Car Hire Minneapolis - Mini guide to Minneapolis
Twinned with the more antique St Paul and straddling the Mississippi River, Minneapolis is a hip city with a gleaming glass skyline that is a lot more eclectic than its counterpart. With several lakes within the city limits, outdoor types are well catered for, and there is a healthy music and arts scene downtown.
To get your bearings and an overall feel of the place, the Foshay Tower, Minneapolis's first skyscraper constructed in 1929, has an observation deck on the 31st floor with spectacular views of the city.
The mirrored, 51-storey IDS building contains Crystal Court, a focal point of the skyway system, with shops, restaurants and offices inside. The building is one of the more handsome structures in the city, and on clear days it can be seen for miles around the greater Minneapolis area.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ permanent collection of over 100,000 objects of fine and decorative art represents more than 5,000 years of history. Highlights include a Paul Revere tea service and a 2,000-year-old mummy. There are re-created period rooms; African, Oceanic and New World galleries; and paintings by European masters.
The Walker Art Center is famous for its permanent collection of contemporary art, ranging from painting and sculpture to drawings, photographs and multimedia installations. Across Vineland Place is the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the most extensive garden of its kind in the United States, with a wide variety of 20th century sculpture, including the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry.
The downtown area has fantastic shopping options, especially Nicolette Mall, which has a huge range of quality merchandise for sale, from electronic gadgetry to designer labels. There are also some high-class restaurants and upmarket clubs in this area, including the famed First Avenue, started by Minneapolis native, Prince.
Uptown is located south of downtown and is a popular haunt for the city’s younger crowd, featuring trendy stores and coffee shops; Calhoun Square is the focal point. Nearby are the beautiful Calhoun and Harriet parks and lakes, which are great places to unwind in the summer.
The major suburbs in Minneapolis are: Columbia Heights, Crystal, Brooklyn Park, Falcon Heights, Hopkins, New Brighton, New Hope, Richfield, Robbinsdale and Roseville.
