Grab the keys to your Model T and turn up the Motown music as you drive through Motor City. While your flight to Detroit might be music-less, there’s no stopping the beat once you hit the streets. Detroit got its nickname, “Motor City,” after Henry Ford rolled the first car off the assembly line in Detroit. Today, Detroit is still center for automobile production but there’s more than Ford Thunderbirds and classic Mustangs gracing this city.
Tourists booking Detroit flights and accommodations will find themselves in the entertainment hub of the Midwest. Many travelers leave their Detroit flight and head straight to Hitsville USA, where the Motown Sound comes to life and continues to play. But there are other attractions for visitors to Detroit. The Detroit Museum of Art and the Renaissance Center are huge tourists. Detroit sports fans can book Detroit flights during football season and cheer on the NFL Lions, or find cheap flights to Detroit during hockey season and root for the Detroit Red Wings.
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Winters in Detroit are bitter cold and snowy, with icy winds and temperatures in the teens and 20s (Fahrenheit) and at least one subzero cold snap. Spring is damp and chilly with temperatures ranging from the 30s to the 60s. June starts to get warm, and July and August are hot and humid with temperatures in the 80s. The September and October temperatures start to go down to the 70s and 60s and can be very pleasant. July tends to be the hottest month and January the coldest.
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Peak Seasons:
Summer is the most popular time to visit the Midwest and the Great Lakes, and July and August are when prices for flights to Detroit tend to be the highest.
Fall foliage season starts around mid-September, and the colors reach their peak by mid-October.
Off Season:
Winter and early spring is the off season; however, despite the bitter winters, visitors come to Michigan for downhill skiing.
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Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
Distance: 26 miles west
Drive time: 25-30 mins
Visitors generally drive from the airport to downtown, and there are car rental agencies both on and off the airport. Taxi service to downtown and public transportation are also available. The Ground Transportation page of the airport web site has detailed information.
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Driving is still the best way to get around the Motor City. Detroit is fairly easy to drive in and there are many parking lots. Many downtown streets are one-way, so it’s a good idea to have a detailed map. As with most cities, it’s best to avoid rush hour.
Taxis can be hailed on the street, and the People Mover runs on a three-mile elevated loop around several downtown sites.
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- The Henry Ford Museum is Ford’s collection of commonplace items and historic buildings that document American genius. Naturally there are transportation exhibits that include automobiles, presidential limousines, and Oscar Mayer’s original 1952 Wienermobile. Some of the other displays are a Buckminster Fuller “house of the future,” silver work from Paul Revere to Tiffany, and a gothic steam engine. A full tour also covers the seven districts in historic Greenfield Village and the Ford Rouge Factory. (Factory tour tickets sell out in advance, so it’s recommended that you buy them online.)
- Cranbrook House and Gardens is the estate of newspaper publisher George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps and is the oldest surviving manor home in metro Detroit. The house, designed in 1908, is English Arts and Crafts style, and its furnishings and décor are handcrafted. The 40-acre garden surrounding the house has Japanese and rose gardens, woods, and walks around two lakes on the 40-acre site. The complex is adjacent to the Cranbrook School and Institute of Science. The house and gardens are open for touring May through October.
- Detroit has a full complement of museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts houses 100 galleries with collections that include Rembrandt, Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh, Joos Van Cleeve, and Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry mural. The Detroit Historical Museum re-creates the city's past complete with a two-story automobile assembly line. The Wright Museum of African American History is the largest African-American museum in the world. The Core Exhibition Gallery, And Still We Rise, shows African American History from slavery through the Civil War, Emancipation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and contemporary society. The Motown Museum gives you a tour through the original recording studio, exhibits of photographs, album covers, newspaper clippings, and gold records.
- In January the Motor City hosts the annual North American International Auto Show and in August at the annual Woodward Dream Cruise, a parade of over 40,000 cars.
- In July Detroit joins its neighbor, Windsor, Ontario, in the week long International Freedom Festival, celebrating both Canada Day and Independence Day, ending with a fireworks display that is the centerpiece of the entire celebration.
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