collaboration, and advocacy, with crisis and supportive services to victims and survivors.

Goodwill Industries of West Michigan provides work opportunities, skill development, and family strengthening resources in several West Michigan communities.

American Red Cross of Greater Grand Rapids prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies. Local ARC volunteers provide critical (and often unseen) services in West Michigan every day. Volunteer applications are always welcome.

Association for the Blind & Visually Impaired serves adults and youth with low vision clinics, rehabilitation services, and support groups throughout 13 West Michigan counties.

Grand Valley State University’s Diversity Resource Offices serve faculty, staff, students, and the community through its Inclusion and Equity Office, Disability Support Services, LGBT Resource Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Padnos International Center, and Women’s Center.

The Hispanic Center of West Michigan serves as a resource for the Hispanic and broader community throughout the region.

The West Michigan Hispanic Chamber is dedicated to working with all members of the community to increase the economic advancement of Hispanic owned businesses and to assist in the professional growth of Hispanic business leaders in West Michigan.

The Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance seeks to dismantle racial, socioeconomic, and institutional barriers to ensure that people of all ethnic backgrounds have equal access and opportunity to participate fully in the life of the community in Grand Haven.

The West Michigan Chamber Coalition publishes a guide to women and minority owned businesses in the area.

Tribal Service Area Map

Latina Network of West Michigan

grand haven skate park

Grand Haven is an active and eclectic resort, boating, fishing and port community, while maintaining its small town feel. The community offers more than 100 miles of bike trails, a state beach, boardwalk, two lighthouses, a pier, wharf and large charter fishing fleet.

Grand Haven State Park has a beautiful sandy shore on Lake Michigan along the west side of the park and the Grand River along the north side of the park. The park consists entirely of beach sand and provides scenic views of Lake Michigan and the Grand Haven pier and lighthouse.

Rosy Mount Natural Dune Area is a classic Great Lakes dune system including high wooded dunes, foredunes, beach and a dune blowout. A 0.7 mile (one way) hiking trail from the parking area to the Lake Michigan shoreline includes 1,000 feet of stairs up and down the dunes and scenic views of woods, the dune blowout, and Lake Michigan.

Golf Courses

Grand Haven has a variety of golf courses for every skill level:

Evergreen Golf Course

Fruitport Golf Club

Grand Haven Golf Club

Spring Lake Country Club

Restaurant Search

Our partners at the Convention and Visitors Bureaus have a complete listing of area restaurants and a handy search tool.

Grand Haven CVB resized

Breweries

Old Boys’ Brewhouse
Odd Side Ales
Dutch Girl Brewery
HawkPeak Brewing

Grand Haven offers both public and private K-12 educational opportunities…

Grand Haven Public Schools
For more than 130 years, the core of this district has been academic excellence realized through a rigorous curriculum combined with individual attention from our outstanding staff. GHAPS has gained national recognition for excellence in academics, athletics, and the arts. It offers a superior curriculum at all levels, emphasizing Advanced Placement and college-level courses in the high school.

Spring Lake Public Schools
Whether it is a pre-school program preparing children for kindergarten, after-school and in-school tutoring programs, technology training, or support for families and parent education, SLPS is there for the children. The common thread that unifies all of their services and programs is the commitment to assist every student to achieve success. The strength of this district lies in a resourceful and responsive staff that works in partnership with students, parents, and community organizations to meet the needs of all SLPS children.

Grand Haven Christian Schools
We are a private, Christian school, teaching from the reformed perspective, believing that God is Lord of all areas of life. We have classes ranging from Preschool through 8th Grade, in the academic disciplines as well as physical education, band, choir, music, visual art, computer technology, and introductory Spanish.

Grand Haven offers parents very good quality child care alternatives. Take a look at these websites to see the many choices.

Care.com:
Do you need to hire a Grand Haven nanny, babysitter or other caregiver? View caregivers for child care, senior home care and more near you. Review availability, experience and rates to make the perfect choice for care in Grand Haven, MI.

Tutor Time:
Tutor Time is dedicated to fostering educational development, building self-esteem and sparking imagination in a safe and loving environment.

Whether enrolled full- or part-time, your child will benefit from our proprietary Tutor Time LifeSmart™ curriculum, based around the idea that every child is smart in his or her own way. Our experienced teachers focus on meeting your child’s developmental and educational needs by helping him or her advance through each program at his or her own pace.

For lists of Childcare facilities in the Grand Haven area try the website below.
50 Childcare Service Companies in Grand Haven, MI

West Michigan is home to a diverse population and vibrant faith communities, including Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Hispanic, Islamic, Jewish, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Protestant, Russian, Sudanese and Vietnamese institutions.

Visit InfoMI to view a list of area places of worship in Grand Haven.

Hospitals

The North Ottawa Community Hospital provides area residents with affordable, quality medical care close to home and offers a variety of inpatient, outpatient, and support services.

Behavioral/Mental Health

Community Mental Health of Ottawa County is a premier health agency in West Michigan designed to help people with mental illness and developmental disabilities.

Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services provides numerous behavioral and mental health services with professional excellence, Christian integrity and compassion.

Heart Care

The North Ottawa Community Hospital offers cardiac rehabilitation services designed to help patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease achieve renewed health.

For fifty years, Christian Haven Home has maintained its reputation as one of the area’s finest options for assisted and independent living homes.

Liberty Woods, a national model for affordable senior lifestyles, is a limited equity housing cooperative corporation operating for the benefit of the membership on a non-profit basis.

For an extended list of options in Grand Haven click here

Did you know?

Our website has over 1,000 linked resources. We know a lot of things about West Michigan, but can’t be experts on everything. If you notice something that is out of date or we’re missing something that’s really special about your community, please let us know via our contact page.