What are the best things to do in Sturgeon Bay, WI?

Walk out to the red Pierhead Front Lighthouse by the Coast Guard station, tour the John Purves tug at the Door County Maritime Museum, spend a rainy hour at the Door County Museum and Archives, and watch the sunset from Sunset Park. Add a winery stop on the north side if the weather turns warm.

Are there free things to do in Sturgeon Bay?

The Door County Museum and Archives lists free admission with donations accepted, and the lighthouse pier and parks cost nothing to enter, though Potawatomi State Park requires a vehicle admission sticker. Visitors to Door Peninsula Winery report free tastings.

Can you go inside the Sturgeon Bay lighthouses?

No. The tower interiors are closed, but the Pierhead pier walkway is open to the public, and the grounds open for the Lighthouse Walk held the second weekend in June.

What is there to do in Sturgeon Bay when it rains?

The Door County Museum and Archives and the Door County Maritime Museum are both indoors and within half a mile of downtown, and Cherry Lanes Arcade Bar has bowling, pinball and arcade games.

Which wineries are near Sturgeon Bay?

Parallel 44, Door Peninsula Winery and Simon Creek sit between about 4.5 and 10 miles north of downtown.

Things to Do in Sturgeon Bay WI: Wine, Parks, Waterfront

Lighthouse piers, a walk-through tug, two museums, three wineries and a pinball bar, sorted by weather and time of day.

Sturgeon Bay is a town that was cut in half on purpose, and almost everything worth doing here follows from that. A ship canal about 1.3 miles long was dug through the peninsula between 1872 and 1881, which is why a lakeside lighthouse, a tug you can walk through and a downtown of museums all sit within about five miles of one another. This guide to things to do in Sturgeon Bay, WI, is built around what that hub of Door County actually holds: lighthouses on a Coast Guard pier, two museums that suit a rainy day, a state park, three wineries on the north side and a few unexpected evenings downtown.

Two limits up front. Hours and tour times shift with the season, so confirm costs and hours with each operator before you go. The places below are the ones we can describe from owners' pages, official sources and visitor reviews, not every attraction in the county.

The canal and the lighthouses

Start where the town started. The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal links the bay to Lake Michigan, and the roughly 1.3 mile cut has no locks, which is part of why the water here feels like one connected harbor. The full story of the cut, its bridges and its shipyards sits with the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, but you can see the best of it in one outing.

Sturgeon Bay Canal Rear Light

Sturgeon Bay Canal Rear Light is a steel skeletal tower from the late 1890s on Canal Road, on the north bank of the canal entrance and about 4.2 miles southeast of downtown. It stands beside an active Coast Guard station, and the inside of the tower is not open. What you get is the view from the grounds outside the marked fences and a short walk from the gate parking area.

Visitors call the tower unlike the usual lighthouse shape and say dusk photographs well. One reviewer drives out for sunrise and sits on the pier listening to the waves.

The walk continues to the red Pierhead Front Lighthouse, about 0.3 miles beyond the rear tower and 4.5 miles from downtown. The light was first lit in May 1882, and the lower concrete breakwall walkway is open to the public while the tower itself is closed. Lighthouse Friends says to park near the station entrance and follow the paved road through the station grounds to the pier. Reviewers add a caution worth heeding: stay on the public path, because signs are thin and the water is close, and one says an older guest managed the walk with care.

For something closer to the middle of town, the paved waterfront walk at Sawyer Park on South Neenah Avenue runs beneath the bridge toward the Coast Guard station, with tugs moored along it, about half a mile from downtown. The park has a six-bay boat launch and a fish cleaning station that one boater praised for its cooler pressure washer.

Two museums for a rainy day

Door County Maritime Museum

Door County Maritime Museum sits on the waterfront at 120 North Madison Avenue, about 0.45 miles from downtown, and is built around a 10-story lighthouse-style tower. Its restored tug, the John Purves, was built in 1919 as the ocean-going Butterfield, served in Bermuda and the Aleutian Islands, and opened as a floating exhibit in 2008. Tours run only with a docent, last about 40 minutes and cover the engine room, crew cabins, galley and wheelhouse.

The museum says tug tours run from May to October, so winter visits are about the galleries, and the tug is not wheelchair accessible. Reviewers describe a long museum, one family staying over four hours and another just under two with toddlers, though one found the video before the tower a bit long for small children.

Door County Museum and Archives

Door County Museum and Archives is on 4th Avenue, about 0.1 miles from downtown, in a building from 1939. A life-size wildlife diorama called Seasons of Life greets you, two main floors follow, and the Pioneer Fire Station holds vintage fire engines. Its own description lists free, self-guided admission with donations accepted.

Visitors call it bigger inside than it looks, one says staff will play old records if you ask, and a family says it saved a rainy vacation day. Hours change by season, so call 920-743-5809 before you go.

Parks, trails and sunsets

Potawatomi State Park

Visitors need a state vehicle admission sticker for Potawatomi State Park, 1,200 acres on the Sturgeon Bay shore about 2.6 miles northwest of downtown. The park lists an accessible boat launch pier, an accessible fishing pier, accessible campsites and a cabin, and it is open 6 AM to 11 PM per Google. Hikers mention the tower trail with lake overlooks and a stretch of the Ice Age Trail.

One reviewer says a couple of wrong turns happened because markers are sparse, and another notes the park gets less attention than the dunes and Cave Point about 20 miles northeast.

The Potawatomi State Park trails and campground get a closer look for anyone sleeping there.

Campers will find other sites around town among the camping options in Sturgeon Bay.

For a free sunset, Sunset Park & Beach is a 41-acre lakefront park about 0.7 miles from downtown with a swimming beach, tennis and basketball courts, a disc golf course and a boat launch. Reviewers describe lots of benches and swings, a loop path, and a good place for July 4th fireworks. One visitor who also tried the Fish Creek beach preferred this one for sunsets.

Wineries on the north side

Sturgeon Bay's wineries sit north of town, between about 4.5 and 10 miles from downtown, and a drive up Highway 42 can cover two in an afternoon. Each has a different pitch.

Door Peninsula Winery

Door Peninsula Winery is at 5806 Highway 42 in Carlsville, about 8.3 miles north of downtown, and Culture Trip calls it the oldest winery in Door County. It has made wine since 1974, from fruit grown locally and across the U.S., and the tasting offers a choice of more than 45 wines. A distillery is attached, and the front shop sells cheese, fudge, olive oils and gifts.

Visitors report free tastings of about three to five samples, and one reviewer says it is the favorite of several wineries they have tried. Try the non-alcoholic wines and mixers, suggests another.

Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery is the nearest, about 4.6 miles from downtown, with grapes planted in 2005. Culture Trip calls it a sister of Door 44 Winery, the two taking a name from the 44th parallel, so confirm which tasting room you are pulling into. It pours tasting flights indoors or outdoors, sells snacks, and runs a Wine Club 44. Reviewers praise the staff's knowledge, one says it is a regular stop on every Door County trip, and one liked visiting in the off season.

Simon Creek Vineyard & Winery on Bochek Road is the farthest, about 10 miles away, billed by Travel Wisconsin as the county's largest vineyard and most modern winery. Its newer self-pour taproom pours bourbon, beer and cocktails, and its own description promises weekly live music in season. One reviewer found the self-pour prices on the high side, about 50 to 70 cents an ounce for beer.

Evenings downtown

Cherry Lanes Arcade Bar

Cherry Lanes Arcade Bar fills a 1929 building on 4th Avenue, once the Congress Recreation Parlors, with four refinished bowling lanes that are scored by hand and first come, first served. The lanes do not meet league specifications. Pinball machines line a wall, including Jersey Jack and Stern tables, and the owner collects them.

Reviewers mention quarter arcade games, call it good for all ages, including a child of five, and mention pizza and affordable drinks. It is also one of the livelier stops among the bars in Sturgeon Bay.

Tambourine Lounge is the quiet counterpart, a small music room that extends the Holiday Music Motel with weekly open mics, house concerts, a record player and a CD jukebox, and a basement sound lab for rehearsal and recording. The Steel Bridge Creative Foundation, which backs Sturgeon Bay's music scene, says it has hosted hundreds of open mics. Visitors call it cozy and good for hearing up-and-coming artists. Its published hours are patchy, so ask before you plan around a night.

Where to eat and where to sleep

The town's signature evening is a supper club, and the Nightingale (about 1.4 miles from downtown), the Mill (about 3.1 miles) and Donny's Glidden Lodge (about 9 miles, on the lake) are the three the county tourism board lists.

The restaurants in Sturgeon Bay are sorted by the kind of evening you want.

Mornings are covered by the breakfast spots in Sturgeon Bay.

Caffeine is easy to find among the coffee shops in Sturgeon Bay, and a quick pie comes from the pizza places in Sturgeon Bay.

Stone Harbor Resort

Stone Harbor Resort is a waterside complex about 0.15 miles from downtown. Its published description mentions two pools, a marina and a restaurant, so confirm those before booking. It puts you within a few minutes' walk of the museums and the downtown bars, which suits a trip without a car.

Reviews are mixed: one guest praised a Mother's Day brunch, while others said rooms felt dated or small for the price. Compare it against the hotels in Sturgeon Bay before you book.

Putting a day together

A rainy day can start at the Door County Museum and Archives, move to the Maritime Museum for the afternoon and finish with pinball at Cherry Lanes, all within half a mile. A dry day runs the other way, with the canal piers in the morning, a state park hike after lunch and sunset on the Sunset Park benches. A wine day needs a designated driver, since the three wineries are spread over about 5.4 miles apart in a straight line.

Season changes the answer. The tug tours stop after October, the Lighthouse Walk that opens the closed grounds is held in the second weekend of June, and winter hours vary by business. Sturgeon Bay started as a cut through the land, and it still rewards anyone who follows the water: from the red pierhead to the tug at the museum, the town keeps pointing back at the canal.