45.06° N · Alpena County
On the Thunder Bay River: reserving an Alpena riverfront hotel stay
From, room for two$2302 nights · from $120 per personNot included: taxes, lunches and dinners.
This Alpena riverfront hotel stay puts you on the bank of the Thunder Bay River, a short way upstream from where it meets Lake Huron. Two nights are set at a hotel that keeps a registration desk of its own; we check with it whether those nights are open, then put everything into a single written quote for you to weigh at leisure.
Alpena sits just past the 45th parallel, the halfway line between the equator and the North Pole. The town faces Thunder Bay, a stretch of Lake Huron known for the shipwrecks resting under its water. It makes a quiet weekend with a long drive at each end, and the hotel serves a hot breakfast each morning you are there.
Shipwreck bay at the river mouth
The red steel tower in the picture at the top is Alpena Light, standing on the pierhead where the Thunder Bay River ends and Lake Huron opens out. The river flows right past the hotel on its way there. Beyond the shore lies the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a protected area set aside for the shipwrecks on the lake floor.
On the river itself is a maritime heritage center with free entry. A short drive away, Rockport State Recreation Area has sinkholes in the limestone and a fossil quarry.
| Town | Alpena, Alpena County |
|---|---|
| Lodging | riverfront hotel |
| Latitude | 45.06° N |
| North of the office | 177 miles due north |
| Nights | 2 |
| Season planned | May to November |
| Drive from Southfield | 236 road miles, about 4 hr 34 min without stops |
| Working nightly rate | from $112 a night for a room for two (November 2026) |
Hot breakfast at the riverfront hotel
Your Alpena base is a riverfront hotel that runs a front desk of its own: you sign in there when you arrive and settle the bill there when you leave. The picture beside this section shows a lodging of this kind. Its name appears in your written quote. Inside the figure are the room for two for both nights at the hotel's rate for the month, and a hot breakfast each morning, served the way the hotel serves it.
Two nights with hot breakfast
For 2 nights in Alpena the figure starts from $230, covering the room for two and working out from $120 per person. Behind it sits a working rate from $112 a night, a November 2026 price for a two-person room that we read off a public travel website. Alpena's riverfront hotel shows no mandatory nightly fee, so the room is the whole of it.
Left out of that figure: Michigan's 6% use tax plus whatever room tax Alpena County charges, your fuel, lunches and dinners, and the state pass for recreation area entry. Once your dates are known, the hotel's own rate for them takes the place of the working rate, and it may land above or below. More on how we build each number is on our pricing page.
Inside this total
- The room for two for 2 nights at the lodging's rate for the month
- Hot breakfast each morning, as the hotel serves it
Left for you to pay on the road
- Michigan's 6% use tax and any county room tax
- Fuel, lunches and dinners
- State recreation area entry
May to November on the bay
Alpena belongs on the calendar from May to November. Across December to April, Thunder Bay lies frozen over, and those months stay off our planning list. The working rate above was taken for November, the last month of the season.
Hotel, room and rules in writing
On one page you get the hotel's name, the room, and the two nights, with the room total at the rate the hotel sets for your dates. Alongside sit the taxes it will charge and the cancellation rules it writes for itself. Until you answer yes in writing, the room stays unreserved; after that answer arrives, we ask the hotel to hold it in your name. Planning costs you nothing, and no payment is taken on this site.
Thunder Bay, 274 minutes up the map
Southfield to Alpena is 236 road miles, about 4 hr 34 min without stops on the computed route; stops for fuel and food stretch that out. Measured straight north, Alpena lies 177 miles above the office, at 45.06 degrees north, past the halfway line.
Alpena nights for us to request
Pick the Alpena nights you would like and send them on the request form. An answer about what the hotel can offer reaches you within four phone hours.
Request this stay in writingNext on the site: Petoskey historic hotel stay