“Whether you plan to enjoy a day of fishing, or a night on the town, relax for a weekend or bask in our sun for the season; once you visit Put-in-Bay, you’ll be hooked for life,” reads the Put-in-Bay tourist pamphlet and that is a sufficient how-do-you-do to this Lake Erie resort island, the self-declared “Poor Man’s Nantucket.”
Lake Erie’s western basin has a sprinkling of resort islands, some even in international waters, but Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island has to be its best advertised. The road to Sandusky, Put-in-Bay’s port of departure, sports billboards for bars with names like P.J. Shenanigans or Time Out, as well as some general tourist signs. Early on I realized that for a day spent at Put-in-Bay, I would not have to create my own fun. That is the essence of entertainment.
Put-in-Bay is reached by ferry and this is certainly one of its hippest features. Roundtrip for the ferry is ten dollars (five each way). My Put-in-Bay travel tip is to buy fare for both ways on the mainland since things on the island are pricey and everyone I was with inadvertently spent all their money there and I can only thank our lucky stars we made it back without having to swab the ferry decks or use an ATM machine with a double-digit service charge.
Waiting in line for the ferry, I imagined a ride full of fruit eating and general gaiety, Edna St. Vincent Millay style. However once the Islander pulled from the dock we were hit by a Lake Erie squall, and when the wind speed quadrupled — in a horrible showing of manliness — my ferrymates and I refused to go inside the ferry cabin and over the course of the 18 minute ride our faces all became quite chapped.
The small but well populated island really works its resort status. The ferry deposits its passengers as far from the town of Put-in Bay as possible, and right by a golf cart rental shop. Rental fees are $20, but if you go down the road a short bit, there is a smaller golf cart rental shop that rents them for $18. I would recommend not going down the road though because my friends and I rented a budget golf cart, a stalwart four-seater named Gibraltar, and the higher end golf carts passed us all day.
Riding around a small island in Lake Erie on a golf cart was a tremendous amount of fun. The island is mostly flat, the sun was out and the tree-lined roads made for fine Sunday driving. Things, even small things, seem like much more fun when you are on a little island in Lake Erie.
The tourist season does not officially begin until May 1 and upon our arrival in town, most shops, restaurants and bars were closed. Parking Gibraltar was no sweat though, because golf carts have car status at Put-in-Bay, possibly to discourage drunk driving. Tourist season or not, there were quite a few people hanging around and a wedding celebration in a nearby park. At one of the open bars, my party and I were able to shoot a few games of pool and share a resort-priced pitcher of MGD to an attractive view of the bay. Activity along the strip picks up in the next weeks, I’m told.
Visitors should visit the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Monument, a surprisingly tall tower with observation deck on a spit of land near town. South Bass Island played a key role in Oliver Hazard Perry (of “We have met the enemy and they are ours…” fame) routing the British navy in the War of 1812, and island history resides mostly around the monument. Also at the small hutch near the monument is a display in which you can touch a real cannonball.
Two asides detracted from the day. First, the lakewater is quite brackish. This may be due to the spring turnover, but Lake Erie has a bad reputation for pollution. The second is the cooling tower to a nuclear power plant looming on the lake’s western shore.
Put-in -Bay made for a fine old day. The island offers fishing, boating, camping, nightlife, historical stops and watersports. Due to the weather, I saw all of these things except the watersports. Though on that note I will say when a ferry docks everyone makes for the bathroom with a quickness.