A few years ago Daniel told Todd and I that one of his travel dreams is to see all of the water in the world and how it’s different. Todd and I LOVE the water and decided make this a family travel dream! When we set out to visit Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan in the summer of 2016, one of the things we looked forward to most was experiencing all the beaches.

We visited over 20 beaches on the lakes and rated all of them for sand, water clarity, size, access, atmosphere, and shallow water for swimming. What follows are our top picks!...