Team Building Activities near your meeting space
This itinerary offers several activities to do during the mornings, afternoons and evenings of your stay. Augment your agenda by interspersing the activities that match or broaden your team’s interests.
Morning: Strengthen bonds
Interacting or conversing is key to these start-your-day activities.
Golf
(Approximately 3 hours)
Fuel your team’s passion for the game by playing on courses where big-name amateur and professional golfers have sunk breath-holding putts to win championships. Or on courses that make playing fun for learners to every level in your group. Benton Harbor golf courses are not only top picks, but are within minutes of most meeting venues. The on-site clubhouses and restaurants let you quench your thirst or share stories over a snack or meal.
- Harbor Shores Golf Course: A championship, 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature design and
- Lake Michigan Hills Golf Course: This course has consistently received a four-star rating from Golf Digest's — Best Places to Play.
- Point o’ Woods Golf & Country Club: Robert Trent Jones, Sr., claims this is one of his best designs in America.
In the off-seasons or on a rainy day, bring the team to Pipestone Indoor Country Club in the Benton Harbor Arts District. Hone your beginning to pro-level skills on the virtual links of Golf Digest’s premier simulators.
Benton Harbor, MI
Charter a Fishing Trip
(Approximately 4 hours)
Smaller groups can hook up with a U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain and wet their lines in Southwest Michigan’s rivers and Lake Michigan. Experience the thrill of reeling in Chinook and Coho salmon, steelhead, trout, perch, catfish and walleye. Launch from Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, New Buffalo and South Haven. Charters supply the bait, tackle and fish cleaning.
Southwest Michigan
See You In The Morning
You will find more fun to enjoy tomorrow.
Afternoon: Exceed expectations
Here are ways to fire up your team, unify new with old members or flip the attitudes of meeting-weary or jaded participants.
Sail on a Replica 1810 Top Sail Sloop
(Approximately 3 hours)
This activity is sure to have your team talking for days! Reserve your Lake Michigan sail aboard the Friends Good Will. It is a replica of the 1810 top sail sloop that played a pivotal role in the War of 1812.
Meet at the recently renovated Michigan Maritime Museum and explore the indoor and outdoor Great Lakes maritime history exhibits. Then, do more than imagine how sailors felt working together sailing the Great Lakes — experience it for yourself! Help the Friends Good Will’s crew raise the sails, stand at her bow and feel the wind on your face. The museum offers other historic boat rides, too.
260 Dyckman Ave.
South Haven, MI 49090
Take a Cooking or Craft Beverage Class
(Approximately 3 hours)
Southwest Michigan is home to Whirlpool Corporation, an international leader in home appliance manufacturing, so our community loves learning to cook. It also has bragging rights for being one of the best wine, beer, cider and spirits-making regions in the country. So, several places offer cooking, food-pairing dinners and cocktail mixing classes.
Arrange team-learning experiences with The Culinary Cottage, Perennial Accents, River Saint Joe Brewery, Round Barn Winery & Estate and more.
You can also find new favorite craft beverages while tasting along the Makers Trail. With over 40 wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries within minutes of each other, you can dedicate a couple of hours to finding new favorites. Tour services are available to make visiting even easier.
Southwest Michigan
Lighthouse Tour & Paddling
(Approximately 3 hours)
If you meet during spring through fall, these two activities get two thumbs-up from planners. Arrange a guided tour of the century-old North Pier lighthouse, including climbing to the top for an incredible view of Lake Michigan, the St. Joseph Harbor and beyond. It is accessible from Tiscornia Park. Pair this activity with renting kayaks or stand-up paddleboards from Third Coast Paddling and taking in the beautiful scenery of the Paw Paw River, Silver Beach, the Galien River and at Warren Dunes State Park.
St. Joseph/Benton Harbor
See You In The Morning
You will find more fun to enjoy tomorrow.
Evening: Fortify relationships
These activities strengthen teams by making it easy to talk, laugh and cheer each other on. They are perfect for unwinding on any of the nights you stay over.
Craft Cider + Bowling
(Approximately 1½ - 2 hours)
Combine a 1960s bowling alley, arcade games and a retro-inspired patio with craft hard cider and seltzer waters, and your team will have no trouble interacting. Peat’s Cider Social is ageless fun all year-round.
A unique, alternate winter activity is to bring your group to River Saint Joe farmstead brewery in Buchanan. Its River Rocks will get your team outside playing shuffleboard on ice with a broom and curling stones. Anyone can play — and they will!
6201 Red Arrow Hwy.
Stevensville, MI 49127
Enjoy a Live Performance or Concert
(Approximately 2 - 3 hours)
For more than a century, Southwest Michigan has attracted renowned actors, performers, musicians and poets to our theatres, indoor and outdoor performing arts venues, music events, fairs and festivals. These shows will open your team’s minds, fire up their passions and spark ideas. Some popular live performance venues to attend as a team or with traveling companions are The Mendel Center, The Acorn, The GhostLight Theatre, Twin City Players, and Howard Performing Arts Center.
Southwest Michigan
Watch an Incredible Sunset
(Approximately 1½ hours)
Whether along the coast or inland, Southwest Michigan’s sunsets are renowned around the world! The horizon can become a splash of orange, peach, gold, scarlet, lavender and cream with the sun becoming a hazy yellow or fiery red ball. Watching sunsets is a ritual here, gazing from our bluffs, shores, across our marshes, orchards and vineyards. Enjoy an ice cream or coffee as you watch from land. Or take an awe-inspiring sunset cruise on the Southwest Michigan CycleBoat, the New Buffalo Sailing Excursions, Oselka Marina yacht cruise or The Sun Setter.
Southwest Michigan
Thanks for joining us!
We hope you enjoyed your travels throughout Southwest Michigan. Check out other trips that you can take on our itineraries page.
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