The right way to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native in 2024

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

The next visitor put up 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 tips on visiting town.

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

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 reasonably priced. 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 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 come back residence to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

If you wish to know tips on how to expertise it like a neighborhood, listed below are my insider suggestions:

1. Keep central

I extremely suggest staying downtown or the Third Ward. That is the place many of the well-liked points of interest are positioned. The motels could be barely dearer than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since every part is walkable.

These are two motels I really like:

2. Benefit from free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, but it surely 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 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 would possibly 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 (typically quirky) meals traditions and staples, like ButterBurgers and frozen custard.

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

• third Avenue 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 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 reasonably priced 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 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. Bask in native delicacies

There are just a few meals that it’s essential to attempt that you just (possibly for good cause) 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 might seem like ice cream, but it surely’s a lot richer and creamier, with just a few additional elements. Kopps is the most effective place for it (and nice burgers) — and in addition a kind of locations that, in the event you 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 recognized for its superb house-made sausages, together with vegan choices, with many at an reasonably priced value of underneath $10.

On this checklist, we’ve got solely centered on the Milwaukee favorites, however foodies who need to delve deeper into the culinary scene can 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 provides 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 crammed with hops. The tour guides are hilarious (some are actually comedians from a neighborhood membership), and your tour will embrace 4 beer samples. That is by far the most effective worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is a number of enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous well-liked and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets prematurely.

If you wish to maintain sampling native beers, ensure to take a look at just a few different of my favourite Milwaukee breweries:

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery provides excursions and in addition has a terrific 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 provides excursions, and the downtown one doesn’t. However the latter is true throughout the road from Fiserv Discussion board and excellent spot for a beer earlier than a recreation.

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 – This can be a sandy park on the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Convey a towel and go for a swim, take part a recreation 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 town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Most of the Milwaukee’s greatest 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 provides over 135 miles of trails for biking, lots of which function 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 satisfied Days (a sitcom a couple of Milwaukee household within the Nineteen 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 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 essential to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we’ve got an in-depth checklist masking the entire issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Get pleasure from free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s prime points of interest 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 a whole bunch.

8. Chase low-cost completely happy 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 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 – 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 without 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 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 price range. Hopefully this checklist 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. 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 may comply with their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.