Seeking General Football Wknd Planning Advice
Hi All-
I’m an alum who hasn’t been back to A^2 for a while. As it happens I will be planning TWO fb weekends this fall; first for a group of 10 guys for whom it will be a first time to a game and the second for my family and some friends who live near us in Boston.
With that in mind, I would love some advice on the following
1) Transport to/from campus. For the guys wknd (9/10, Hawaii game) we can either rent cars and drive from where we will be staying (likely in Detroit) or arrange for driver(s) to pick us up and drop us off. We will be spending the whole day in Ann Arbor. While I know how/where to park if we drive, I didn’t know if there were any services that could do the latter option that could do both without having to foot the bill for 12 hours of waiting.
2) Food reservations. Everyone has warned me about making reservations “now”. My question(s) then are
a) what are good options for fine dining and/or family fare? While the latter would likely be Cottage Inn or something like that, I have no ideal about options for nicer places that I see now online.
b) how do I make reservations knowing starting times aren’t set yet? I’m assuming the second game with family (Penn St) will be a night game or (possibly) late afternoon while the Hawaii one will likely be noon or 330. Are people even more sure about what those times are likely to be s.t. I can be more precise with the reservation?
Thanks for any thoughts you all might have!
Niels
PS- If (fingers crossed) UM makes it to the frozen four I would be happy to give recs for Boston to those interested
I don't have input on a lot of that, but big ranked BIG games are rarely played late afternoon any longer. Because of the Big Noon monstrosity it is almost always noon or night.
delete. sorry.
Just my $0.02 from having planned a few successful guys football weekends in AA: staying within walking distance of downtown AA will make the trip a lot more fun and your lives easier. The cost may be prohibitive for Penn State but is usually doable via Airbnb/VRBO for tomato can non-conference (Hawaii) and unexciting B1G opponents.
Thanks for that advice! I completely agree with you, though for other reasons it isn’t possible to stay near campus this time around.
1) as BTB said it is far better to stay in AA within walking distance, particularly is you're planning on spending most the day in AA. Worst case scenario you get sick of walking and grab an Uber. If you can't do that, rent a car and tailgate on the golf course (barring bad weather).
2) can't really help here as far as gameday because I usually just go to the Brown Jug as it's my favorite gameday bar. But great food options in AA are Frita Batidos, Pacific Rim, Knights, Metzgers (oldie but goodie), Jerusalem Garden, Jolly Pumpkin, The Earle, and Slurping Turtle. There's many more and some of these would likely be willing to take a reservation in advance. You'd have to call to find out how far in advance though.
I swear to God, if one more post about Michigan athletics pushes the "The Bachelor" thread off the front page, I'm going to flip...
We eat at the chop house after every game (except night games) love it there. it's expensive, but they know me by name, save me my favorite table and I get the waitress we want. I highly recommend it. Right on Main St. Easy to go bar/restaurant hopping afterwards.
Maybe bring your twin Niels and his party along when he's in town and treat him and his party to the best!
Are you suggesting that he out-Neil, Neil?
It’s Niels. Plural. I know. I had to look twice the first time I saw it too.
Good catch, I'll edit
Hah! Yeah it was my burden that my old man was a failed physicist and so he decided that my namesake be plural. Was tough sledding with some of my peers in elementary school but at least I got to stump some of my teachers when I asked them how to make my name possessive.
Good rec on the chopshouse idea.
I think the people mover has a stop at the big house.
Maybe someday…
It would be so nice to have real transportation in South East Michigan.
Since you mentioned fine dining: some of Ann Arbor's better fine dining restaurants closed for good during the pandemic. Of those that remain, I like Taste and West End Grill in downtown. Outside downtown, Mediteranno (south side) is also good.
I will second West End Grill. Food is amazing. Unless they've updated the interior, a decided step down.
You can park in a structure in the downtown Ann Arbor/campus area for $20 for the day. That might be a better trade off than the cost of rooms in Ann Arbor. We usually stay in the Plymouth area, drive in before the game, and park. Takes about 30-40 minutes dependent upon traffic.
As for dinner reservations, many restaurants will only take reservations 30-60 days in advance, so you most likely have plenty of time to figure that out.
If you're looking for a good food option and like tapas, go to Aventura. Its a bit on the nicer side, but its always a great, lively atmosphere inside, and probably my go-to in town now. Even before Chop House.
Its maybe a little more than halfway down between State and Main, but never had anything there I didn't like.
I'd just make reservations now at these places if you can. Or if you can't do it now, call them now and ask them when they start taking reservations. If its three months out, call them three months out.
Book a couple places at multiple times so you've got a plan no matter what time the game is at, and then the week of, when the gametime is officially announced, just cancel the reservation that doesn't work for the game.
For $600 I'll give you all the answers you're looking for. PM me.
At Ford Road exit on 275 in Canton, there are 2 Marriott properties - Fairfield & Town Place Suites. They share running a van back and forth to the stadium on game day for $8/head round-trip. Dropoff & pickup in AA on Stadium just past M-Den. Town Place has a fantastic grilling area out back. There are restaurants and sports bars galore all over the area. We stay here every year for our annual football weekend. We will be there for Hawaii this year. Check it out.
If you are staying at one of the hotels on the edge of town there are shuttles that go to the stadium. I live in Oakland County so I drive myself but I've been told Ubers can be hard to find after the games.
If you have a car and are going downtown for dinner I would park downtown and walk. You can walk downtown after the game in less time than it takes to drive. Or you can rent a bike as the City of Ann Arbor has been in the mood to eliminate every parking space and half the road to make bike lanes.