Find out how to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native

Posted: 3/15/2024 | March fifteenth, 2024

The next visitor put up is by my buddies Adam from the web site Getting Stamped. He and his spouse are very long time residents of Milwaukee and, since I’ve by no means been, I’ve invited him on to share some recommendations on visiting town.

Milwaukee is underrated, for my part. I adore it!

The biggest metropolis in Wisconsin and just one.5 hours north of Chicago, it’s the good dimension: not too small not too large. It affords tasty meals and drinks, nice sports activities groups, and enjoyable festivals. Plus, it’s reasonably priced. And don’t overlook the pleasant locals!

I’ve lived right here my complete life, and my spouse has lived right here for 20 years. We’ve traveled world wide many instances, and when it got here time to plant roots and begin a household, we might have gone anyplace. However we select to come back dwelling to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

If you wish to know learn how to expertise it like an area, listed here are my insider ideas:

 

1. Keep central

I extremely advocate staying downtown or the Third Ward. That is the place many of the common sights are situated. The motels could be barely dearer than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since every part is walkable.

These are two motels I really like:

• Vacation Inn Specific Milwaukee Downtown – This resort is situated inside strolling distance of Lake Michigan, Fiserv Discussion board, Deer District, and the Milwaukee Public Market, in addition to quite a few eating places.
• Cambria Resort Milwaukee Downtown – This contemporary resort with good visitor rooms and facilities is located proper between Downtown and the Third Ward.

 

2. Reap the benefits of free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, however it does have a tremendous free streetcar service referred to as the Hop, with quite a few stops downtown and across the Third Ward space. Merely hop on and off — no tickets or reservations are wanted! The Hop runs each quarter-hour throughout peak instances and each 20 minutes off-peak and weekends. Click on right here for the map and schedule.

Insider tip: If you’re heading to a sporting occasion, many bars and eating places supply free shuttles to American Household Subject for Brewer baseball video games and live shows, Summerfest Grounds for festivals and live shows, Fiserv Discussion board for Bucks basketball video games, and different occasions round city.
 

3. Eat like an area

You would possibly suppose Milwaukee’s all beer and cheese (and there’s no scarcity of these), however the meals scene has much more to supply. Milwaukee has its personal (typically quirky) meals traditions and staples, like ButterBurgers and frozen custard.

It additionally has some unbelievable markets, the place you’ll be able to get pleasure from a number of the metropolis’s greatest meals from many distributors, multi functional place and in a enjoyable and reasonably priced food-hall environment. These are two of my favorites:

• third Road Market Corridor – It is a must-visit vacation spot, because it supplies a spot for vacationers and locals alike to get pleasure from Milwaukee’s numerous delicacies. Right here, you’ll find the aforementioned frozen custard, plus pho, pizza, burgers, artisan sandwiches, tacos, scorching canine, home-cooked meals, ramen, sushi, arepas, and a lot extra — all at reasonably priced costs.
• Milwaukee Public Market – Positioned within the historic Third Ward, this superior market is the perfect place to patronize all kinds of distributors with distinctive merchandise, meals choices, and drink pairings. It’s a novel spot to expertise the flavors of Milwaukee’s culinary scene, all underneath one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas buying or grabbing a chunk.

 

4. Take pleasure in native delicacies

There are a number of meals that you want to strive that you just (possibly for good motive) is not going to discover many different locations. They’re distinctive, tasty, and general fairly reasonably priced!

• Deep-fried cheese curds – Sure, it’s a factor, and they’re wonderful — organize them and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our high choose.
• Frozen custard – It might appear to be ice cream, however it’s a lot richer and creamier, with a number of further elements. Kopps is the perfect place for it (and nice burgers) — and in addition a kind of locations that, in the event you don’t go, did you even go to Milwaukee?
• Bratwursts – One other Milwaukee staple. No one does them at a better stage than Vanguard Restaurant within the Bayview neighborhood. It’s best recognized for its wonderful house-made sausages, together with vegan choices, with many at an reasonably priced value of underneath $10.

On this record, now we have solely centered on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who wish to delve deeper into the culinary scene might also wish to take a look at our full record of the greatest eating places in Milwaukee.
 

5. Discover brewing historical past

Whereas microbreweries aren’t precisely a brand new development, Milwaukee has been brewing since earlier than it was cool. At one time, it brewed extra beer than any metropolis on this planet. That historical past is clear throughout city in breweries, eating places, and pubs.

Lakefront Brewery affords most likely the perfect brewery tour within the metropolis. It’s much more enjoyable than simply shiny tanks and sniffing a pungent jar stuffed with hops. The tour guides are hilarious (some are actually comedians from an area membership), and your tour will embrace 4 beer samples. That is by far the perfect worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is numerous enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous common and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets prematurely.

If you wish to hold sampling native beers, make sure that to take a look at a number of different of my favourite Milwaukee breweries:

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery affords excursions and in addition has an ideal taproom with tasty pizzas, in addition to actually good IPAs and bitter beers.
• Eagle Park Brewing Firm – They don’t supply excursions, however they do have an enormous choice of distinctive bitter beers.
• Good Metropolis Brewing – There are two places: the Eastside one affords excursions, and the downtown one doesn’t. However the latter is correct throughout the road from Fiserv Discussion board and good spot for a beer earlier than a recreation.

 

6. Do some reasonably priced actions

Milwaukee has far more to do than we might squeeze onto this web page, however we’ve narrowed it down, specializing in must-do and budget-friendly choices (some are even free!):

• Bradford Seashore – It is a sandy park on the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Carry a towel and go for a swim, take part a recreation of seaside volleyball, or seize custard at MooSa’s or lunch at The Dock Waterfront Bar & Grill.
• Stroll the Milwaukee Riverwalk – Expertise the center of town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Most of the Milwaukee’s greatest retailers and eating places might be discovered alongside the three-mile route alongside either side of the Milwaukee River.
• Disc-golf at Milwaukee County Parks – Milwaukee has 11 disc-golf programs — six full ones ($5) and 5 short-practice ones (free).
• Bike the Oak Leaf Path – Milwaukee County affords over 135 miles of trails for biking, lots of which function scenic views of Lake Michigan. You will discover the path map right here.
• Bronze Fonz – Cease to take an image with a bronze sculpture of Arthur Fonzarelli, aka the Fonz, from Comfortable Days (a sitcom a couple of Milwaukee household within the Fifties).
• Indoor garden video games at third Road Market Corridor – Take pleasure in quite a lot of distinctive eating places and free indoor video games, together with large Jenga, cornhole, shuffleboard, and golf simulators. It’s a enjoyable place, particularly when the climate isn’t nice!

After you’ve scoured this information, if you want to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, now we have an in-depth record overlaying all the issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Take pleasure in free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s high sights welcome guests totally free on sure days. Watching the calendar can rating you free tickets that in any other case would set your group again lots of.

• Milwaukee Zoo – Household Free Days are one Saturday per thirty days. Examine the schedule for upcoming dates.
• Milwaukee Public Museum – Free first Thursdays (10am–3pm).
• Villa Terrace Ornamental Arts Museum – Free first Wednesdays (1–5pm).
• Charles Allis Artwork Museum – Free first Thursdays (10am–5pm).

 

8. Chase low cost comfortable hours

For higher or worse, the folks of Milwaukee get pleasure from their enjoyable instances intertwined with a beer or three. To kick off an thrilling night time in Milwaukee, head to the place the locals go: discover a good comfortable hour, or go to a budget-friendly dive bar.

• McGillycuddy’s – $1 faucets, $2 craft beers, $4 rails and mixers, and $5 appetizers (Tuesday–Friday, 3–7pm).
• Mo’s Irish Pub – $2.72 drafts, $5 wines (Tues–Thurs 4–6pm, Fridays 3–6pm); additionally free brewery shuttles.
• Milwaukee Brat Home – Comfortable hour specials change day by day (Mon–Fri 3-6pm).

 

9. Discover the colourful public artwork scene

Many locations round city have large-scale public artwork shows you can go to totally free. Most of those items are in a number of the most enjoyable and classy areas. These are a few our favorites:

• Black Cat Alley – One of many largest areas devoted to public murals is situated close to North Avenue, within the Eastside neighborhood. Along with the artwork, you’ll additionally discover nice eating places, breweries, and artisanal retailers.
• Sculpture Milwaukee – Yearly, this city-funded program shows sculptures by artists from the world over on Wisconsin Avenue. Some are everlasting and a few are modified out yearly, so there are all the time new issues to see.

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From meals to free days and bratwurst to beer, Milwaukee has a ton of issues to do and see on a price range. Hopefully this record offers you a good suggestion of the place to begin!

Hannah & Adam Lukaszewicz are full-time journey writers and run the journey web site Getting Stamped, which is devoted to firsthand guides to their favourite locations world wide. Once they aren’t touring the world, Milwaukee is the place you’ll discover them, they usually cowl their hometown in-depth on the web site Milwaukee Insider. You possibly can comply with their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.

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