Find out how to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native in 2024

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

The next visitor publish 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 the town.

Milwaukee is underrated, for my part. I find it irresistible!

The biggest metropolis in Wisconsin and just one.5 hours north of Chicago, it’s the excellent measurement: not too small not too huge. It provides 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 complete life, and my spouse has lived right here for 20 years. We’ve traveled around the globe many occasions, and when it got here time to plant roots and begin a household, we might have gone anyplace. However we select to return residence to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

If you wish to know easy methods to expertise it like a neighborhood, listed here are my insider suggestions:

1. Keep central

I extremely advocate staying downtown or the Third Ward. That is the place a lot of the common sights are situated. The motels is perhaps barely dearer than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since all the things is walkable.

These are two motels I really like:

2. Reap the benefits of free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, nevertheless it does have a tremendous 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 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 provide free shuttles to American Household Subject 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 a neighborhood

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 unbelievable markets, the place you possibly can take pleasure in a few of the metropolis’s greatest meals from many distributors, multi functional place and in a enjoyable and inexpensive food-hall environment. These are two of my favorites:

• third Avenue Market Corridor – It is a must-visit vacation spot, because it gives a spot for vacationers and locals alike to take pleasure in Milwaukee’s numerous delicacies. Right here, one can find the aforementioned frozen custard, plus pho, pizza, burgers, artisan sandwiches, tacos, scorching canines, 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 one of the best 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 it’s essential 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 wonderful — organize them and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our high choose.
• Frozen custard – It could seem like ice cream, nevertheless it’s a lot richer and creamier, with a number of further substances. Kopps is one of the best place for it (and nice burgers) — and in addition a type of locations that, when you don’t go, did you even go to Milwaukee?
• Bratwursts – One other Milwaukee staple. No person does them at the next degree than Vanguard Restaurant within the Bayview neighborhood. It’s best identified for its wonderful house-made sausages, together with vegan choices, with many at an inexpensive worth of underneath $10.

On this listing, we now have solely centered on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who wish to delve deeper into the culinary scene might also wish to try our full listing 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 the planet. That historical past is clear throughout city in breweries, eating places, and pubs.

Lakefront Brewery provides in all probability one of the best brewery tour within the metropolis. It’s much more enjoyable than simply shiny tanks and sniffing a pungent jar full of hops. The tour guides are hilarious (some are actually comedians from a neighborhood membership), and your tour will embody 4 beer samples. That is by far one of the best worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is a variety of enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous common and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets upfront.

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

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery provides excursions and in addition has an important taproom with tasty pizzas, in addition to actually good IPAs and bitter beers.
• Eagle Park Brewing Firm – They don’t provide excursions, however they do have an enormous choice of distinctive bitter beers.
• Good Metropolis Brewing – There are two areas: the Eastside one provides 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 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 Seaside – It is a sandy park on the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Deliver 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. Lots 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 provides over 135 miles of trails for biking, lots of which characteristic 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 Completely satisfied Days (a sitcom a few Milwaukee household within the Nineteen Fifties).
• Indoor garden video games at third Avenue 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 to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we now have an in-depth listing masking all the issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Get pleasure from free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s high sights welcome guests at no cost on sure days. Watching the calendar can rating you free tickets that in any other case would set your group again a whole lot.

8. Chase low cost blissful hours

For higher or worse, the individuals 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 blissful 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 – Completely satisfied 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 could go to at no cost. Most of those items are in a few of the most enjoyable and stylish 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 at all times 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 listing provides you with 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 around the globe. 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 possibly can observe their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.