Notre Dame alums bring glamping to South Haven

SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. --- Two Notre Dame graduates are bringing glamping to Lake Michigan. The luxury campsite titled “Off Map” had it’s official opening in South Haven last week.

The site is located just minutes away from beaches, trails, and wineries. The idea came about almost two years ago after Sam Shaley shared his experience of traveling through national parks for six months straight.

Co-founders Sam Shaley and Mike Doyle graduated from Notre Dame back in 2012 realized the trendy spin added a unique luxury aspect to traditional camping and began the process of securing the land to house the site of canvas tents.

“We were looking for land for off map before COVID all happened. We were living in Chicago at the time so we started looking kind of a 3 or 4 hour radius of Chicago just so we could easily get around to look at land while you know travel was otherwise a little bit difficult," said Doyle.

“Our goal is basically that folks can have kind of an adventure but without flying 6 hours away. We’ve tried to keep things kind of spread out and give people a lot of places to explore while at the same time once you’re in your tent it’s nice and cozy and it’s got a much different feel from being in a hotel or an RV or you know camping on the ground," said Shaley.

The team has hopes to continue expanding in the Midwest with another property in the near future and has plans to operate in early May through mid October.