You don’t have to cross the country to find a thriving arts, culture, and culinary scene; Minneapolis and St. Paul prove that creative expression can be accessible and renowned. The regional theater movement was born in Minnesota, the same state that brought us the Minneapolis Sound, made famous by Prince. Supported by a legacy of robust funding and community collaboration, creativity is what makes the North Star State truly shine.This four-day itinerary invites you to awaken your senses through experiences as authentic as they are inspiring. From internationally celebrated museums and award-winning chefs to open studios and humble scratch kitchens that prepare every dish entirely in-house, each stop reflects the city’s layered immigrant and Indigenous traditions. The result is a journey through a cultural capital that’s globally inspired, yet deeply local.
Itinerary / 4 Days
PLAN YOUR TRIP
The iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture anchors the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the largest urban sculpture park in the country.
Courtesy of Explore Minnesota/Dana Hernandez
Day 1Visit the Minneapolis Institute of Art
From floor mosaics to suspended ceiling installations, art greets you the moment you step into the terminal at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Make your way to downtown Minneapolis to the Chambers Hotel, a boutique stay that doubles as an art showcase with an attached gallery and curated pieces throughout the lobby, halls, and rooms.
Take a bus, rideshare, or walk the 1.5 miles to the free Minneapolis Institute of Art, where an encyclopedic collection of global masterpieces and contemporary works spans centuries and continents. Take in art by European luminaries like Rembrandt, van Gogh, and Matisse, alongside expansive collections from Africa, Asia, Indigenous North America, and Latin America. The variety of media, including sculpture, textiles, photography, and decorative arts, makes for an engaging, multidimensional visit.
Continue your global tour on a walk down Nicollet Avenue’s “Eat Street,” a vibrant culinary corridor of international flavors ranging from Jamaican jerk chicken at Pimento Kitchen and the Black Forest Inn’s German cuisine to Vietnamese pho at My Huong Kitchen, Quang, and Pho 79. At the end of the block is the Eat Street Crossing food hall, where you can choose from bánh mì, tacos, sushi, Japanese-style crepes, and more.
After lunch, go to the American Swedish Institute to wander the Turnblad Mansion. The 1908 château-style residence’s 33 distinctly styled rooms house a mix of heritage exhibits such as the Norse Saga Room; rotating contemporary art, design, and fashion exhibitions; and events, such as one featuring Kim Gordon and the dancer Dimitri Chamblas. Stop at the Fika Café for the Swedish fika tradition of a coffee break and a sweet treat, like the Swedish-style cinnamon or cardamom buns, paired with the art of conversation.
Refresh back at the hotel for an evening infused with the city’s creative energy, expressed through food, sport, and music. Head down Hennepin Avenue’s historic “Theatre Row” to take in its landmark stages, including the Pantages Theatre, the Orpheum Theatre, and the State Theatre. Along the way, take brief detours to building-sized public art tributes to Minnesota’s musical icons, Prince and Bob Dylan.
Arrive at an early dinner at Dario, where local culinary veteran Joe Rolle has perfected handmade pasta. Try the dual-chamber doppio ravioli, bursting with sunchoke, ricotta, honey, hazelnuts, and rosemary.
Continue to the Mississippi Riverfront, where you can catch the River Rats Water Ski Show (Thursdays from 6:20 p.m.–8 p.m.), a playful, quintessentially local spectacle of carefree celebration.
Cap off the night at First Avenue, the legendary music venue immortalized in Prince’s Purple Rain film. From his rise to today’s local acts, the stage pulses with the energy and history of the area’s ever-evolving music scene—a fitting encore to your day of cultural immersion.
Take a bus, rideshare, or walk the 1.5 miles to the free Minneapolis Institute of Art, where an encyclopedic collection of global masterpieces and contemporary works spans centuries and continents. Take in art by European luminaries like Rembrandt, van Gogh, and Matisse, alongside expansive collections from Africa, Asia, Indigenous North America, and Latin America. The variety of media, including sculpture, textiles, photography, and decorative arts, makes for an engaging, multidimensional visit.
Continue your global tour on a walk down Nicollet Avenue’s “Eat Street,” a vibrant culinary corridor of international flavors ranging from Jamaican jerk chicken at Pimento Kitchen and the Black Forest Inn’s German cuisine to Vietnamese pho at My Huong Kitchen, Quang, and Pho 79. At the end of the block is the Eat Street Crossing food hall, where you can choose from bánh mì, tacos, sushi, Japanese-style crepes, and more.
After lunch, go to the American Swedish Institute to wander the Turnblad Mansion. The 1908 château-style residence’s 33 distinctly styled rooms house a mix of heritage exhibits such as the Norse Saga Room; rotating contemporary art, design, and fashion exhibitions; and events, such as one featuring Kim Gordon and the dancer Dimitri Chamblas. Stop at the Fika Café for the Swedish fika tradition of a coffee break and a sweet treat, like the Swedish-style cinnamon or cardamom buns, paired with the art of conversation.
Refresh back at the hotel for an evening infused with the city’s creative energy, expressed through food, sport, and music. Head down Hennepin Avenue’s historic “Theatre Row” to take in its landmark stages, including the Pantages Theatre, the Orpheum Theatre, and the State Theatre. Along the way, take brief detours to building-sized public art tributes to Minnesota’s musical icons, Prince and Bob Dylan.
Arrive at an early dinner at Dario, where local culinary veteran Joe Rolle has perfected handmade pasta. Try the dual-chamber doppio ravioli, bursting with sunchoke, ricotta, honey, hazelnuts, and rosemary.
Continue to the Mississippi Riverfront, where you can catch the River Rats Water Ski Show (Thursdays from 6:20 p.m.–8 p.m.), a playful, quintessentially local spectacle of carefree celebration.
Cap off the night at First Avenue, the legendary music venue immortalized in Prince’s Purple Rain film. From his rise to today’s local acts, the stage pulses with the energy and history of the area’s ever-evolving music scene—a fitting encore to your day of cultural immersion.
The Guthrie Theater, designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Jean Nouvel, helped launch America’s regional theatre movement.
Courtesy of Explore Minnesota/Ryan Taylor
Day 2Attend a Performance at the Guthrie Theater
Wake to the aroma of expertly crafted coffee a few blocks away at the downtown Minneapolis location of SK Coffee, where baristas pull rare, single-origin micro-lots from specific plots with precision. Sip a cup and enjoy a morning pastry before the day’s cultural explorations begin.
Call a rideshare to your first destination of the day, the Hoċokata Ti cultural center of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Shakopee, 35 minutes away. (Pro tip: There are also free shuttles throughout the city to Mystic Lake Casino, which offers free shuttles to Hocokata Ti.) As the city skyline slips away, the landscape opens into prairieland, and the center’s circular, stratified building emerges like an earthen mound.
Visitors can experience the Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake exhibit. This moving interpretation of Dakota history and heritage from the community’s perspective is intimate and immersive, weaving together artifacts, art, and storytelling into an educational and emotionally resonant journey.
On the return trip, stop for a midday break in St. Paul. Start with lunch at Cossetta Alimentari. The fourth-generation Italian institution has grown over the past century from a corner store into a multifaceted marketplace where you can browse imported groceries, grab an authentic pizza slice, pick up fresh pastries, or settle in at the rooftop ristorante or laid-back tavern.
The panettone, a pillowy Italian sweet bread, has earned national awards and a devoted following—just one example of a city whose culinary credibility continues to rise. Another option if you’re here Friday–Sunday is brunch at W.A. Frost & Company, which serves dishes including croissant French toast and a breakfast burger on its lovely patio.
Then, walk down Summit Avenue to admire the longest stretch of Victorian-era homes in the U.S. Tour the James J. Hill House, the 36,000-square-foot mansion of the railroad baron who built the Great Northern Railway, complete with 22 fireplaces and a two-story skylit art gallery.
A mile away lies 599 Summit Avenue, where St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald completed This Side of Paradise, the novel that launched his career. His legacy of storytelling is so closely tied to the city that St. Paul’s oldest surviving theater was renamed the Fitzgerald Theater in his honor.
If you choose to extend your time in St. Paul and stay for dinner, try Hyacinth’s southern Italian-meets-Mediterranean cuisine, the Vietnamese spot Khue’s Kitchen, or Myriel, whose chef Karyn Tomlinson took home the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest, putting St. Paul’s dining scene firmly on the national map.
Myriel’s menu celebrates the simplicity of local, seasonal ingredients lovingly prepared—with minimal waste. Inspired by frequent visits to her grandparents’ home in a small farming town, Tomlinson’s approach combines the warmth and pragmatism of this ethos with French and Nordic techniques. The result is humble dishes like apple pie, elevated to new heights, and black lentils, transformed with mustard seed and cabbage.
Otherwise, refresh at your hotel before a “decolonized” dinner at Owamni, the James Beard Award–winning restaurant from the acclaimed “Sioux Chef,” Sean Sherman (reserve in advance). Based in Indigenous foodways and locally-sourced ingredients, the menu excludes wheat flour, cane sugar, and dairy, instead weaving a seasonal tapestry of culturally inspired flavors, such as roasted bison bone marrow with pickled onions and green beans with duck remoulade. By early summer 2026, Owamni will relocate as Indígena by Owamni inside the Guthrie Theater, your next stop for the evening.
Credited as the birthplace of the American regional theater movement and a Tony Award recipient, the Guthrie hosts diverse productions across its three stages. Upcoming shows include Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (through June 21, 2026), Come From Away (June 6–August 9, 2026), and Private Lives (July 18–August 23, 2026). The building itself is also a draw. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, its deep-blue facade conceals labyrinthine levels, lobbies, and corridors worth exploring before the show.
Seek out its standout architectural features: the inclined Endless Bridge with mirror-inlaid windows and open-air patio, and the yellow-glass Amber Room projecting from the side. Both offer a sweeping panorama of the Mississippi River, Stone Arch Bridge, and historic mill buildings—perfect places to pause, sip a drink, and reflect on your day before settling into the show.
Call a rideshare to your first destination of the day, the Hoċokata Ti cultural center of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Shakopee, 35 minutes away. (Pro tip: There are also free shuttles throughout the city to Mystic Lake Casino, which offers free shuttles to Hocokata Ti.) As the city skyline slips away, the landscape opens into prairieland, and the center’s circular, stratified building emerges like an earthen mound.
Visitors can experience the Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake exhibit. This moving interpretation of Dakota history and heritage from the community’s perspective is intimate and immersive, weaving together artifacts, art, and storytelling into an educational and emotionally resonant journey.
On the return trip, stop for a midday break in St. Paul. Start with lunch at Cossetta Alimentari. The fourth-generation Italian institution has grown over the past century from a corner store into a multifaceted marketplace where you can browse imported groceries, grab an authentic pizza slice, pick up fresh pastries, or settle in at the rooftop ristorante or laid-back tavern.
The panettone, a pillowy Italian sweet bread, has earned national awards and a devoted following—just one example of a city whose culinary credibility continues to rise. Another option if you’re here Friday–Sunday is brunch at W.A. Frost & Company, which serves dishes including croissant French toast and a breakfast burger on its lovely patio.
Then, walk down Summit Avenue to admire the longest stretch of Victorian-era homes in the U.S. Tour the James J. Hill House, the 36,000-square-foot mansion of the railroad baron who built the Great Northern Railway, complete with 22 fireplaces and a two-story skylit art gallery.
A mile away lies 599 Summit Avenue, where St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald completed This Side of Paradise, the novel that launched his career. His legacy of storytelling is so closely tied to the city that St. Paul’s oldest surviving theater was renamed the Fitzgerald Theater in his honor.
If you choose to extend your time in St. Paul and stay for dinner, try Hyacinth’s southern Italian-meets-Mediterranean cuisine, the Vietnamese spot Khue’s Kitchen, or Myriel, whose chef Karyn Tomlinson took home the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest, putting St. Paul’s dining scene firmly on the national map.
Myriel’s menu celebrates the simplicity of local, seasonal ingredients lovingly prepared—with minimal waste. Inspired by frequent visits to her grandparents’ home in a small farming town, Tomlinson’s approach combines the warmth and pragmatism of this ethos with French and Nordic techniques. The result is humble dishes like apple pie, elevated to new heights, and black lentils, transformed with mustard seed and cabbage.
Otherwise, refresh at your hotel before a “decolonized” dinner at Owamni, the James Beard Award–winning restaurant from the acclaimed “Sioux Chef,” Sean Sherman (reserve in advance). Based in Indigenous foodways and locally-sourced ingredients, the menu excludes wheat flour, cane sugar, and dairy, instead weaving a seasonal tapestry of culturally inspired flavors, such as roasted bison bone marrow with pickled onions and green beans with duck remoulade. By early summer 2026, Owamni will relocate as Indígena by Owamni inside the Guthrie Theater, your next stop for the evening.
Credited as the birthplace of the American regional theater movement and a Tony Award recipient, the Guthrie hosts diverse productions across its three stages. Upcoming shows include Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (through June 21, 2026), Come From Away (June 6–August 9, 2026), and Private Lives (July 18–August 23, 2026). The building itself is also a draw. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, its deep-blue facade conceals labyrinthine levels, lobbies, and corridors worth exploring before the show.
Seek out its standout architectural features: the inclined Endless Bridge with mirror-inlaid windows and open-air patio, and the yellow-glass Amber Room projecting from the side. Both offer a sweeping panorama of the Mississippi River, Stone Arch Bridge, and historic mill buildings—perfect places to pause, sip a drink, and reflect on your day before settling into the show.
Every Saturday, the Mill City Farmers Market brings together more than 100 local farmers, makers, and artists.
Courtesy of Meet Minneapolis/Lane Pelovsky
Day 3Walk the Arts District and Attend a Comedy Show
Today you’ll crisscross the Mississippi for a mélange of creative expression—from local farmers’ market vendors and lauded, immigrant-run restaurants to the Weisman Museum’s contemporary art collection and DIY open studios.
On Saturdays, start at the Mill City Farmers Market, sampling and shopping its stalls. From there, stroll the Stone Arch Bridge, which you admired from the Guthrie’s heights last night.
Next, explore the University of Minnesota’s free Weisman Art Museum, whose patchwork facade of undulating stainless steel shapes is a signature of its famed architect, Frank Gehry. Inside, view contemporary American art plus rotating showcases like Ebb/Flow, a series of ceramic installations that explore themes similar to those from yesterday, including memory and borders under colonialism; a continuation of the dialogue introduced from the Indigenous perspective yesterday at Hoċokata Ṫi and Owamni.
Enjoy the afternoon in the buzzing Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, where you’ll sample galleries, open studios, and global cuisine. Begin with brunch at Diane’s Place, an all-day café whose James Beard Award–nominated chef Diane Moua honors her Hmong heritage with modern takes on ancestral dishes, such as aromatic Hmong sausage with sticky rice and velvety, cloud-like Thai tea French toast. (Pro tip: make a reservation in advance.)
After, walk a half mile to Dreamsong Gallery, which showcases art by underrepresented artists. Then, continue your art walk one mile to wander the Northrup King Building, a nationally renowned complex housing hundreds of studios, most of which are open to the public on Saturdays and by appointment during the week.
Dinner awaits at Hai Hai, where James Beard Award–winning chef Christina Nguyen serves bright, bold Southeast Asian–inspired street food rooted in her Vietnamese heritage and regional travels.
End the evening with drinks and laughs at Acme Comedy Club, a beloved institution that’s helped shape the local stand-up scene for decades. It’s also where you’ll find major touring comics, such as Wyatt Cenac, Ali Wong, and Colin Jost, some using the intimate setup as a testing ground for new material.
On Saturdays, start at the Mill City Farmers Market, sampling and shopping its stalls. From there, stroll the Stone Arch Bridge, which you admired from the Guthrie’s heights last night.
Next, explore the University of Minnesota’s free Weisman Art Museum, whose patchwork facade of undulating stainless steel shapes is a signature of its famed architect, Frank Gehry. Inside, view contemporary American art plus rotating showcases like Ebb/Flow, a series of ceramic installations that explore themes similar to those from yesterday, including memory and borders under colonialism; a continuation of the dialogue introduced from the Indigenous perspective yesterday at Hoċokata Ṫi and Owamni.
Enjoy the afternoon in the buzzing Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, where you’ll sample galleries, open studios, and global cuisine. Begin with brunch at Diane’s Place, an all-day café whose James Beard Award–nominated chef Diane Moua honors her Hmong heritage with modern takes on ancestral dishes, such as aromatic Hmong sausage with sticky rice and velvety, cloud-like Thai tea French toast. (Pro tip: make a reservation in advance.)
After, walk a half mile to Dreamsong Gallery, which showcases art by underrepresented artists. Then, continue your art walk one mile to wander the Northrup King Building, a nationally renowned complex housing hundreds of studios, most of which are open to the public on Saturdays and by appointment during the week.
Dinner awaits at Hai Hai, where James Beard Award–winning chef Christina Nguyen serves bright, bold Southeast Asian–inspired street food rooted in her Vietnamese heritage and regional travels.
End the evening with drinks and laughs at Acme Comedy Club, a beloved institution that’s helped shape the local stand-up scene for decades. It’s also where you’ll find major touring comics, such as Wyatt Cenac, Ali Wong, and Colin Jost, some using the intimate setup as a testing ground for new material.
Franz Marc’s The Large Blue Horses is a visitor favorite and founding acquisition of the Walker Art Center, one of the most visited contemporary art museums in the country.
Courtesy of Explore Minnesota/PaulVincent
Day 4Explore the Walker Art Center & Sculpture Garden
Stretch your legs on a final art-filled stroll to the Walker Art Center, one mile away. Stop at the Fawkes Alley Coffee for their signature LAB Latte, an iced lavender latte with honey cold foam, to sip as you meander through Loring Park’s verdant pathways. Pick up a banh mi sandwich to go from the nearby Lotus and cross Siah Armajani’s Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge, a pedestrian pathway and public art installation that links the park to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Enjoy your lunch in the expansive outdoor gallery of more than 60 large-scale installations, including the photo-favorite Spoonbridge and Cherry.
After your fill, step inside the Walker Art Center to immerse yourself in this premier contemporary art institution spanning visual art, design, film, and performance. Its permanent and rotating exhibitions invite you to delve into bold ideas and new perspectives. Of note is the forthcoming Suzanne Jackson What Is Love retrospective (May 14–Aug 23, 2026), which follows her evolution from figurative art to suspended acrylic “anti-canvas” abstractions, revealing a lifelong exploration of love as a material and metaphysical force.
If time permits, swing by Birchbark Books & Native Arts, founded by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Louise Erdrich, or enjoy happy hour at Gai Noi, a lively Laotian restaurant a short walk from your hotel that earned a spot on the 2023 New York Times Restaurant List.
After wrapping your journey through Minneapolis and St. Paul’s dynamic art, food, and culture scene, pack up your personal collection of inspiration and enlightenment to carry with you well beyond your trip.
After your fill, step inside the Walker Art Center to immerse yourself in this premier contemporary art institution spanning visual art, design, film, and performance. Its permanent and rotating exhibitions invite you to delve into bold ideas and new perspectives. Of note is the forthcoming Suzanne Jackson What Is Love retrospective (May 14–Aug 23, 2026), which follows her evolution from figurative art to suspended acrylic “anti-canvas” abstractions, revealing a lifelong exploration of love as a material and metaphysical force.
If time permits, swing by Birchbark Books & Native Arts, founded by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Louise Erdrich, or enjoy happy hour at Gai Noi, a lively Laotian restaurant a short walk from your hotel that earned a spot on the 2023 New York Times Restaurant List.
After wrapping your journey through Minneapolis and St. Paul’s dynamic art, food, and culture scene, pack up your personal collection of inspiration and enlightenment to carry with you well beyond your trip.