Things To Do

Great Lakes Distillery & Tasting Room

In the 17 years since opening, it’s grown our craft spirit scene with popular offerings like the straight bourbon Kinnickinnic Whiskey.

Lakefront Brewery

Consistently delivering quality with classic beers (Riverwest Stein) and tasty seasonals. Not to mention their picturesque riverfront taproom.

Harley-Davidson Museum

Barnacle Bud's

This scenic bar along the Kinnickinnic River brings the nautical atmosphere in spades. Known for crab cakes, it has a full lineup of seafood and summery cocktails to enjoy, too.

Historic Third Ward

The Historic Third Ward is located south of downtown Milwaukee and is one of the top Milwaukee attractions. Originally a busy and rough warehouse district known as the location of frequent brawls, it used to be called “Bloody Ward.” Today it is the trendy Milwaukee's Arts and Fashion District, with a number of popular restaurants, theaters, spas, galleries, and boutiques. It is home to the Third Ward Riverwalk, the Milwaukee Public Market, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), and the Broadway Theatre Center.

Milwaukee Riverwalk

Strolling along the two-mile long RiverWalk by the Milwaukee River is an excellent and unique way to get to know Milwaukee. You can stop at one of many great restaurants or brewpubs along the way. Numerous exhibitions of public art turn the RiverWalk into a sort of outdoor gallery where you can see the current art trends in the city.

Milwaukee Public Museum

The Milwaukee Public Museum is a natural and human history museum in downtown Milwaukee that first opened to the public in 1884. It has 150,000 square feet of exhibit space on three floors and is one of the best things to do in Milwaukee. It showcases permanent and temporary travelling exhibits and houses the first IMAX Theater in Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Public Market

The Milwaukee Public Market, located in the Historic Third Ward neighborhood, is one of the prime attractions of the area, and it serves as the location where the locals, farmers, artisans, and tourists all get together to get some delicious fresh local food, load up on supplies, do some people-watching, or just stroll around.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Housing a collection of more than 30,000 works of art, the Milwaukee Art Museum is rich in European and American art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, American decorative arts, and contemporary art. It is also the leading repository for artwork by untrained creators in the world.

The Village Cheese Shop

This bright, orderly shop is a wonderland for one of our state’s biggest edible commodities. Owner Sabina Magyar is passionate about spreading the good word of spreadable, sliceable and stretchable cheese. Step up to the counter – a treasure trove of hand-picked and often award-winning artisan dairy products from Wisconsin, the greater Midwest and Europe – and take in the wheels of milky goodness. Each order is hand-cut and wrapped in cheese paper (not plastic wrap!) to best preserve it. Every Saturday, the shop offers fresh-stretched mozzarella until they sell out, and the mongers working here make delectable sandwiches and cheese boards to order.

At Random

Milwaukee, a city famous (or infamous) for its boozing, has grown an impressive mocktail scene in recent years. At Random has been a leader in that movement, crafting colorful and tasty drinks that rival their alcoholic counterparts.

Fiserv Forum

Fiserv Forum, home of the Bucks, is Milwaukee’s newest sports team venue (opened in 2018) and is located downtown, next to the site of the since-demolished Bradley Center. The popular Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball team also plays its games here; Marquette’s campus is about a mile away.

Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory

The Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, or "The Domes" as they are referred to, is a Milwaukee County Park and is in fact the oldest park in the Milwaukee Parks system. Rentals and ticketing are all managed by the County Park System.