Methods to Expertise Milwaukee Like a Native in 2024

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

The next visitor put up is by my pals 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 biggest metropolis in Wisconsin and just one.5 hours north of Chicago, it’s the excellent dimension: not too small not too massive. It provides tasty meals and drinks, nice sports activities groups, and enjoyable festivals. Plus, it’s inexpensive. 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 world wide many occasions, and when it got here time to plant roots and begin a household, we might have gone wherever. However we select to come back residence to Milwaukee, which has a lot to supply.

If you wish to know the best way to expertise it like an area, 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 positioned. The accommodations could be barely dearer than elsewhere, however you’ll save on transportation prices since all the pieces is walkable.

These are two accommodations I really like:

2. Make the most of free rides

Milwaukee doesn’t have a subway system, nevertheless it 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 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 Subject for Brewer baseball video games and live shows, Summerfest Grounds for festivals and live shows, Fiserv Discussion board for Bucks basketball video games, and different occasions round city.
 

3. Eat like an area

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

• third Road Market Corridor – It is a must-visit vacation spot, because it offers a spot for vacationers and locals alike to take pleasure in Milwaukee’s various delicacies. Right here, you’ll find 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 inexpensive 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 beneath one roof, and soak within the native tradition whereas procuring or grabbing a chew.

4. Take pleasure in native delicacies

There are just a few meals that you want to attempt that you just (possibly for good cause) 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 wonderful — get them organized and thank us later. Lakefront Brewery is our prime decide.
• Frozen custard – It could appear to be ice cream, nevertheless it’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 kind of locations that, if you happen to 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 wonderful house-made sausages, together with vegan choices, with many at an inexpensive worth of beneath $10.

On this checklist, we’ve solely centered 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 most effective 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 provides most likely the most effective 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 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 numerous enjoyable. The excursions are tremendous standard and promote out on the weekends, so it’s suggested to buy tickets prematurely.

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

• MobCraft Beer – This brewery provides 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 supply excursions, however they do have an enormous collection 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 true throughout the road from Fiserv Discussion board and good spot 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 Seashore – It is a sandy park on the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Deliver 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 guts of the town, and immerse your self in its tradition. Most of the Milwaukee’s greatest retailers and eating places will 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, a lot of which function scenic views of Lake Michigan. Yow 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 Pleased Days (a sitcom a few Milwaukee household within the Fifties).
• Indoor garden video games at third Road Market Corridor – Take pleasure in 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 you want to fill any clean spots in your itinerary, we’ve an in-depth checklist overlaying the entire issues to do in Milwaukee.
 

7. Take pleasure in free-admission days

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

8. Chase low cost comfortable 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 comfortable 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 day by 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 positioned close to North Avenue, within the Eastside neighborhood. Along with the artwork, you’ll additionally discover nice eating places, breweries, and artisanal retailers.
• 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 price range. Hopefully this checklist provides 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 world wide. 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 observe their adventures on Instagram and social media @gettingstamped.