Door County motel tops USA TODAY 10BEST national poll, scenic drive places in Top 10
A Door County family-owned lakeside motel won the top spot in a national online survey while a popular scenic route for motorists and cyclists placed in the top 10 in the same poll.
Square Rigger Lodge in Jacksonport was voted No. 1 in the 'Best Roadside Motel' category in the USA TODAY 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards for Road Trips, while the Door County Coastal Byway finished in eighth place for "Best Scenic Drive" in the country in the same survey.
The USA TODAY 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards feature top travel and lifestyle destinations and events. Nominees are determined by a panel of industry experts. Winners are decided by online voting, with anyone eligible able to vote once per day during the polling period, which ran from April 7 to May 5 for the Road Trips survey.
To win the Best Roadside Motel category, Square Rigger topped a list of 20 nominees spread across the U.S. from California and Oregon to Boston to St. Augustine, Florida. Placing second behind Square Rigger was Roadrunner Lodge Motel, located along the famed Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico (one of two motels on Route 66 in Tucumcari to make the Top 10), followed by The Local in St. Augustine and Dame Fortune's Cottage Court in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
"Wisconsin's Door Peninsula draws tourists in droves thanks to its abundant natural beauty, and the Square Rigger Lodge serves as the perfect base for exploring the region," the USA TODAY 10BEST site says about the winner. "Rental options range from motel rooms to cottages to an entire house, and to sweeten the deal, the property even comes with its own beachfront coffee shop for early risers."
Square Rigger Lodge features 16 rooms overlooking nearly 300 feet of a private sand beach on the Lake Michigan shore. The lodge also has five cottages and a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house that formerly served as the owner's home but is now available to guests for weekly rental. A Little Bit of Coffee, a beachfront coffee shop that also offers a full bar, smoothies, baked goods and quiches daily and small plates Tuesday and Thursday evenings, is attached to the motel and open daily during the season with limited hours in September and October.
The LeClair family built the original motel in June 1984 and added to it over the years. In 2022, owner Elizabeth 'Little Bit' LeClair sold Square Rigger to its current owners: Mary Riley; Molly and Hale Towns; Betsy Riley and Neil Anderson; and Katie Riley and Mike Kerr. A press release at the time announcing the sale described the owners as a family group that's had members stay on the property every year since it was built.
In the three years since taking over, the ownership group has upgraded amenities in the cottages and motel rooms, including new bedding and other cosmetic changes, and updated the rental house with new paint, flooring and furniture.
Square Rigger Lodge is at 6332 State 57, Jacksonport. Its season runs from mid-May into October. For more information, call 920-823-2404 or visit squareriggerlodge.com or facebook.com/squareriggerlodge.
Meanwhile, the 66-mile Door County Coastal Byway faced some pretty stiff, longer and internationally known competition in placing eighth among the country's best scenic drives.
Topping the list was the Great River Road, which runs the length of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Louisiana. Second and third places went to the Natchez Trace Parkway through Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, and the Blue Ridge Parkway through the mountains of the same name in North Carolina and Virginia, and among the other well-known drives in the Top 10 were Route 66 in fifth place, the Pacific Coast Highway in California in sixth and Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park in Montana (10th).
"Door County Coastal Byway … connects travelers to three state parks and 10 county parks, showcasing the best of Lake Michigan and northern Wisconsin," the contest site says. "For a real treat on this curvy road, plan your road trip for the fall, when the orchards are full of fruit and the leaves have turned fiery crimson and gold. Other highlights include the 400-million-year-old Niagara Escarpment bluffs and the sandy beaches found along Lake Michigan."
The byway runs between the north side of Sturgeon Bay and the tip of the mainland Peninsula in Newport. It starts where State 42 and State 57 split and head in different directions, with 42 running near the bay of Green Bay and 57 doing the same near the Lake Michigan shore. The two highways come back together where 57 ends in Sister Bay, and the byway continues to 42's terminus in Newport.
Along the way, the byway passes through popular tourist communities like Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay, Baileys Harbor and Jacksonport, and three state parks and 10 county parks are on or just off the route. It also includes what is often called Door County's "curvy road," the final mile or so of State 42 heading into Newport that includes 15 curves in a wooded area and is one of the most photographed stretched of roadway on the Peninsula.
Efforts launched by the town of Liberty Grove and joined by seven other local communities and the county saw the Door County Coastal Byway named a Wisconsin Scenic Byway by the state in 2010 and a National Scenic Byway in 2021. Routes are selected for national designation for their importance as tourism destinations, based upon the archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities they offer.
This isn't the first time the Door County Coastal Byway has been recognized in a national poll. In January it was named one of the 100 best winter road trips in the U.S. in an online panel survey conducted by Ultimate Toys, an Ohio-based designer and builder of multipurpose full-size luxury vans. It also was cited as a recommended drive for fall scenery in a survey of baby boomers conducted in 2019 by the AARP Travel Center that named Door County as one of the top 12 fall vacation destinations for seniors in the U.S.
For more information on the Door County Coastal Byway, including maps, a downloadable brochure and attractions along the route, visit doorcountycoastalbyway.org.
To see the complete list of USA TODAY 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards for Road Trips, visit 10best.usatoday.com.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
MORE: Here's a look at festivals, art fairs and special events in Door County this May
MORE: State OKs $7.7 million in improvements for state parks, boat landing in Door County
FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS: Check out our website
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County motel tops national poll, scenic drive places in Top 10
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