Minnesota is home to a plethora of travel destinations and attractions.
Traveling in Minnesota usually includes driving, especially once you leave the two largest cities in the state, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The only major airport is Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. While there are many regional airports, most notably in Duluth and Rochester, service is limited. The Amtrak Empire Builder offers train service to only a handful of cities on its route between Chicago and Washington State. Greyhound supplies bus service to some locations.
Much of the state is not accessible via the interstate highway system with its relatively good signage, so when driving it's important to have a current map. It's also important to have patience for those times when you're stuck behind farm equipment or eating somebody else's dust on a dirt road.
Even if you don't want to venture away from the Twin Cities metropolitan area, a car is still helpful. There is a good bus system if you're comfortable figuring out schedules and planning around them, but cabs are not plentiful and there is no subway. A light rail system is in the planning stages, but hasn't been constructed yet.
No discussion of Minnesota is complete without a mention of the weather. Yes. It gets cold. Very cold. International Falls, on the Canadian border, regularly ranks as the coldest spot in the nation. The St. Paul Winter Carnival features an ice sculpture contest. A local joke is that there are only two seasons in Minnesota: winter and the Fourth of July. It's not really that bad, but do investigate average temperatures and snowfall amounts before traveling there so you have the right clothes.
Minnesotans also say that there are only two seasons in Minnesota: snow season and mosquito season. You can buy postcards declaring the mosquito as the Minnesota state bird. That's not a reason to stay away, but it is a reason to pack some insect repellent, a long-sleeved shirt, and pants in summer, even if the forecast is for heat and high humidity.
If you want to avoid the weather and the mosquitoes, you can stay in the Mpls.-St. Paul area and stick to indoor things. There is plenty to do in the way of museums, dining, and the arts. A popular destination for domestic and foreign tourists is the Mall of the Americas, a mega-mall with over 500 stores. The mall complex includes hotels, an amusement park, movie theaters, restaurants, and night clubs, in addition to shopping.
While they are called "twin" cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul have very different characters. They are both shaped by their location on the Mississippi River, but one has become brash and the other staid. Minneapolis has the taller buildings, the bolder architecture, a larger population, and a more youthful sensibility. Once a city known for lumber and flour mills, it remains the home of food producers like General Mills and Pillsbury. St. Paul, the state capital, is quieter with a more solid, conservative feel, its buildings more stone than steel and glass. St. Paul's history centers on shipping, once critical to the fur trade, and its place as a terminus for the steamboats that traveled the Mississippi.
The state's history as an outpost for the French-Canadian fur trade led to the French language of the official state motto, "L'Etoile du Nord" (Star of the North). Minnesota's unofficial motto, the one people know from its vehicle license plates, is "Land of 10,000 Lakes." That one captures the essence of Minnesota as a whole for both residents and visitors.
If the smaller lakes are included in the count, there are closer to 15,000 of them, a legacy of Ice Age glaciers that once covered much of the state. When the glaciers retreated, they left some lakes behind, along with many depressions in the land that later became lakes. Low-lying land that filled in with vegetation formed bogs and swamps now popular with birders, butterfly seekers, orchid enthusiasts, and other plant aficionados.
The lakes provide abundant recreational opportunities in all seasons. Hundreds of resorts, from small family-run places with a few cabins to larger hotel-style operations, border the larger lakes. Many of the state parks are situated on lakes and offer campsites. Swimming, boating, picnicking, and water skiing are popular activities. So is sitting on the dock, listening to the loons and the lap of the water. Urban dwellers seek out the quiet of the lakes to simply slow down and get away from the hubbub of city life.
For the ultimate in quiet, people head to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This wilderness area bordering Canada consists of around a million acres of forest, lakes and rivers with over 1000 miles of canoe routes. Regulations prevent motorized boating and there are no roads to the inner areas, so the Boundary Waters area remains one of the most peaceful places on the planet. The charming town of Ely provides one access point to the BWCA.
High-quality fishing attracts many to Minnesota. Bass, perch, muskellunge, Northern pike, crappies, lake trout, and walleye can be caught in the lakes. The rivers are known for catfish. Ice fishing in winter is hugely popular. Many of the resorts cater especially to their fishing guests, providing boat rental and local guides.
The biggest lake of all, Lake Superior, is one of the Great Lakes. Highway 61 runs from the city of Duluth along the northern shoreline of Superior to the Canadian border at Grand Portage. This stretch of road, about 200 miles, goes past eight state parks and several lodges and small resorts. Stony bluffs and stunning waterfalls make it one of the most scenic parts of the state. The North Shore is a favorite destination for honeymooning couples and others on romantic getaways. The Superior Hiking Trail roughly parallels Highway 61 and offers around 200 miles of blazed, mapped footpath.
There are plenty of trails for hiking throughout the state, but other activity-specific trail systems have been created, too. Snowmobile and ATV trails, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails, and biking trails provide miles of opportunity for outdoor fun.
In addition to lakes, Minnesota's geography consists of prairies, wooded river valleys, and extensive pine forests. Once you leave "the Cities," as Minnesotan call Minneapolis and St. Paul, farms and small towns dominate the landscape. As you drive along the back roads of southern, central, and western Minnesota, you'll see acres and acres of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and wheat, along with dairy farms. Silos and grain elevators stand out with their vertical presence in the almost-flat, open terrain. In northern Minnesota ("up north" to a Minnesotan) you are in the woods and can drive for miles on roads that tunnel through trees that allow no view of the horizon.
Historic sites in Minnesota reflect, among other things, the state's iron ore mining past, its early white settlers including the Vikings and other Scandinavians, and its Native American inhabitants. Up north on the Iron Range, there is still some mining activity, though the high-grade ore is gone. What remains are the mini-Grand Canyons created by open pit mining, an underground mine that can be toured, and some of the biggest trucks and tires you'll ever see. Alexandria, in southern Minnesota, is the home of the Kensington Runestone, a carving believed to document 14th-century Viking presence in that part of the state. Pipestone, also in southern Minnesota, is the location of the quarries used to obtain pipestone for Indian ceremonial pipes.
A more recent impact of the Native American population can be seen in the gambling casinos that have popped up throughout the state on reservation land, giving another option for indoor recreation that allows escape from cold and mosquitoes.
