Milwaukee Downtown Hotels and Dining

  James  3 mins read.

Downtown and Third Ward Hotels

A few well located hotel choices within easy walking distance of the various restaurants include:

There are other downtown hotels, but most are a bit farther away from the cluster of dining and shopping options found along the riverwalk and within the ThirdWard. For example, if you stay at Hilton Milwaukee Center you will most likely end up eating in the hotel each night. As a general rule, the closer one is to Lake Michigan the more upscale the area is.

Be warned that Priceline and Hotwire currently have an overly broad area defined for their Downtown mystery hotel deals. They do this to include hotels like the Ambassador Hotel, which is not at all in what I would consider Downtown.

A more comprehensive list of Downtown hotels can be found on the Visit Milwaukee Hotel Directory.

Downtown and Third Ward Restaurants

There are a lot of walkable dining and shopping options in the southern end of Downtown, as well as the adjacent Third Ward neighborhood which it blends into.

East Saint Paul Ave & North Broadway is the heart of the Third Ward shopping and restaurant area. The Third Ward shopping area is anchored by the Milwaukee Public Market.

Many of the brew pubs and other table service restaurants are located along the Milwaukee River. These start as far north as Water Street & E Knapp Street, and continue south along Water street deep into the Third Ward as far south as Water Street & East Erie Street. If you prefer, you can access most of this via the pedestrian riverwalk, which is where you will find the Bronze Fonz.

Grocery Shopping

For those of you who like to stock your hotel mini-fridge with a few snacks and drinks, your best walkable choice is the Milwaukee Public Market. Mixed in with the various restaurants, and confectionery vendors; you will also find produce, cheese, meat and alcohol vendors.

There is also a Whole Foods a few blocks walk north of the training venue. This isn’t within walking distance of the downtown hotels, yet you could always stop by after training before taking an Uber back to your hotel.

The Hop

Milwaukee has a small, free streetcar system called The Hop. As you can see from the system map, it doesn’t go very far.

The greatest value of The Hop to someone from out of town is perhaps the ability to easily travel from the Amtrak station in the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to the Downtown and Third Ward neighborhoods. This is important information if you are traveling by train to Milwaukee. There is also a small chance you decided to take the Amtrak Hiawatha from the Milwaukee airport to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station.

Ride-Share Bicycles and Scooters

Milwaukee also has an extensive ride-share network of bicycles and scooters. These are covered in more detail on the Milwaukee Upper East Side Event Venue Details page.