Detroit attractions

Detroit’s Belle Isle Aquarium, which opened in 1904, is the oldest public aquarium in the continental US, and among the most beautiful. Along with viewing the freshwater stingrays, reef fish, air-breathing fish, electric eels, and other aquatic animals, you can admire the building itself, which has retained many of its early-20th-century features, including a vaulted ceiling covered in green glass tiles.

The Midwestern city of Detroit may seem like an unlikely place for a maritime museum, until you consider the importance of the Great Lakes in the maritime history of the US. Set on Detroit’s Belle Isle, in the Detroit River, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum highlights the city’s role in regional and national maritime history.