There were a few reasons I visited Milwaukee. Besides reunion with my friend in Chicago, I wanted to experience Harley-Davidson Museum and breweries. I like to taste a variety of beers as much as wines and other liquors. Because I hadn’t been in Milwaukee before, I wanted to explore the Midwestern city also.
There were non-stop flights to Milwaukee from New York City even before, especially by ceased Midwest Airlines (formerly Midwest Express) and AirTran. But new flights by Southwest Airlines from LaGaurdia Airport made it easy to travel to Milwaukee with cheaper price.
I like Milwaukee a lot. People were very friendly and kind overall and made our trip enjoyable. Harley-Davidson Museum exceeded our expectation so much. Milwaukee was definitely a drinking city; there were so many independent breweries. Beers and other alcohol were so cheap, almost half of New York City price. That means nightlife was enjoyable with many clubs, bars, and pubs. There were many attractions we couldn’t catch up. We would probably need 4-5 days to enjoy all. Although Milwaukee wasn’t exactly a popular tourist city, I personally felt there were more places to see in Milwaukee than the nearby bigger city, Chicago.
Here are some miscellaneous impressions I had in Milwaukee.
- The streets in downtown were empty: That was my biggest impression about the Milwaukee downtown all the time. Even on Friday rush hour, I didn’t see many cars. Pedestrians were much lesser than cars. The downtown had many office buildings and hotels, and Milwaukee actually had some big corporations’ headquarters beside Harley-Davidson. But I always thought “where are cars?”. There were many parking areas in the downtown, but many of them were also empty. So you can imagine; the downtown was very quiet. We didn’t feel danger while walking on the downtown even at night.
The interesting thing was there were many restaurants and pubs in the downtown, and they had many customers, as written on Part 2. Every time I visited restaurants, I thought where those people came from.
In the downtown. There was no car on the street. 
Historic Third Ward. Restaurant/commercial/entertainment district. 
The surrounding streets had a few traffic, but Milwaukee Public Market in downtown was crowded with people. Nice market with many fresh foods there. - Cold even on early May: We visited Milwaukee in early May, and it was still cold. We felt colder than the actual temperatures. Especially, the temperature dropped down to 40 F (5 C) at night. I had a leather jacket, but that wasn’t enough. I should bring a sweater, too. We were glad heat was working maximum at our hotel in the downtown.
- A few taxi: Sometimes we had to wait more than 30 minutes for a taxi after calling. Probably you shouldn’t expect you would be able to catch a taxi on the street easily. That didn’t happen on us.
- Many fine hair salons in the downtown: Besides many restaurants, what we were surprised was there were many trendy beauty shops in the downtown area. It might be memorable if you try there.
Enjoy your trip to Milwaukee!
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