Plan Your Stay

Swinging through Milwaukee for Winter Break? There are tons of beautiful things to do in the winter. Let’s make a weekend out of it. Grab a room for the night and dig into the city with hotel deals from Visit Milwaukee. From the shockingly good food scene, the beautiful lakefront and riverfront trails, to the unique history and architecture, there’s something for everyone.

What’s your travel vibe?

  • A piece of art by Sam Gilliam called Carousel Merge 2. It is painted canvas draped, and hung from the ceiling in gathers. The paint on the canvas is multi colored: red, blue, yellow mostly.

    The Visual Feast

    ART - DESIGN - ENTERTAINMENT

    Check out the Historic Third Ward, home to art galleries, theater companies, and opera. Boutiques there sell vintage clothing, lighting, specialty paper, and gifts. The Milwaukee Public Market is a bustling destination featuring 20 indie vendors selling food, baked goods, wine, cheeses, coffee. Just north of the Third Ward is Milwaukee’s Downtown, home to Saint Kate, a boutique arts hotel. It has a permanent collection, rotating exhibits, and curator-led tours. If you’re looking for more art and design, you can’t miss Milwaukee’s most recognizable building: The Milwaukee Art Museum. The building itself is beautiful, designed by 3 renowned architects, Santiago Calatrava, Eero Saarinen, and David Kahler. At noon each day, the building opens and closes its giant sunshade ‘wings’ to show off for onlookers. Don’t forget to go inside! The art collection is world-class, including works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Steichen, Gabrielle Münter, and the largest collection of Haitian art outside of Haiti.

  • An interior of a restaurant with blue waved ceiling rafters, firework-like chandeliers, and warm, inviting lighting

    The Discerning Palette

    GOOD FOOD - INVENTIVE DRINKS - COFFEE

    Milwaukee is home to many James Beard Award-winning chefs. You can find great food on any side of the city. Where you decide to stay depends on the dining experience you want. Fine dining? Try Lupi & Iris (French Rivieran), Sanford (upscale), or Bartolatta’s Lake Park Bistro (upscale) in Milwaukee’s Downtown. Prefer a taste of historic Milwaukee? Go for the family-owned Three Brothers (Serbian) in Bay View neighborhood or Mader’s (German) on Old World Third Street downtown. For good eats on a dime, try the Riverwest Neighborhood classics like Nessun Dorma (Italian) and the Daily Bird (Coffee, Tea), Black Husky Brewing (beer). You can’t go wrong with the variety in the Silver City neighborhood, with fixtures like Vientiane Noodle Shop (Laotian) and Orenda Cafe (Mexican Breakfast).

  • A streetscape inside the Milwaukee Public Museum of the Streets of Old Milwaukee, a recreation of Milwaukee in the early 1900s. You can see a cobblestone street with a bakery, a restaurant, and a fountain.

    The Romantic at Heart

    ELEGANCE - NOSTALGIA - HISTORY

    How do you feel about High Tea, a sprawling art collection, and ghostly apparitions? A trip to the Pfister Hotel, built in 1893, might be for you. You also might enjoy strolling through The Streets of Old Milwaukee in the Milwaukee Public Museum. It’s a recreation of Milwaukee streets and shops circa 1910. Milwaukee was deeply shaped by Beer Barons, people who made their fortunes making beer, so visiting the Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion is a unique step back in time. You can also go straight to the source with a brewery tour, like Sprecher Brewery, an old-school beer and soda brewery, or Miller Brewery Tour, or Pabst Best Place. You can’t go wrong visiting any of these beautiful buildings: The Milwaukee Public Library rotunda, The Milwaukee County Historical Society’s bank vault, North Point Lighthouse, or the Basilica of St. Josaphat.

A Place to Rest

We’ve got hotel deals thanks to Visit Milwaukee’s Hotel Month.
Up to 25% off through Feb 28, 2026.

Get a room with a view
The Visit Milwaukee logo, which is an M created by three stacked waves in teal

Photo by Julie Grace Immink

Getting here

BY PLANE

Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) has 30 nonstop flights and is ~8 miles south of Downtown Milwaukee (15-20 min by car). The airport is a mid-sized terminal that fans out into three concourses: C, D, and E. It has 38 gates in total. There are 8 car rental companies in the airport: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Thrifty. For more information on getting around town, scroll down to the next section, ‘Getting around.’


BY TRAIN

Amtrak’s new Borealis Line runs from Minneapolis/St. Paul - Milwaukee - Chicago. There is also a free shuttle that runs between the Milwaukee airport and the downtown train station, AKA the Intermodal Train Station.


BY COACH BUS

There are a number of busses running between cities within Wisconsin, including Coach USA and the Badger Bus, which runs to Madison, Eau Claire, and Menomonie (and even over to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities).


BY CAR

From the South - Chicago, IL
Milwaukee is about 90 miles north of Chicago, about a 2-hour drive. Take I-94 North.

From the West - Minneapolis, MN
Milwaukee is about 350 miles southeast of Minneapolis, about a 5-hour drive. Take I-94 East.

From the North - Marquette, MI
Milwaukee is about 300 miles south of Marquette, about a 5-hour drive. Take I-43 South.

Getting around

BY BUS

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) can get you everywhere you want to go in Metro Milwaukee. One ride is $2.75, with reduced rates for seniors, kids 11 & under, and people with disabilities. There are three ways to pay for a bus fare. 1) Wisc Go by Umo app. This lets you pay bus fare by scanning a QR code on your phone when getting on the bus. The app is also helpful for planning your trips. 2) by cash at the bus door, or 3) by using a Wisc Go card, which you can order ahead of time (or purchase at a store while in town), 4) by credit card at a Ticket Vending Machine, which can be found at the General Mitchell International Airport and along the Bus Rapid Transit Line Stops (BRT, AKA the Connect 1).


BY STREETCAR

The Hop, Milwaukee’s streetcar, is free and has two lines connecting common downtown destinations. For example, it travels from the Downtown Intermodal Train Station (the train that goes to chicago), the Milwaukee Public Market, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Discovery World (science museum) to the Jewish Museum Milwaukee. The Hop runs daily and streetcars arrive every 15-20 minutes.


BY CAR

Uber and Lyft both operate in Milwaukee. Use code VISITMKE (or visit www.lyft.com/i/visitmke) for $10 off two rides from Lyft.