Get Away From It All at the Handshake Motel in the U.P.

If you wanna get rustic and get away from the fancy-shmancy glitter and glamour of hotels and motels that cost more than your paycheck, here’s your place: The Handshake Motel.

Located in the Upper Peninsula’s Chippewa County, the Handshake only has about four units; small, but able to accommodate the things you need including kitchen facilities. It is NOT one of those barely-hanging-on, cheap & dingy motels that rise up every now and then...the Handshake is a rustic pleasure. Simple, cozy, and relaxing – all within the U.P. wilderness.

Raccoons, bears, cougars, coyotes, bigfoot...they are all waiting for you in the surrounding woods.

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The Handshake was formerly known as Cady’s Motel in the 1960s, and in the 1950s was called Cady’s Cove Cabins. Before that, who knows? An old newspaper ad from 1988 says the Handshake is “newly opened” so I guess we can surmise that as the year it debuted. Standing next-door is a house with the infamous Hulbert ‘bowling ball tree’ that I’ve written about in the past.

Standing right out in front, the tree is made from metal bars, with bowling balls used as leaves on metal branches.

The Handshake Motel’s official address is 37184 West M-28, and it sits right next to Peninsula Patchworks...I’m guessing that’s where you have to go in to register for a room. Take a look at some photos in the gallery below!