Easy methods to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native in 2024

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

The next visitor publish is by my mates 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 town.

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

The most important metropolis in Wisconsin and only one.5 hours north of Chicago, it’s the excellent dimension: not too small not too massive. It presents 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 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 may have gone anyplace. However we select to come back house to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

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

1. Keep central

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

These are two lodges I like:

2. Benefit from free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, but it surely 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 occasions 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 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 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 unbelievable markets, the place you’ll be able to get pleasure from a number of the metropolis’s finest meals from many distributors, multi function place and in a enjoyable and reasonably priced food-hall environment. These are two of my favorites:

• third Avenue Market Corridor – This can be a must-visit vacation spot, because it supplies a spot for vacationers and locals alike to get pleasure from Milwaukee’s numerous delicacies. Right here, you will discover the aforementioned frozen custard, plus pho, pizza, burgers, artisan sandwiches, tacos, sizzling 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 singular spot to expertise the flavors of Milwaukee’s culinary scene, all beneath one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas buying or grabbing a chew.

4. Take pleasure in native delicacies

There are just a few meals that it’s worthwhile to strive that you simply (possibly for good motive) is not going to 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 wonderful — organize them and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our high decide.
• Frozen custard – It might appear like ice cream, but it surely’s a lot richer and creamier, with just a few additional components. Kopps is the most effective 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 the next degree than Vanguard Restaurant within the Bayview neighborhood. It’s best recognized for its wonderful 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 need to delve deeper into the culinary scene may additionally need to try our full checklist of the finest eating places in Milwaukee.
 

5. Discover brewing historical past

Whereas microbreweries aren’t precisely a brand new pattern, 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 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 embrace 4 beer samples. That is by far the most effective worth and our private favourite tour — plus, the beer corridor is a variety of enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous in style and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets prematurely.

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

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery presents excursions and likewise 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 presents 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 reasonably priced 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 town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Lots of the Milwaukee’s finest outlets and eating places may 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 presents over 135 miles of trails for biking, a lot 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 Joyful Days (a sitcom a few Milwaukee household within the 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 worthwhile to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we’ve an in-depth checklist protecting the entire issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Get pleasure from free-admission days

A few of Milwaukee’s high sights 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 a whole lot.

8. Chase low cost glad hours

For higher or worse, the folks of Milwaukee get pleasure from 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 glad 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 – Joyful hour specials change each day (Mon–Fri 3-6pm).

9. Discover the colourful public artwork scene

Many locations round city have large-scale public artwork shows you could go to free of charge. Most of those items are in a number 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 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 finances. Hopefully this checklist offers 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 around the globe. 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’ll be able to comply with their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.