We had an incredible experience with Fun Beer Tours MKE! The tour was very personal and relaxed…read more Paul was an exceptional guide--friendly, personable, and incredibly knowledgeable. His passion for Milwaukee's brewing history really came through, and he shared fascinating stories and local insights that made the experience so much more than just visiting a brewery. We took the tour to celebrate our anniversary, and it was the perfect way to spend the day together. We left with a much deeper appreciation for Milwaukee's rich brewing heritage. Paul made the experience engaging, informative, and genuinely enjoyable. We highly recommend Fun Beer Tours MKE to anyone looking for a unique and memorable brewery experience!

Best beer tours in town! Educational & fun. Plus, there is always beer!…read more Paul is a walking encyclopedia of Milwaukee beer history. Nice of him to bring some antique beer memorabilia for us to view & hold. This man's passion for Milwaukee & beer should be applauded & enjoyed by all. The business name says it all...fun beer tours Milwaukee rocks! Wish I could leave more stars!

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I signed up to do this... had heard that it was a…read more"haunted" tour. Heard that it was a "Gothic" tour. Also heard that it was an "historical" tour. It was all of those and more! It started raining about an hour before we were supposed to meet, and was considering skipping out. I am SO glad that I made the decision to join the group. Rain or shine, good weather or inclement, I would recommend Gothic Milwaukee tours to anyone and everyone. Anna's love for history and Milwaukee, shine through her as she regales her followers with stories of fame and fortune, ballrooms and back allies. She. Is. A. HOOT!! I got goosebumps more than a few times, listening to her tell stories about what has happened behind Milwaukee's beautiful facade. All said and done it's about 90 minutes, and approximately 3 miles of walking. The terrain is easy, it's all on city sidewalks. And Anna does a fantastic job of attracting your eyes to all the amazing things that downtown Milwaukee has to offer. If you like ghost stories you need to book a tour with Gothic Milwaukee. If your love is history... Anna is your girl. If walking around and learning about architecture and cool "fun facts" about where all the businessman went for their lunch breaks (hint: it wasn't a soda shop), then you need to walk this walk! Just found out that Gothic Milwaukee also has self guided walking tours of Milwaukee in card form!! I am TOTALLY getting these for everyone for Christmas! What a great way to show people how great Milwaukee is AND get props for giving the coolest gift of the year!! I am happy. Thank you, Anna.

I really wasn't sure what to expect with this tour. The website www.gothicmilwaukee.com is pretty…read morebland, there's not a lot of information about the tours online as far as reviews go.....but DAMN this tour was WELL worth the $10! First and foremost, the tour guide Anna is phenomenal. Who knows if the stories are true (although doing some quick google research, all the stories seem to pan out!) She is very friendly, a great story teller, and really...really funny. The walking was light, with plenty of stops along the tour. Great stories about people you've heard about in Milwaukee, and some you haven't. The stories about the Pfister Hotel were really really interesting. This tour is definitely worth $10...and I'm looking forward to the Holiday tour as well.

Doors Open Milwaukee is an annual event when over 100 buildings open their doors for free tours…read more Most tours are DIY, but there are many that are docent-led ticketed tours, for more insight. We've done Doors Open for a few years, and in 2017, decided to focus mainly on the clean water industry, which Milwaukee is becoming known for in industry and University circles. Doors Open Milwaukee had a Water Passport, to see if you could hit up all of the sites. Pack some water, a snack, and comfortable shoes, use the helpful PDF guide or app ahead of time to plot out your stops, or pick up a physical booklet on your first stop. Sites we enjoyed in 2017- Global Water Center Milwaukee County Greenhouses UWM School of Freshwater Sciences Mitchell Park Domes An annual event, you can hit up Doors Open Milwaukee every fall. A great annual City event!

Doors Open Milwaukee is wrapping up as I write this, all done for 2016 but if you missed it, don't…read moreworry, it'll be back next year. It's not too early to be thinking about what places you'd like to visit next year. In case this is all new to you, Doors Open Milwaukee is just exactly what the name implies. Many buildings, structures and businesses that aren't usually open to the public throw their "doors open" on the third weekend of September every year. Places might be theaters (Riverside, Modjeska) government buildings (city hall, courthouses, wastewater treatment plant) structures (bascule bridge, lift bridge) cemeteries (Forest Home, Bluemound) Hotels (Pfister, Ambassador) museums (Wadham's gas station, fire museum, Chudnow, MSOE Grohmann) fire houses (Milwaukee, West Allis) and churches of many kinds including the stunning Basilica of St. Josaphat. New on the tour this year was Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, the last commission of Frank Lloyd Wright. Folks in southeastern Wisconsin have been curious about the church since it was built in 1959 and hundreds of people took advantage of the opportunity to see the inside of this magnificent structure. There is a great deal of "right" with DOMKE, although there are a few issues with it, too. One of the more pleasant issues is that there were over 150 places open this year. Too much to see in a weekend, so one much choose carefully. Parking can be an issue around popular venues, as can long lines. It was even tougher this year with on-street parking restricted in many places due to construction. Remember DOMKE for next year, and remember that next spring, Historic Milwaukee will sponsor Spaces & Traces. See you there!

Want to cruise Lake Michigan affordably and have a boating experience that recreates history? By…read moreall means, get yourself down to Pier Wisconsin pronto and take a sail on the Denis Sullivan. In my mind, this is one of the most amazing experiences the city of Milwaukee offers. Hands down! The Denis Sullivan is a 140-foot sailing vessel that is a recreation of an 1890s cargo vessel. It has space for 50 on its upper deck, three full sails, and three jib sails on the mast. There's a lower compartment that has a head (bathroom), sleeping quarters, kitchen mess, and a gift shop. An exhibit that is part of Discovery World, your ticket buys you a two-hour tour during the summer. Truly, if boating is your thing, this is an amazing must-do. My family and I took the tour recently and we had a blast. The six of us spanned ages from 2 to 73. We all enjoyed it equally. My two year old great niece enjoyed the fact that she had room to roam around to her liking. She wandered everywhere happily. We got pictures of her steering the boat on the rear wheel that controlled the rudder. All of us enjoyed the performance by the ships cast of 8 crew members. They involved all 50 of us on board in a discussion about safety, then gave commands to hoist all of the sails once we had motored comfortably away from the pier and cut the engine. The ropes and sails were neatly and precisely tucked away in a manner any experienced sailor will tell you is proper. Along with other guests, my great niece and her dad helped hoist the sail, and my niece was fascinated with pulling rope for the rest of the trip, "helping" the crew in her own fashion. The crew was on hand to answer questions and quite hospitable with the guests. "This boat is a fiberglass magnet," one crew member told my family, pointing to the boats that pulled up alongside our vessel. They also noted that the boat was weighted in a manner that if it tipped, it would pop back up - a good feature to have on a sailboat that can lean in the wind. A wonderful bonus occurred when two of the crew pulled out a banjo and a fiddle and performed bluegrass music, singing and clapping. My great niece danced and the rest of us enjoyed the performance. The pristine view of Milwaukee's skyline and lakefront is unparalleled. The breeze is cooling and comfortable and the sail is a most enjoyable thing to do on a weekend. Take a trip on the Denis Sullivan. You won't regret it!

A few weeks ago a woman told me the new Pier Wisconsin building adjacent to the Art Museum on the…read morelakefront has the best view of Milwaukee's skyline available without a boat in the city. Intrigued by that and an indoor aquarium, I stopped by this weekend to check it out. Overall, this is a very cool place. The building is beautiful in a modern way that accentuates the Calatrava next door. The lines are clean and nautical and the slat wood floor in the main hallway/promenade was beautiful and different. In general, there is an unfinished feeling to the place despite its having been open more than a month. I can understand the desire to open to the public as soon as possible, but paying $16 for a lot of unfinished exhibits bothered me slightly. That said, there are some wonderful things in this building, which now houses Discovery World, as well as the Pier Wisconsin aquarium and a permanent home for the Denis Sullivan sailboat. The highlight of the aquarium is a tunnel where fish swim a few feet over your head. The glass is so smooth and clear that from certain angles it feels as if you are viewing the image of fish on a hi-definition screen, not actual fish swimming a few feet over your head in a spectacular mega-tank. There is also an open tank for petting small (barbless) stingrays and other fish. We didn't have tons of time to see Discovery World, but needless to say this place is an educational kids heaven. Everything is designed to be touched, felt and understood. In the new (unfinished) techno-jungle area, lots of hip 20-somethings in white lab coats helped kids play and understand a hovering people mover, an inra-red camera, a storm simulator, and best of all, a virtual reality control that led through the streets of Milwaukee. I unfortunately walked right off the bridge over Lincoln Memorial Drive to the Art Museum before surrendering the control to an actual child. Overall, I think Milwaukee has done very well for itself here. The location is amazing, parking easy (underground), the aquarium spectacular and views from the edge of the building are indeed among the best of Milwaukee's lakeside skyline.

We did a ghost tour around Halloween. It was such a fun and entertaining experience. The group size…read morewas large, and it was fun walking around and learning all the ghost stories

Tonight, I went on a walking tour in Milwaukee titled "Ghosts of Christmas Past". The tour started…read moreout at the Pabst Theater on Wells and Water and crossed the street to Milwaukee City Hall where we learned about the suicide problem in which 7 people jumped to their death from higher floors into the open lobby below. Horrifying but also fascinating! From there we visited the Pfister Hotel where we learned about Charles Pfister who watches out for his guests and less-nice ghosts who have scared the bejesus out of Major League Baseball players, leaving some unwilling to stay at the hotel again. We walked past the old Newhall Hotel where 70 guests perished in a fire on our way back to the Pabst Theater where we learned about Captain Frederick Pabst who remains present at the theater that bears his name, the mansion he built on Wisconsin Avenue and his brewery village in the city. Our tour guide, Tea, was very knowledgeable and entertaining. There are other local tours in the Third Ward and Brady Street that I look forward to joining this summer. The price was very reasonable. When you go, tip your guide!

Rainy day. Despite the slight delay, captain and Kayla(the friendly SO NICE) bartender made this…read morefirst time experience amazing. I hope management and the owner are reading this. My trip was today, June 17 at 6 PM. My boyfriend and I were visiting from Chicago.

We had an Awesome time on our boat! Super fun!! Staff was Awesome!! Super clean restrooms & fully…read morefunctional.

I'm disgustedly in this company, for the way they treat there horses, don't feed them, harness them…read moreto a buggy when the horse is thin you can see the hip bones and the ribs, I got pictures the horse the other day was sick looking and the horse didn't even have shoes on the hooves for pulling the wedding carriage, I guess there getting so much heat there trying to say the horse was retired and it needed exercise, you don't make a horse hook up to buggy when it is sick, this horse needs help/vet asap, now I'm learning the owner doesn't get vet care he just leaves them to die...

We did the one hour tour as part of a promotional price and it was most relaxing. We lucked out and…read morehad great weather for a ride along the lake. (Bring a jacket just in case). Our coach was capable of holding up to six people (signed said) but I think four would be more comfortable. We went on summer evening when the temperature was around 73. The driver was friendly and courteous. The staff was very prompt about returning my call to setup a reservation. This is was an easy, low key way to see downtown Milwaukee.

My brother and SIL were visiting for the weekend and since it was the first day of summer and felt…read morelike a fireball, we decided bumper boating was the thing to do. We had a BLAST!!!! We did the hour tour but wish we had done the 90min one. It was soooooooo much fun and relaxing. Watching the kayakers go by working hard while we just did slight wrist movements to move our boats was the best! We HIGHLY recommend and will DEFINITELY be back. By ourselves AND with more guests.