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, in my view. I like it!

The most important metropolis in Wisconsin and just 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 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 may have gone wherever. However we select to return dwelling to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

If you wish to know the right way to expertise it like an area, listed below are my insider suggestions:

1. Keep central

I extremely advocate staying downtown or the Third Ward. That is the place many of the common sights are positioned. The inns may be barely costlier than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since all the pieces is walkable.

These are two inns I like:

2. Make the most of free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, nevertheless 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 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 may take pleasure in a few of the metropolis’s finest meals from many distributors, multi functional place and in a enjoyable and inexpensive food-hall ambiance. These are two of my favorites:

• third Avenue Market Corridor – This can be a must-visit vacation spot, because it gives a spot for vacationers and locals alike to take pleasure in Milwaukee’s various delicacies. Right here, you can see 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 – Positioned 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 underneath one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas purchasing or grabbing a chunk.

4. Bask in native delicacies

There are a number of meals that it’s good to attempt that you just (possibly for good purpose) is not going to 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 — get them organized and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our high decide.
• Frozen custard – It might appear like ice cream, nevertheless it’s a lot richer and creamier, with a number of further substances. Kopps is the most effective place for it (and nice burgers) — and in addition a type of locations that, for those who don’t go, did you even go to Milwaukee?
• Bratwursts – One other Milwaukee staple. No one does them at the next 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 record, we’ve solely targeted on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who need to delve deeper into the culinary scene might also need to try our full record of the finest 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 earth. That historical past is obvious 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 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 loads 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, ensure 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 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 collection of distinctive bitter beers.
• Good Metropolis Brewing – There are two areas: the Eastside one affords excursions, and the downtown one doesn’t. However the latter is true throughout the road from Fiserv Discussion board and great spot for a beer earlier than a recreation.

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 – This can be 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 the town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Most of the Milwaukee’s finest outlets and eating places will 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. 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 Completely happy 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 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’s good to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we’ve an in-depth record protecting all the issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Get pleasure from free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s high sights welcome guests without spending a dime 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 joyful hours

For higher or worse, the individuals of Milwaukee take pleasure in 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 joyful 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 happy 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 spending a dime. 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 positioned 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 finances. Hopefully this record gives 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 all over the world. 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 may comply with their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.