Staying a week in Minneapolis! (St. Paul, Walker: rent, restaurants, shops)

[kovolev]

Hello everybody I will be visiting Minneapolis the week following memorial day. I won't have a car, and i'm wondering how easy/hard is it to get around and do fun things in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area without a car? I'll be staying in downtown Minneapolis, and may rent a bike. I have no problem walking places....walking a mile or two doesn't faze me. I'm wondering though what the public transit is like in the twin cities? I'm hoping to visit some museums, local shops, and pubs/microbreweries....and whatever else I can do to keep myself busy. So how is the public transit? I hear there's some light rail....

[golfgal]

There is a pretty extensive bus system that can link you to many of the suburbs. The lightrail runs from Minneapolis to the Mall of America but that is about it. Staying in downtown you should be able to get to several museums and sites either walking or on the bus. You will probably want to go online to the Metro Transit website after finding what you want to visit and check out the bus schedule. The lightrail pretty much runs every 15 minutes.

[toml0035]

From Downtown you should be fine. Our bus system isn't great, but from downtown you can get most places easily. Plus you can walk to the Walker or the MIA.

[Ben Around]

There's a great bike path system here, so between walking around downtown/near downtown, taking light rail (to Mall of America if you are interested) and bicycling (don't miss the Chain of Lakes, a great place to ride a bike, you can access them only a mile or two from downtown Mpls.) you should be fine without a car. St Paul is cool, too: museums, brewpub, unique restaurants. There's express buses (every 15 minutes) between the 2 downtowns and you can bring your bike for free.