by Teddy Ward

Created on: January 13, 2008   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

My idea of a great weekend getaway is packing a few clothes, getting together a little cash, and taking a short drive somewhere. Anywhere that is away from home and gives a sense of escape from the daily routine will work. One of my favorite escapes from reality is a visit to Minneapolis, MN and spending a few days hanging out downtown.

I recommend Minneapolis due to the fact that I am writing this article in the middle of January and downtown Minneapolis offers an amazing sky-walk system. Which means even in the dead of winter you can walk from almost any hotel to any of the stores, restaurants, and nightclubs downtown without even having to bundle up in your winter clothing. Since this is a once a year outing for us I like to save up and spoil ourselves a little bit on our hotel room and dinning choices. I enjoy the higher end hotels which offer room services, extremely comfortable beds, and plush interiors, the last time we visited Minneapolis we stayed at what used to be Le Meridian but has now been purchased by new owners and is now called The Graves 601 (http://www.graves601hotel.com), very nice place and the beds there are amazing, you don't even want to get out of bed at all to do anything else unless it is to go take a long hot shower in the very spacious shower with 8 very powerful shower heads. This hotel also offers a stocked in room bar and snack counter, wi-fi connection, and a very large flat panel television. If you do get the urge to leave the hotel room the hotel it is located next to downtown Minneapolis's entertainment block or E-Block. Connected right to the hotel you have a movie theater complex, several nightclubs, bowling alley, many restaurants, and a spa. Across the street is the Target Center which brings all the biggest acts and shows on a almost nightly basis to downtown. They sky-walk system also connects to this hotel so you can spend an entire weekend just exploring these and seeing all the sights, shops, eating establishments, and other offerings downtown Minneapolis has to offer.

I am unsure why the downtown area is not advertised more as we always have an amazing time there and would recommend it to anyone. There are more things to do then any one person would ever be able to get done in a dozen visits and everything is very easy to get to. I vote downtown Minneapolis as one of my favorite weekend getaway ideas.

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