As part of a long driving vacation to Nova Scotia we are thinking of stopping to see the Henry Ford Museum over a Saturday-Sunday.
Staying at a Best Western in Allen Park that provides a shuttle back and forth.
Arriving Friday night, leaving Monday morning.

Any must try places to eat close by?

Any places or areas to avoid?

Crossing the border on Monday morning in Detroit never been their before, what to expect or times to avoid?
Should we go further North to a different crossing?

Other tips?

Thanks In Advance!!!

The Henry Ford Museum has 3 big pieces:
The Henry Ford Museum - a kind of Smithsonian in one building, heavy on American technology.  some pretty impressive cars, trains,                             and airplanes.

Thanks that's the kind of info I am looking for.
We are going to be there All day Saturday and Sunday leaving Monday morning.

Over in GD it was mentioned that we may want to go a little out of the way to a different border crossing.
Any thoughts on that?
We are trying to get to Niagara Falls that day in time to take it in Monday afternoon so I want to make good time.
No kids just the wife and I!!

You could avoid the mess of Detroit (perhaps a good idea due to all the "diversity" "protesting" everywhere right now) and go north a bit to Port Huron and cross into Canada at the Blue Water Bridge. It adds a couple hours to your drive through MI but from there it's a relatively straight shot east to Niagara Falls.

Dearborn to Port Huron right around 1 hour non rush hour times.

So I would have said avoid Detroit, Dearborn, and Allen park, but apparently you're going there, sooo...



Places to eat, depends what you like to eat.  Southfield is just right north of Dearborn, there is a place called Nikola, it's owned by a fellow arfcommer and probably one of the best BBQ restaurants.   Another competitor that is real popular is Slows in Detroit.



Dearborn here as the nickname of Little Iraq, you'll see what I mean.





Where else in this state are you going?

That's it as far as places in Michigan, Arriving on Friday night, Henry Ford on Saturday/Sunday, crossing over to Canada on Monday.
I really want to see the Henry Ford Museum.... Sad that all this crap is going on right now.
From the sounds of it probably be eating at the museum most of the time......
Niagara Falls Monday afternoon then on to Nova Scotia for the next 6-7 days.
Cross back into the US in Maine, stop at a friends for a couple of Days in Connecticut and back to KC.

Ever been to the Henry Ford museum and greenfield village?

I live only a few blocks east from your intended hotel.  Don't let anybody discourage you,  this neighborhood is very safe for everything except your tie rods and ball joints.  If you head towards Oakwood from your hotel,  those potholes will swallow a smart car.  

It's been forever since I've been to either Greenfield or the Henry Ford,  but they are certainly great family friendly stops.  That part of Dearborn isn't too bad since it's almost all Ford property.  

What kind of food do you like?  I assume you want to avoid chains?  There is a fantastic Italian deli called Alcamo's on Schaefer in Dearborn,  about four miles from your hotel.  

Border crossing...  Avoid high traffic times.  You are probably better off with the tunnel, since it doesn't handle trucks.  After 3pm,  I'd just drive to Port Huron and try your luck up there.  When I was working in Detroit,  I drove under the Ambassador bridge every day and it was a disaster.  I'd say 10am is probably an ideal target time to cross.  

Edit to add;  Protestors don't wake up early enough to bother you being in downtown Detroit in the morning.  I was in midtown the other day for lunch and nary a peep was heard.

I work downtown Detroit. Have not seen any BLM silliness, yet. Lots of millenials working for Dan Gilbert walking around taking pics of themselves. Some good restaurants down here. Agree with suggestion to cross thru tunnel.

You should be alright, Dearborn isn't the best area but it isn't a warzone, yet anyway.  It does have the highest population of muslims outside the Middle East and their police have be known to go sharia on occasion (I remember an incident when they banned non muslims from entering some public festival on a public street) but so far no beheadings or anything, I figure it is just a matter of time, but for now you should be safe.

Detroit is another story, avoid it, especially at night, if you must pass through it get gas beforehand so you don't have to stop (both because of crime and horrible near unnavigable and congested streets) and stick to the freeways, as long as you don't break down you should be thug free, if you breakdown you have about 10 minutes before their on you so hurry.  If you must see the city stick to the greenzone (the area enclosed by the people mover tracks near Ford Feild) and stick to the daytime and you should be OK but parking is a bitch down their and no gaurantees your car or your stuff will be there when you return.  The food in Greektown is pretty good, pick any restaurant, but remember what I said.

Dearborn has falafel and just about any other Middle Eastern food you could possibly want to try but atleast some of the restaurants there have been raided in the past for funnaling money to terrorists so, there is that.

I would recomend Mallies in Southgate if you like gigantic burgers, The Bread Basket in Livonia if you like Deli Sandwiches, and Coney Islands are classics, as you can see I am not really a foodie.

And here we go again...

Yup.

I should IM OP my number though.  I've been working long hours pretty far away from home,  but I should be either in Detroit or near his hotel the whole time he is in town and I honestly never have issues in Detroit...  Though caucasian aside,  I look like I belong there,  so perhaps that helps.  

Detroit has it's rough parts,  but you really have to purposely go to them.  Between your hotel and the tunnel,  you should be fine.

As a local, it's sounds kinda crazy to hear Port Huron recommended as an alternative to a Detroit crossing. Are the wait times really that long to cross in Detroit?

Depends on when you get there. At 6am, the traffic starts to slow things down. I have passed over the bridge and through the tunnel in minutes a few times. I have been delayed for up to an hour and a half a few times, but then again, I have experienced the same with Port Huron. It's one of those YMMV type things.

It's not so much the wait, although that can be a problem, as it is the area one must traverse to get to the crossings in Detroit. Now, there are those who try to tell others that Detroit is safe and no big deal, but they tend to be younger and/or suburbanites and/or hipster types who really don't know any better. The nightly news is constantly full of random murders and other such niceties throughout the city. West side, east side, downtown, it doesn't matter- people get murdered right outside the casinos and robbed coming and going the sports stadiums, and these are the supposed safe parts of the city. And keep in mind these are only the incidents police, and thus media, are made are of, which in reality are just a small slice of what's actually occurring over there. One may as well try to convince others about the "good parts" of Africa, contrary to all common sense and knowledge, experience and history. Funny, no one packs up and moves there, either.

I assumed it was about the wait because tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people cross the borders in Detroit each day with zero problems related to anything you are describing.

Well, thousands of people fly in and out of Baghdad International Airport every day, too, but that hardly makes the city a smart safe place to hang around if you don't need to be there, especially if you're not a, you know, "local".

I might have only just moved back to Michigan,  but I grew up around here.  Sure,  people have been murdered in downtown and midtown,  but they also get murdered in Ann Arbor too.  I wouldn't advise him to wander into neighborhoods that I've worked in with his family in tow,  but downtown Detroit is likely just as dangerous as Kansas City, in which the OP is probably accustomed to dealing with it's rough edges.  

Besides,  being inside of his car during the day in downtown to cross the border is nothing like wandering around Highland Park at night.

The Detroit-haters in this thread are hilarious. I bet not one of them has set foot in Detroit for 10 years, yet they're spewing this bullshit like it's even remotely true. As for -db- and S_A_C and whoever else, please, keep posting your bullshit. It's funny to read and I feel bad for you poor suckers.

I fought this battle in another thread. OP, downtown Detroit is just fine. Even more so if you're driving. Unlike what these morons are telling you, you won't have a single issue crossing into Canada at either border crossing.

Agreed on all points.

This.

To hear some of these Detroit apologists it have no problems and the ghettoes are full of $500,000 condos not $20 burned out crack shacks.

Yep, totally safe, not at all like a hellhole.  Looks perfectly safe:



They mostly come out at night...mostly...


And yes, their recent.  Yeah, real great neighborhoods...  Real reaestate boom... Great schools too...  Totaly safe...  Ociania has always been at war with Eastasia...

The reason we do not go into Detroit if we can avoid it is because we are not stupid, massochists itching to get into a gunfight, or suicidal.  I lived right on the border with Detroit up until 2 years ago by the way and have been in the near suburbs most of my life, I know better than to cross the DMZ unless it's unavoidable.

I live 3 miles from the Detroit border and I haven't had the problems you talk about. I'm not saying there aren't any problems, but some common sense and situational awareness are all you need. Someone traveling through isn't going to have an issue. And neither will hundreds of thousands of other people.

It's time to lay off with your nonsense about how anyone who visits Detroit has a death wish and will more than likely be attacked. It's simply not true at all.

I never said they WILL get attacked only that the risk is severely elevated and that it is not worth it, and yes frankly if you choose to deny that risk and pretend that hanging around in Detroit is no more dangerouse than Livonia, Ferndale, Royal Oak, or Grosse Pointe you probably do have a death wish, or want a Darwin Award.  To losten to some of the Detroit defenders/apologists in here Detroit is perfectly safe and is a ritzy upper class gated community, it is not, it is better than 65% ABANDONED (Detroit used to have over 2,000,000 people living in it, today it is less than 700,000) with a crumbling delapidated infrastructure and what is left is mostly very, very high crime ghetto with a marginal urban core (the green zone, I.E. the area inside the people mover track) and a few scattered decent neighborhoods where the city elites live and inefficiency and open corruption is rampant.  In 2015 the murder rate was 45/100,0000 and violent crime was at a staggering 2,072/100,000, and property crime is litterally off the charts.  The murder rate is actually statistically about equal to or slightly higher than BAGHDAD on average, to give you some perspective, and Detroit has far fewer people and for the moment no terrorism like Baghdad.  So yes, you should feel perfectly safe in Detroit, that is if you are also the kind of person who would feel safe in Baghdad, alone, without backup and only a postol and a T-shirt to protect you.  Those are real numbers, feel free to verify them.

Having worked throughout Detroit over a decade ago as a cable guy,  back when there wasn't a "nice" part and the only safe place to be was the Ren Cen,  and having worked at a machine shop south of Seven Mile,  I'll be honest that there are places you shouldn't be touristing through Detroit.  My brother and I own a few properties in Detroit and we show up to work on them with AR-15s.  I wouldn't bring a date to those neighborhoods.  

I am willing to bring a date to Belle Isle,  Midtown,  Downtown,  Rivertown and Corktown,  areas in which crime is low enough that I can still have fun.  
You know what is really interesting to see?  Highland Park is now turned into the poor artist district.  I would almost bank on it that in 10 years,  it will be the place in Detroit where people can't afford houses.  

Are you carrying?    Canada is NOT gun owner friendly.   Nor are some of the NE states.