How you can 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, in my view. 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 gives tasty meals and drinks, nice sports activities groups, and enjoyable festivals. Plus, it’s reasonably priced. And don’t neglect the pleasant locals!

I’ve lived right here my entire life, and my spouse has lived right here for 20 years. We’ve traveled around the globe many instances, 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 expertise it like a neighborhood, listed below are my insider ideas:

1. Keep central

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

These are two resorts I really like:

2. Make the most of free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, however 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 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 provide free shuttles to American Household Area 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 unimaginable markets, the place you may get pleasure from among 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 Avenue Market Corridor – It is a must-visit vacation spot, because it gives a spot for vacationers and locals alike to get pleasure from Milwaukee’s numerous delicacies. Right here, you will see 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 – Situated 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 beneath one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas purchasing or grabbing a chew.

4. Take pleasure in native delicacies

There are a couple of meals that it’s essential strive that you just (perhaps for good purpose) won’t 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 superb — organize them and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our prime choose.
• Frozen custard – It could appear like ice cream, however it’s a lot richer and creamier, with a couple of additional elements. Kopps is the perfect place for it (and nice burgers) — and likewise a kind of locations that, in case you 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 recognized for its superb house-made sausages, together with vegan choices, with many at an reasonably priced worth of beneath $10.

On this checklist, we’ve solely targeted on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who wish to delve deeper into the culinary scene may additionally wish 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 the earth. That historical past is clear throughout city in breweries, eating places, and pubs.

Lakefront Brewery gives in all probability the perfect brewery tour within the metropolis. It’s much more enjoyable than simply shiny tanks and sniffing a pungent jar crammed with 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 the perfect worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is a number 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, make certain to take a look at a couple of different of my favourite Milwaukee breweries:

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery gives excursions and likewise has an ideal 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 number of distinctive bitter beers.
• Good Metropolis Brewing – There are two places: the Eastside one gives excursions, and the downtown one doesn’t. However the latter is correct throughout the road from Fiserv Discussion board and great spot for a beer earlier than a sport.

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 sport 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. Lots of the Milwaukee’s greatest outlets and eating places might 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 gives over 135 miles of trails for biking, a lot of which function scenic views of Lake Michigan. You’ll find the path map right here.
• Bronze Fonz – Cease to take an image with a bronze sculpture of Arthur Fonzarelli, aka the Fonz, from Pleased Days (a sitcom a couple of Milwaukee household within the Fifties).
• Indoor garden video games at third Avenue Market Corridor – Get pleasure from a wide range 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’ve an in-depth checklist protecting all the issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Get pleasure from free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s prime points of interest 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 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 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 – Pleased 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 among 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 internationally 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 price range. Hopefully this checklist will provide you with 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 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 may comply with their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.