When traveling for business you find cities that re-invent themselves.

Business travel generally carries certain expectations about what a city has to offer. Traveling as much as I do for business I found theses expectations are typically spot on, but on some rare occassions i’m pleasantly surprised. This is the case with Minneapolis.

At the beginning of my hospitality sales career when representing European Luxury Hotels, I would often travel to the MidWest during the winter months (especially January when there would be GTD snow storms) in order to impress our clients.

Looking back more than 25 years, cities like Minneapolis/St. Paul did not offer direct flights, and the of hotels options were to say the least wanting and slim. This followed wlimited choices of quality restaurants or recreational activities.

Minneapolis fast foward

Fast forward to 2016, I’m scheduling a business trip for a industry conference and imagine my surprise, when I learned of a new regional Airline named Sun Country Airlines, based out of Minneapolis with a number of direct flights from major US cities.

As I continued the Minneapolis trip planning research I learned the following:

• Next to Chicago, Minneapolis-St Paul is now considered the Midwest’s cultural capital
• It has sixty museums
• Thirty theater venues
• Culinary prowess of top chiefs and home of the famous Andrew Zimmern
• The city is also surrounded by thousands of acres of parks and miles and miles of trails no surprise there as the state of Minnesota is land of lakes with 10,000

Minneapolis and sister city St Paul are two for the price of one…the best of both worlds.

Try a Segway or walking tour of the Mill District and dine on the Mississippi Riverfront patio. Stroll through Rice Park and catch a show at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts.  Go downtown and stop at one of  the tax free shops or  change it up  a bit with a paddle boarding lesson on the Chain of Lakes.  Then refuel with award winning cuisine at one of the 100+new restaurants that opened in the past two years alone.

No matter what your interests, the Twin Cities’ ability to blend natural beauty with urban culture is second to none.

Whether traveling for business or family great getaway vacation in Winter…yes winter!  Not something most would consider.

Mall of America