With coastline on four of the five Great Lakes, Michigan was directly on the canoe routes that were the superhighways of the 1600s. Water is also the primary reason travelers go to Michigan Nowadays. While the state has vast forests, stretches of farmland, large cities and small towns, it is water that separates Michigan from the other states -- both physically and in terms of vacation opportunities. visitors have to travel to the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans to find better conditions for boating, fishing, swimming or simply taking in the shoreline scenery. Even then, Michigan can hold its own: It has far more land along the big water than most states on the East or West Coast.