Learn how to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native in 2024

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

The next visitor publish is by my associates 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 tips on visiting the town.

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

The most important metropolis in Wisconsin and only one.5 hours north of Chicago, it’s the excellent dimension: not too small not too large. It affords tasty meals and drinks, nice sports activities groups, and enjoyable festivals. Plus, it’s inexpensive. And don’t neglect 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 occasions, and when it got here time to plant roots and begin a household, we may have gone wherever. However we select to come back house to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

If you wish to know find out how to expertise it like an area, listed here are my insider suggestions:

1. Keep central

I extremely suggest staying downtown or the Third Ward. That is the place a lot of the standard sights are positioned. The lodges may be barely dearer than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since every thing is walkable.

These are two lodges I really like:

2. Benefit from free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, nevertheless it does have an incredible 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 occasions and each 20 minutes off-peak and weekends. Click on right here for the map and schedule.

Insider tip: In case you are heading to a sporting occasion, many bars and eating places supply free shuttles to American Household Discipline for Brewer baseball video games and concert events, Summerfest Grounds for festivals and concert events, Fiserv Discussion board for Bucks basketball video games, and different occasions round city.
 

3. Eat like an area

You may assume 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 (generally quirky) meals traditions and staples, like ButterBurgers and frozen custard.

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

• third Road Market Corridor – It is a must-visit vacation spot, because it offers a spot for vacationers and locals alike to take pleasure in Milwaukee’s various delicacies. Right here, you will see the aforementioned frozen custard, plus pho, pizza, burgers, artisan sandwiches, tacos, sizzling canine, home-cooked meals, ramen, sushi, arepas, and a lot extra — all at inexpensive costs.
• Milwaukee Public Market – Situated within the historic Third Ward, this superior market is the most effective place to patronize all kinds of distributors with distinctive merchandise, meals choices, and drink pairings. It’s a singular spot to expertise the flavors of Milwaukee’s culinary scene, all below one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas procuring or grabbing a chew.

4. Take pleasure in native delicacies

There are a couple of meals that it is advisable to attempt that you simply (perhaps for good cause) won’t discover many different locations. They’re distinctive, tasty, and general fairly inexpensive!

• Deep-fried cheese curds – Sure, it’s a factor, and they’re superb — organize them and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our high decide.
• Frozen custard – It might appear to be ice cream, nevertheless it’s a lot richer and creamier, with a couple of further substances. Kopps is the most effective place for it (and nice burgers) — and in addition a type of locations that, if you happen to don’t go, did you even go to Milwaukee?
• Bratwursts – One other Milwaukee staple. No person does them at a better degree than Vanguard Restaurant within the Bayview neighborhood. It’s best identified for its superb house-made sausages, together with vegan choices, with many at an inexpensive worth of below $10.

On this checklist, we’ve got solely centered on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who need to delve deeper into the culinary scene may need to take a look at our full checklist of the finest eating places in Milwaukee.
 

5. Discover brewing historical past

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

Lakefront Brewery affords in all probability the most effective brewery tour within the metropolis. It’s much more enjoyable than simply taking a look at 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 embody 4 beer samples. That is by far the most effective worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is lots of enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous standard and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets prematurely.

If you wish to preserve sampling native beers, ensure that to take a look at a couple of different of my favourite Milwaukee breweries:

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery affords excursions and in addition has an amazing 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 collection 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 excellent place for a beer earlier than a sport.

6. Do some inexpensive actions

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

• Bradford Seaside – It is a sandy park on the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Convey a towel and go for a swim, take part a sport of seaside volleyball, or seize custard at MooSa’s or lunch at The Dock Waterfront Bar & Grill.
• Stroll the Milwaukee Riverwalk – Expertise the guts of the town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Most of the Milwaukee’s finest retailers and eating places could be discovered alongside the three-mile route alongside each 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 characteristic scenic views of Lake Michigan. Yow 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 Joyful Days (a sitcom a couple of Milwaukee household within the Nineteen Fifties).
• Indoor garden video games at third Road Market Corridor – Get pleasure from a wide range of distinctive eating places and free indoor video games, together with big 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 it is advisable to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we’ve got an in-depth checklist overlaying all the issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Get pleasure from free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s high sights welcome guests without cost on sure days. Watching the calendar can rating you free tickets that in any other case would set your group again lots of.

8. Chase low-cost completely satisfied hours

For higher or worse, the folks of Milwaukee take pleasure in their enjoyable occasions 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 completely satisfied 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 – Joyful hour specials change every day (Mon–Fri 3-6pm).

9. Discover the colourful public artwork scene

Many locations round city have large-scale public artwork shows which you can go to without cost. 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 positioned 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 internationally on Wisconsin Avenue. Some are everlasting and a few are modified out yearly, so there are all the time new issues to see.

From meals to free days and bratwurst to beer, Milwaukee has a ton of issues to do and see on a funds. Hopefully this checklist offers you a good suggestion of the place to start out!

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. After 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 may comply with their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.