The best way to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native in 2024

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

The next visitor submit is by my pals 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 the town.

Milwaukee is underrated, in my view. I find it irresistible!

The biggest metropolis in Wisconsin and only one.5 hours north of Chicago, it’s the excellent measurement: not too small not too huge. It presents tasty meals and drinks, nice sports activities groups, and enjoyable festivals. Plus, it’s inexpensive. And don’t overlook the pleasant locals!

I’ve lived right here my entire life, and my spouse has lived right here for 20 years. We’ve traveled all over the world many instances, and when it got here time to plant roots and begin a household, we might have gone wherever. However we select to return 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 suggestions:

1. Keep central

I extremely suggest staying downtown or the Third Ward. That is the place many of the fashionable points of interest are situated. The resorts may be barely dearer than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since every little thing is walkable.

These are two resorts I really like:

2. Reap the benefits of free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, nevertheless it does have an incredible free streetcar service known 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: 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 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 (generally quirky) meals traditions and staples, like ButterBurgers and frozen custard.

It additionally has some unimaginable markets, the place you possibly can get pleasure from a few of the metropolis’s greatest meals from many distributors, multi functional place and in a enjoyable and inexpensive food-hall ambiance. These are two of my favorites:

• third Road Market Corridor – This can be a must-visit vacation spot, because it offers a spot for vacationers and locals alike to get pleasure from Milwaukee’s various delicacies. Right here, you’ll discover 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 inexpensive 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 singular spot to expertise the flavors of Milwaukee’s culinary scene, all underneath one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas procuring or grabbing a chew.

4. Bask in native delicacies

There are a number of meals that it’s essential strive that you just (possibly for good cause) is not going to discover many different locations. They’re distinctive, tasty, and total fairly inexpensive!

• Deep-fried cheese curds – Sure, it’s a factor, and they’re superb — get them organized 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 number of additional elements. Kopps is the perfect place for it (and nice burgers) — and likewise a type of locations that, for those who don’t go, did you even go to Milwaukee?
• Bratwursts – One other Milwaukee staple. No person does them at a better stage 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 value of underneath $10.

On this checklist, we have now solely targeted on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who need to delve deeper into the culinary scene might also need to take a look at our full checklist 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 presents most likely the perfect 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 embrace 4 beer samples. That is by far the perfect worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is a variety of enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous fashionable and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets upfront.

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

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery presents excursions and likewise has an incredible 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 presents excursions, and the downtown one doesn’t. However the latter is true 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 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 – This can be a sandy park on the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Carry a towel and go for a swim, take part a sport of seashore volleyball, or seize custard at MooSa’s or lunch at The Dock Waterfront Bar & Grill.
• Stroll the Milwaukee Riverwalk – Expertise the center of the town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Most of the Milwaukee’s greatest outlets 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 presents over 135 miles of trails for biking, a lot of which function scenic views of Lake Michigan. You could find the path map right here.
• Bronze Fonz – Cease to take an image with a bronze sculpture of Arthur Fonzarelli, aka the Fonz, from Blissful Days (a sitcom a few Milwaukee household within the Fifties).
• Indoor garden video games at third Road Market Corridor – Get pleasure from 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 it’s essential fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we have now 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 points of interest welcome guests free of charge on sure days. Watching the calendar can rating you free tickets that in any other case would set your group again tons of.

8. Chase low-cost completely happy 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 evening in Milwaukee, head to the place the locals go: discover a good completely happy 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 – Blissful 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 that you could go to free of charge. Most of those items are in a few 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 outlets.
• 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.

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 checklist gives 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 all over the world. Once they aren’t touring the world, Milwaukee is the place you’ll discover them, and so they cowl their hometown in-depth on the web site Milwaukee Insider. You possibly can observe their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.