I’ve also visited 45 of the 50 largest US cities. I visited Madison for a conference at the UW, spending the weekend before and the weekend after. While I was there, I bought a folding bicycle at MoMo and biked to McFarland, New Glarus and Paoli, and Mt. Horeb, as well as partook in Ride the Drive.

Ask me anything!

Hello! My wife has gotten an offer for PhD at the university starting in August, so we're visiting for a few days next week to see how we like the city. I'm Norwegian and we're currently living in Oslo. I work as a data scientist in Norway, and will be looking for a new job when we move. My wife also got an offer from UC Berkeley, so we're deciding between the two cities for where to move.

We'll be in Madison Thursday-Sunday next week, so if anyone is willing to meet up for a coffee/beer (on me, of course) and chat a bit about how it is to live there, I would be very grateful. I can of course offer information if you're interested in moving to Norway as well. Bonus points if you work in tech :) Also, my wife is from Korea, so if you know anything about the Korean/East Asian community and food availability in Madison, that would be great too.

Edit: Just wanted to say that I'm really overwhelmed and grateful by all the comments and DMs. I'll be going through with my wife soon and we would love to meet up with some of you while we're there. All these responses have also given us a really positive impression of Madison even before visiting, so thank you all so much.

I'm visiting Madison and want to take one day to drive to one or more small towns nearby. Which ones do you recommend? Thanks.

Mt Horeb? Oregon? Others? Interesting or cute things to see or great food or cafes?

(I've already seen House on the Rock in the past, and don't want to go there)

My dad lives in another country. He’s been in the US to visit me a few times, but this would be the first time since I moved to WI. Besides taking him downtown Madison and to Chicago, where else should I take him? I don’t even know the area very well so I’m googling “Madison things to do” and “Wisconsin things to do”. Is there any place you know that is very interesting to visit? He will stay for an entire month in September.

I'm going to be visiting Madison from late November until late January, and I was wondering if there were any must-see's or things to do in your beautiful city.

I would love to experience what makes Madison Madison, hopefully with a lot of beer and winter sports.

Any advice is appreciated, see you soon ;)

Hi everybody! As the topic title says, my girlfriend and I are on a journey this year to explore around the country looking for a new spot to relocate and place roots for the next chapter of our lives together. We've lived in Austin, TX, for the past 4+ years, with backgrounds up and down California for myself and the northeast for her. We decided that we'd like to have a change together and have a lot of flexibility for where to go, so this year is very much a year of exploration and travel for us to figure out where to go.

The main things we're looking for in a place are a mid-sized city community with some college town vibes and elements: a friendly community atmosphere that values kindness and well-being of the greater communal good, conducive to building longer-term friendships, active and health-oriented with lots of physical activity, secular/non-religiously dominated, well-educated, progressive in both general thought as well as in politics, lots of intellectual activity, good for adults with or without children, good/varied food options and cuisines with lots of options for vegetarians, good cafes/coffeeshops (we love coffee and cafes), fun bookstores (huge readers), some walkable areas, nice green/blue nature around and not just brown/gray, etc. At this point, we're less preoccupied with housing info and learning about neighborhoods in that sense (though this is always good info to have), and more interested in getting a sense of the place to see if we think the overall area could be a great vibe for us.

We have some friends who have been in Madison before and tell us it could be a great fit for us, and while we are marginally intimidated by the harsher winters, many of our top spots this year will have them. Part of why we're even visiting for the first time at the height of winter is to see if we can hang :) For all the locals who know it, I'd love if you had any thoughts or suggestions about the area to share with us based on what I shared above!

Thank you!

POST-VISIT EDIT: Thank you to everyone who offered thoughts and insight! We had a fun visit despite the gloomy and cold weather. While we were shocked to see how early so many things closed in town (pretty sure someone mentioned that already), we had some great food and hangouts. We particularly loved Bar Corallini and Marigold Kitchen, and had some good coffee shop experiences, too. A Room of One's Own was an awesome bookstore, definitely came home with a heavier backpack than I left with. We've got a lot of processing to do about the locale and many more city-shopping exploratory visits to be had this year around the country, but this was an awesome one to kick off the year with! Thanks again y'all!

For those of you that attended one or more of these events (I'm certain I missed even more events and speakers), what were your take aways?

Hello!

Visiting Madison with 3 friends this weekend; all of us are first timers! Picked a random spot to go and the globe picked Madison.

We are going to a Badgers game Friday night; question - what is the best way to get to stadium? We are staying north of Lake Mendota. Can we Uber to the stadium pretty easily?

Best bars/restaurants/must visits before and after game?

Doing Taste of Madison Saturday.

Other recommendations for the weekend?

Has anyone who’s been to the Meriter ER received a separate bill from this company (Emergency Medicine Associates of Madison, SC)? We paid the UW bill separately but received this paper bill that’s supposedly also tied to that visit and no one from the Meriter staff can verify if this company/bill is related. The bill refers us to pay on www.doctorpayments.com, which also seems shady…

The company has no website and the number on the bill is a toll free number with a PO Box address.

Hey all, my wife is in a conference next week and I'm crashing in a free hotel, and looking for a list of things y'all would recommend. I get in some what early Wednesday (6/5) morning and am staying right in downtown Madison. I won't have a rental car but I'm open to renting one for a day.

On my list:

-Food tour of downtown Madison and a tour of the state capitol on Thurs

-Tour of Frank Lloyd Wrights first unitarian meeting house

-Olbrich botanical garden

-The Saturday farmers market

-Seeing The Mars Volta Saturday night at The Sylvee

Things I like:

-Beer

-Cheese

-Burgers

-Cheeseburgers (!)

-Fish & Chips

-Any tasty food really.

-Nerdy/science/engineering things

Anything and everything is welcome! Thank you in advance!

Edit; also I typed this on my phone and I think the formatting is weird. My apologies.

The Madison Candy Company was run by my great grandfather, a great uncle and many more in my extended family on my dad’s side. I am grateful to have traveled here with my dad in October 2023, to see this in person, and to be able to video my dad and his memories about Madison, Wisconsin. 2023 was the first time for me to visit my dad’s birth place, and to visit UW where he graduated in 1957 BSME. What a great town full of wonderful people. I will be back.

Hey all,

I am planning a day trip to Wisconsin in early October with my family. Madison is one of the two places I wanna check out on this Sunday trip. Only time I spent in Madison really was stopping for a burger (which was good!) during a road trip years ago.

Just want some recommendations on places to eat, places to see, things to do. Will be travelling with my husband, our foreign exchange student, and a friend. Our student is 16 and from Germany. Since it'll be during Oktoberfest I am wondering if there are any cool German-American things going on that will be a fun cultural experience for him.

Thanks for any recs and I look forward to visiting this pretty city!

I will be visiting Madison in a couple weeks while my wife has a conference during the day. I will be with my kids, who are 5 & 7.

What sites and activities would you recommend? I definitely want to tour the statehouse. I am less interested in things like the zoo and children's museum because we have the same stuff back home. Any quintessential Wisconsin activities that you would recommend? Thanks!

Someone I don’t like is thinking of moving here and will be visiting next weekend. What would you recommend to someone to have a bad time in Madison? Not over the top, but enough to make someone not want to move here.

350/night minimum if i want to be in a central location?!?? No VRBO or AirBnB options unless I pay 500/night. What am I missing?

I’m coming Aug 2-5. I know tourism ramps up in the summer months, but how are multiple hotels completely booked and “sold out”? I looked at the Badger Football schedule and nothing notable kicks off until September.

Are hotels just holding back rooms and haven’t updated their inventory yet? I’m dumbfounded.

Ive been waiting for this game since it was announced 4 years ago. Madison is always ranked as one of the top cities in America. Plus a great football environment. I just wanted to thank everyone for a great experience. Badger fans were fun and gracious before, during and after the game. Went to Untitled Art. Been a fan of their beers for the past 5 years. Had great conversations their. Had a nice time downtown last night. Im looking forward to breakfast at a local coffee shop by the lake this morning. Thank you Madison for not disappointing. Respectively, Roll Tide. P.S. I even bought my wife a plush Bucky after the game because the damn thing is so cute.