Where to stay in Milwaukee?
 

My husband, 16 year old son, and myself will be spending two days in Milwaukee on our way to a football camp at University of Wisconsin, Whitewater in July. Where would be the best place to stay? What sights would be interesting for a 16 year old? We will have a car.

Anywhere in Brookfield or Waukesha area. Always felt safer than in the city and it's on the way to Whitewater.

I'd recommend staying DT--it's fun to walk around in the evening as you go to dinner. I've never felt unsafe DT. There's a Residence Inn, which is nice for the space and kitchen.

The Harley Davidson Museum might interest a 16 year old boy.

When in July will you be here? Summerfest, the world's largest music festival runs 6/29-7/3 & 7/5-7/10. Bastille Days are 7/14-7/17. Festa Italiana is 7/21-7/24. German Fest is 7/29-7/31. Bastille Days is free and DT; the others are at the Lakefront and charge admission.

We stayed downtown last summer for a week and always felt super-safe, even when out at night. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the hotel but it was in a restored bank building right in the thick of things and was beautiful. I would ditch the car and travel by foot or bike - you'll miss too many fabulous sights riding in the car. 1- Catch a show at the Guthrie Theater. You can get half-price tickets to shows the day of performances. 2- Go to the Walker Art Center and be sure to leave enough time to walk around the free Sculture Garden. 3- Catch an artist's set one night at Hell's Kitchen or one of the other music venues. 4- Rent some of the green bikes and ride around one of the lakes uptown - but get someone to explain how to swap them to keep the price down - we ended up with around $40 in charges one day but it was gladly reduced when I called once I received my credit card bill. Overall, there are a thousand things to do and all of them are great!

msrosied
I like staying in the suburbs as a base idea, the Brewers have a great stadium to enjoy a ballgame at. Milwaukee Art Museum and the Planetarium are other ideas to consider



Anita,
Great ideas, but that sounds like Minneapolis.

msrosied
I like staying in the suburbs as a base idea, the Brewers have a great stadium to enjoy a ballgame at. Milwaukee Art Museum and the Planetarium are other ideas to consider



Anita,
Great ideas, but that sounds like Minneapolis.

The Walker Art Center and the Guthrie Theater are definitely in Minneapolis, not Milwaukee.

A teenager might also like a Segway tour of the Lakefront.

Thank you all for your replies. Our plan was to spend one night in Milwaukee and then stay closer to the University for the two days of the camp. Unfortunately I was using free miles for our flights (which I hadn't done before). The flights I wanted weren't available so I had to get the less desirable. We are flying into Milwaukee on Thursday, July 21st and not arriving until midnight. I was thinking of spending Friday the 22nd seeing sights in Milwaukee and spending Friday and Saturday nights in Whitewater or somewhere closer to the University and then Sunday night back in Milwaukee and fly back on Monday evening. I was under the impression that Whitewater was not that close to Milwaukee and it would be better to not do the commute Saturday and SUnday for my son's camp. Can anyone tell me how the commute would be? Would it be better to just stay in Milwaukee (which I would like to do) or would it take to long to drive him to Whitewater? I thought it was about a 30 mile drive. I'm used to LA traffic and a normally a 30 mile drive could take forever.

Just spent a few days in Milwaukee. I got a room at the Intercontinental downtown near the Bradley Center for $70. You could walk to the art museum, Third Ward, natural history museum from there.

I did a little more research. According to Mapquest, Whitewater is actually more like an hour away. I decided to spend the first night at the Hyatt Place at the airport(nice and close and we are landing at midnight), the next two nights in Whitewater at the Baymont Inn (minutes away from the college), and our last night back in Milwaukee at the Pfister Hotel (due to someone elses recommendation on another post).
Abram-the Harley Davidson museum sounds like a good bet and we could also make the fiesta italiana, and the segway tour would be fun. Frank S-as usual we looked into a baseball game, but unfortunately the brewers aren't in town. But knowing my husband, we will see if we can tour the stadium.
Any other suggestions for entertainment are appreciated! Is there still a brewery? Thanks, Rosie

If you only have one day, the Harley Museum, Festa, and a segway tour would be a lot to fit in.

Re: breweries, you can tour Miller, Lakefront, or Sprecher.