We stayed in seven Wisconsin cities while on our 5 year, 50 state road trip, the last of which was the state capital – Madison.
We stayed there a week and found some fun things to do along the way. It ended up rivaling Milwaukee for being my favorite place we visited in Wisconsin. To explain why, here are 10 reasons we loved Madison, Wisconsin so much.
1) State House
As Madison is the state capital of Wisconsin, it’s home to the state house. While not quite as picturesque as the Vermont state house in Montpelier, it’s still a beautiful building.
We didn’t end up doing a tour of the state house, although we did pop inside for a few minutes. The first floor was laid out completely differently to the Vermont state house and almost felt like a train station inside. From the center of the first floor though, you get a great view of the domed ceiling.
2) Bucky Badgers
Shae and I love public art displays where you have to find sculptures all over a city. In the past, we’ve searched for mermaids in Norfolk VA, light bulbs in Spartanburg SC, mice in Greenville SC and the solar system in Gainesville GA.
We were therefore pleased to see uniquely decorated Bucky Badgers all over Madison.
We’d loved to have gone hunting for all of them, but there simply wasn’t enough time. One nice thing though is that the visitor center has a map showing the location of every single Bucky Badger. There are 55 in downtown Madison and another 30 a little further afield.
3) Food Trucks
Madison appears to be an incredibly food truck-friendly city. While wandering around downtown, I think we must’ve seen at least a dozen food trucks serving a wide variety of cuisines.
4) Vibrant
Madison is an extremely vibrant city, helped in large part by it also being a university town. With a bustling downtown and a ton of boutique stores, it’s a great place to explore.
Several people recommended that we visit the Saturday morning farmer’s market, but we were a little unfortunate as we visited during the one week the farmer’s market wasn’t held downtown due to an art fair taking place there.
5) Bike Rentals
If you need to get around the city, you’ll find BCycle bikes in more than 40 Madison locations. You can get daily passes which is nice if you’re only visiting, but be aware of time limits per ride. A day pass of $6 offers you 24 hours of bike access, but you have to return each ride within 30 minutes or else you’re charged $3 for each additional 30 minutes.
With a station map showing pickup and dropoff locations though, you should never be too far from one.
6) Impressive Little Free Library
Whenever passing a Little Free Library, Shae stops to take a look at the books inside. Most Little Free Libraries look like large bird houses, but there was one in Madison that had the most impressive design we’ve ever seen.
Outside Grace Episcopal Church was a Little Free Library designed just like the church.
7) Free Zoo
Our road trip is being done on a tight budget, so the more free stuff we can find, the better. On our final day in the state capital, Shae went to Madison’s free Henry Vilas Zoo (I stayed at the hotel to work on some stuff).
It was a nice little zoo and she had a great time there – check out her post to find out more about it.
8) Surrounded By Water
You’re never far from water in Madison. That’s because you have Lake Mendota to the north and Lake Monona, Lake Wingra and Lake Waubesa to the south.
Not only are the lakes beautiful to look at, but it also means there are all kinds of water-based activities you can enjoy while in the city if you enjoy that kind of thing.
9) Near Wisconsin Dells
Wisconsin Dells is less than an hour from Madison and is home to water parks, theme parks, zip lines, go karts and so many more activities.
We took a trip up there for the day to visit Noah’s Ark Water Park – the largest water park in the US. Check out this post for more about why we loved it there so much.
10) Hardly Any Bugs
This might seem like a weird thing to include, but having spent a week in Phillips prior to our week in Madison, we were relieved to find the city wasn’t inundated with mosquitoes.
There were a few bugs, but given that it was summer and the city is surrounded by water, that’s not too surprising. It was nice to be able to go outside and not end up looking like we had measles due to mosquito bites!
Question
Those are 10 reasons that we loved our time in Madison WI, but how about you? If you’ve visited Madison, what are some of your favorite things there? Let us know in the comments below.
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