is Milwaukee walkable? (Whitefish Bay, Shorewood, Glendale: car rental, rental, limo)

[Raven1976]

Will be staying there 2 nights and then moving on to chicago. I'd like to shorten my car rental by a few days and want to know if I can see many of the attractions by taking public transport.

Have a friend in Whitefish Bay also so I'm not sure how far that is from downtown Milwaukee.

Is it inexpensive also to get a taxi from the airport to downtown?

Any info would help... thank you!

[Milwaukee City]

Downtown to WFB from airport is usually a flat rate to and from. You can always negotiate with the cabbie. Milwaukee is walkable depending on where in Milwaukee you are staying and going to. If you stay downtown or close to an entertainment area such as north ave, brady st, downtown or the third ward you will be fine.

[Empidonax]

Much of Milwaukee is very walkable--To get a sense of it, try out various zip codes and intersections to see the "walk scores" of various neighborhoods:

Get Your Walk Score - A Walkability Score For Any Address

Beyond this fun but imperfect tool: the most walkable section of Milwaukee is the eastern fringe--the East Side, Downtown, Third Ward areas. This fringe connects with the suburb of Shorewood and includes neighborhoods such as Riverwest and Brewers Hill. Given this rather large zone, you'll have no problem walking around to various sites--the bus service is okay, and there's a free trolley looping around the downtown area. Take a look at the bus routes under "Routes and Schedules" on the MCTS webpage:

Milwaukee County Transit System

Walkable sites on the East Side include the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Harley Museum, a few other museums, the galleries of the Third Ward, the festival grounds in the Third Ward, Marquette University (including the museum and Joan of Arc chapel), the Riverwalk, historic downtown buildings, a couple of breweries, the Lakefront and its attractions, etc.

As far as suburbs go, Whitefish Bay is quite walkable in most parts, particularly around the Silver Spring Ave. area and the Bayshore Town Center area (in adjacent Glendale). The 10 and 15 bus lines connect Whitefish Bay with the Eastside/Downtown area. Whitefish Bay is a bit too far (~8 miles) from Downtown to walk, though.

Transport from the airport to Milwaukee is okay, not great. Don't take a taxi--that'll be a $35-$45 ride to Downtown or Whitefish Bay. Instead, take the bus (the 6, I believe, will get you to Downtown; transfer to the 10 or 15 for WB) or take the Airport Connection:

GO Airport Connection Milwaukee Airport Shuttle and Limo Transportation Services

The Airport Connection isn't cheap, but it probably won't kill your budget like a taxi would.

Another (roundabout) option would be to take Amtrak from the airport area to Downtown, but you'd have to take a shuttle from the airport terminal proper to the airport Amtrak station, then deal with the wait you would likely face for the brief train ride to Downtown. May as well take the bus.

[brewnik]

For reasons stated in the "Why is downtown so lame?" thread, I'd suggest spending your time in the areas that surround downtown (Third Ward, Brady Street, Eastside, etc.) rather than downtown itself. All of them are just as walkable, if not more so, than downtown.