Tour the North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse
Please read the following information thoroughly to help you determine if this adventure is suitable for you and your family. If you have any questions please contact tours@northmanitoulightkeepers.org and we will respond as soon as possible. We look forward to sharing the lighthouse with you!
The person booking a tour must be a member or sign-up for a new membership, which starts at $25 for Cormorant Level and goes up from there (each member booking a tour can sign-up multiple guests for the tour).
Cost per person for the tour is $150 per guest (this is to cover our cost of providing the tour) plus service fees. To ensure that each tour can be operated in a cost effective manner, North Manitou Light Keepers reserves the right to reschedule your booking.
Lighthouse Passport books available for $10. Learn more here.
Tours usually depart from Leland Harbor at 9:00 am and are predicted to return by 1:00 pm.
Saturday Tours are limited to 10 guests total.
A private tour can be arranged on other days and times of the week. A minimum of 10 people or $1,500 is required to make this arrangement. Private tours can accommodate a maximum of 11 or 12 guests depending on the date.
Access to the Crib is via Sea Door, located at water level, transitioning from a moving boat, up and across stairs to the basement of the Crib. Some physical dexterity is required. The Lighthouse has a total of 6 flights of stairs plus an inclined ladder to reach the lens room. Guests age 8-80 have successfully toured the lighthouse.
While our intention is to use the Sea Doors to enter and exit the lighthouse, there may be some wind and wave conditions that will require climbing the ladder with our safety harness system. No one will be required to climb the ladder if they are not comfortable, but please understand that this could be a last minute decision upon arrival at the lighthouse.
What to expect: This is a rustic experience. We have marine toilets if you need to use the restroom, but we recommend using the bathrooms in the harbor before departure. There will be some bird poop, cobwebs and spiders. We do our best to keep the lighthouse tidy but it is still under rehabilitation and some areas could be under construction during your visit.
Tours occurring as scheduled and on time are subject to weather conditions at the time of the tour.
Higher winds create larger waves on Lake Michigan near the Crib, which can make it difficult and unsafe to hold our boat next to the concrete base of the lighthouse and transfer passengers from the boat onto the lighthouse.
Tours may be canceled by our experienced boat captain or NMLK if weather conditions present unsafe conditions for a full tour.
As an alternative to taking a full tour (by accessing the Crib), if weather conditions prevent it, guests can take a boat ride out to the Crib and view it up close from the boat (some weather conditions may prevent accessing the Crib but still allow for an enjoyable boat tour of the Crib and Lake Michigan, with wonderful views of the lighthouse, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and the Manitou Islands).
In the event weather prevents a tour from occurring as scheduled, we will seek to reschedule it with you.
We and our boat captain will watch the weather forecast leading up to the scheduled tour time and make every effort to determine the feasibility of taking the tour based on weather conditions as early as possible (weather can be very variable, but often the weather forecast increases significantly in reliability 48 hours prior to the scheduled trip time).
