When a local plays tourist in their own town, you’ll get an insider’s view of the best things to do in Lansing, Michigan, unlike any other. Use these pro tips to make your first visit as successful as those who know the city like the back of their hand.
This article is part of my Wander Like a Local series, where guest writers reveal the best-kept secrets, must-see spots, and unique experiences that only locals know. Discover hidden gems and authentic tips from those who call it home.
Lansing, Michigan’s state capital, is a great place to use as a hub for exploring southern Michigan, as it’s within 90 minutes of 90 percent of Michigan’s population. So, stay in Lansing and take day trips to Detroit and Grand Rapids. But first, take some time to explore Michigan’s capital city. Known for its car culture, capital, and campus at Michigan State University, you could easily spend a few days exploring the area. As a lifelong local, I never run out of things to do because new exhibits and attractions appear frequently.
As a history buff, I enjoy Michigan’s historic capital, the Michigan History Center, where I’ve found my genealogy in their archives, and the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum. My five-year-old granddaughter begs to go to the zoo and Impress 5 Science Center. The kiddos will have fun with all the kid’s things to do in Lansing. Sports enthusiasts can take in a minor league baseball game, while those who love the great outdoors will find beaches, trails, and parks.
While the greater Lansing area includes the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, this article will focus on those attractions in Lansing proper. My favorite fun things to do in Lansing, MI, are arranged by area.
Have You Visited Lansing, Michigan?
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The Heart of Downtown Lansing
Downtown Lansing offers the capital and cars from the three Cs, but you’ll also find a variety of other activities. You’ll find something interesting whether you’re an art lover, nature enthusiast, or sports fan. Here are some of the best things to do in Lansing, Michigan.
Michigan’s Historic Capitol Building
Michigan’s Victorian-era capitol building is a government building, but as an art lover, I could easily mistake it for an art museum. The National Historic Landmark features nine acres of hand-painted ceilings, walls, columns, and woodwork. Artistic talents are at work throughout the structure. Look closely at the marble columns and walnut woodwork; most likely, you won’t notice it is cast iron and painted pine. The doorknobs and door hinges feature the Michigan coat of arms, while the chandeliers include Michigan’s elk and shield.
While the building opened in 1879, the new Heritage Hall opened in 2022, providing hour-long docent-led tours. They leave regularly from the Information Desk in the Heritage Hall. If you prefer, you can request a booklet and take a self-guided tour.
Pro Tip: Look up through the skylight in front of the Information Desk to see a view of the capitol’s dome.
Michigan Supreme Court Learning Center
Located on the first floor of Michigan’s Hall of Justice in the Capitol Complex, the Michigan Supreme Court Learning Center is a museum-style gallery that teaches about Michigan’s state courts, the government’s judicial branch. One-hour guided tours are free. The Learning Center includes two galleries and a mini courtroom, where you’ll learn about participants’ various roles in court. In the final gallery, you’ll learn about Tribal Law, Family Law, Business Law, and everything in between. You’ll even learn about ways to resolve disputes without going to court.
Pro Tip: You’ll need to bring identification when visiting.
Michigan History Center
The Michigan History Center houses a museum dedicated to Michigan’s history, the Michigan Library, and the Archives of Michigan, which contains the nation’s tenth-largest genealogy collections. While at the archives, check out the museum, where you can’t find a complete Michigan story without an exhibit about automobiles. The Michigan History Museum’s exhibit features the 1957 Detroit Auto Show, with a red Corvette convertible and a beige and white Plymouth Fury on display.
With five levels of permanent and short-term exhibits that tell Michigan’s story from prehistoric times through the late twentieth century, you may struggle to choose what to do first when you visit the Michigan History Museum. Enjoy the copper mine, stroll down Main Street, or experience the one-room schoolhouse. Pick up a museum map and plan your strategy.
Pro Tip: Go on Sunday, when parking and admission is one of Lansing’s free things to do.
Rotary Park
Located behind the Lansing Shuffle, on the Lansing River Trail between the Lansing Center and the Shiawassee St. Bridge in downtown Lansing, Rotary Park is an active park in an urban beach setting. You can access the Grand River through an ADA kayak launch to paddle the Grand River. We enjoy kayaking with River Town Adventures. Landlubbers sit in the Adirondack chairs and wiggle their toes in the sand while the kiddos create elaborate sandcastles on the beach. The lively plaza features a magical lighted forest, with a large fireplace that takes the chill off in the evenings during Lansing’s spring and autumn.
Pro Tip: After a hot summer day on the beach, stop by Brown Dog inside Lansing Shuffle for an ice cream cone or a boozy milkshake.
Shigematsu Memorial Garden
Amongst the city’s hustle and bustle, you’ll find a calm, peaceful oasis at Shigematsu Memorial Garden on Lansing Community College’s campus. The garden features four-season beauty through all the elements of a traditional Japanese garden.
Cherry trees and Japanese maples provide color in the spring and fall, while the pine is an evergreen component. Japanese gardens must have a water element, where the running water has a calming effect. You’ll find a water basin shaped like an ancient Japanese coin at the entrance. Another water element offered at Shigematsu Memorial Garden is a koi pond with two islands reminiscent of a crane and a tortoise. Raked gravel represents the sea in the karesansui-style portion of the garden.
Lansing Community College Sculpture Walk
Lansing Community College’s (LCC) faculty, alums, and students designed, fabricated, or engineered the sculptures on Lansing Community College’s campus in various ways. The most noteworthy piece, the Red Ribbon in the Sky, towers 30 feet high and gracefully flows around a mirror-finished, stainless-steel shaft.
Jim Cunningham sculpted the piece on the corner of Washington Avenue & Shiawassee Street. Ryan Miller sculpted a cluster of giant pencils called Elementary at the Early Learning Children’s Community and a stack of books called Literature. With over 600 pieces of public art adorning the 48-acre downtown Lansing campus, each piece has a story.
Impression 5 Science Center
While many think of Impression 5 Science Center as a place for young kids, as the 5 refers to the five senses, I believe this is a whole family attraction. Pre-teens can perfect their pitching arm while Dad helps an eight-year-old construct and test paper airplanes. Mom and the three-year-old can practice throwing in the Play Space. Our family explored kinetic and potential energy at Impression 5’s hands-on Throwing Things exhibit.
Impression 5 designs and builds its displays in-house, tailoring them to encourage families to play, create, and challenge their understanding of science together. Impression 5’s interactive spaces connect families with children from birth to age 12 in dynamic components accessible to various heights, abilities, and language comprehension.
A two-story water exhibit, Flow, allows children to explore water movement through interactive components like spraying and spurting. My five-year-old granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed Flow.
Pro Tip: Plan a change of clothes for the kiddos as they will likely play in the water exhibit.
R.E. Olds Transportation Museum
Lansing built Oldsmobile, a luxury brand in General Motors’ portfolio. In its 107-year history, the company has made over 35 million Oldsmobiles, but globally, there’s only one Oldsmobile Museum, the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum. Located in downtown Lansing, the 25,000-square-foot museum features more than 60 vehicles, from the 1886 Oldsmobile Steam Carriage, the first ever produced, to some of the last to come out of production.
Pro Tip: The museum rotates cars on display. If you want to see a specific vehicle, call before visiting.
Lansing Lugnuts Baseball
Our family visits Jackson® Field™, home to the Lansing Lugnuts, Lansing’s minor league baseball team, at least once a season. Even those who aren’t big fans of the all-American sport will have a ton of fun because a lot’s happening in addition to a baseball game. Every game, you’ll find hotdog and T-shirt cannons, inflatables in the Kid Zone, giveaways, and spectators participating in competitions between innings.
Themed days add to the fun, where every Sunday is Kids Day, and kids can run the bases and play catch on the field. On Wednesdays, they offer the Dog Days of Summer, and you can bring your dog to enjoy the game.
Pro Tip: The Lugnuts feature post-game fireworks often. A Lugnuts game is the place to be on the 4th of July. I love it when the Lansing Symphony Orchestra accompanies the Independence Day post-game show.
Old Town Lansing
Old Town began in the 1840s as Lansing’s original downtown in what was historically the Lower Village. They called the area Lower Village as it was situated below the rapids. Once the heart of Lansing, when Michigan’s capitol building drew commerce away from the neighborhood, it remained active until the 1960s, when the trend was moving to the suburbs. Until the 1980s, the area was reminiscent of a ghost town, where a resurgence came from entrepreneurs and artists.
Old Town
These historic Victorian buildings, dating from 1875 to 1920, have earned Old Town a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, Old Town is a bustling boutique district with locally-owned shops, galleries, and great restaurants.
My favorites include the Cosmos, which has out-of-this-world, wood-fired pizza; Meat BBQ, a BBQ restaurant that doesn’t serve lettuce; and Pablo’s Old Town for authentic Mexican tortas and fresh-squeezed juices.
Murals showcasing artists’ work decorate the walls of Old Town Victorian buildings, adding a modern, hip vibe to the neighborhood.
While you’ll find many boutiques and galleries, I often laugh at those items in Bad Annie’s Sweary Words. Stop by the Old Town General Store, where you’ll find the perfect Michigan souvenir to remember your trip to Lansing.
Passing by Craving’s Gourmet Popcorn is impossible because the smell of popcorn draws you inside. Popcorn is fun food, and choosing one is difficult, but it’s also part of the fun. You’ll likely leave one you wanted to sample behind because you can only try so much at once. But you know you’ll be back. They offer small-batch craft gourmet popcorn that creates premium gluten-free and nut-free popcorn flavors.
Outside the City Center
While you can spend all day in downtown Lansing and another day exploring Old Town, you’ll also want to venture out a bit, especially if you have the kiddos in tow. One of the best things to do in Lansing, outside those neighborhoods is the zoo.
Potter Park Zoo
I went all the way to Tanzania to see the endangered black rhinoceros. But, I didn’t need to jet to the other side of the world to see endangered species like the black rhinoceros, Amur tiger, red panda, or snow leopard. I can see these and 400 other animals year-round at the Potter Park Zoo. Camel and pony rides, a petting zoo, a picnic area, and a playground provide entertainment for at least half a day. The Lansing River Trail runs nearby, making it a great place to hike or bike from other parts of the city.
Pro Tip: Locals know it’s one place in the city where you can see wild white-tail deer frolicking near the park’s entrance at dusk. It’s the perfect photo opportunity for wildlife photographers.
Wrapping Up the Journey
You’ll find the capital, the campus, and cars when you visit Lansing, Michigan. Include the downtown area and Old Town neighborhood in your visit, but don’t neglect the zoo. With these pro tips from a native Lansingite, you’re sure to leave loving Lansing like a local.
Ready to Go?
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- Need something else to plan your perfect trip? Visit my travel resources page for more trusted partners. Happy wandering!
