Minneapolis

By bus

Greyhound and Jefferson Lines buses arrive at the Hawthorne Transportation Center, located at 950 Hawthorne Ave at 10th St, one block west of Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis. It's just a few minute's taxi ride away from most of the downtown hotels. It's 4-5 blocks away from a few major bus routes and the light rail. The depot is near a homeless shelter, so it's not uncommon to see a few homeless people hanging out nearby. The area is well-patrolled and quite safe. Some routes make additional stops.

Badger Coaches

4x weekly scheduled services in cooperation with Jefferson Lines to Madison daily and Milwaukee, with a few local stops in between.

Greyhound Express

Service from Chicago and Milwaukee. Fares from $1 and up.

Megabus

Service from Madison 4 times daily, Milwaukee 4 times daily, and Chicago 8 times daily. Fares can be as little as $1 each way if reserved far enough in advance. The bus stop is in downtown Minneapolis in the parking lot on the east side of Chicago Avenue between 3rd Street and Washington Avenue about 1.5 blocks from the Metrodome and the Downtown East/Metrodome light rail station. Buses have wifi.

By plane

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, IATA: MSP, ICAO: KMSP, (http://www.mspairport.com). The airport is divided into two terminals: Terminal 1-Lindbergh and Terminal 2-Humphrey, with most flights arriving at the former. Savvy travelers should check to make sure they know which terminal they are arriving at/departing from.

The Hiawatha Line light rail is convenient to get downtown from the airport. Fare is $1.75-$2.25 depending on time of day. The trains are fast and clean. They also serve the Mall of America and parts of South Minneapolis. The light rail has stations at both terminals.

Delta Air Lines, a member of the SkyTeam alliance, maintains a hub at MSP and dominates the airport by nearly 90%. Delta offers non-stop overseas service from MSP to Tokyo-Narita, Amsterdam, London-Heathrow and Paris-CDG, among others. Sun Country also calls MSP home, making it easier to find discount fares within the continental United States. Icelandair, the only foreign intercontinental carrier, offers seasonal service to Keflavík with Boeing 757-200s. Air Canada Jazz is the only other foreign carrier, offering service to Toronto.

Airlines serving Terminal 1-Lindbergh:

Air Canada Jazz

Alaska Airlines

American Airlines

Continental Airlines

Delta Air Lines

Frontier Airlines

Great Lakes Aviation

United Airlines

US Airways

Airlines serving Terminal 2-Humphrey:

Air Tran

Icelandair

Southwest Airlines

Sun Country Airlines

Spirit Airlines

By train

Amtrak, (http://www.amtrak.com/). Daily service to Midway station, located just off University Avenue in Saint Paul near the border with Minneapolis. The Empire Builder, Amtrak trains 7/27 and 8/28, serves the Twin Cities area, terminating at Chicago and Seattle or Portland the train splits in Spokane, Washington. This train covers a route similar to the historic Empire Builder of the James J. Hill Great Northern Railway.

Taxi is probably your best bet for getting to your final destination from the train station, particularly if you're coming from Chicago or other points east. The train arrives at 10:30PM or later, when the heavily reduced night shift bus schedules have gone into effect. If a wait doesn't worry you the #16 bus runs along University Avenue, a block south of the station, and it will take you to downtown Minneapolis or Saint Paul. Consider fueling up at The Dubliner on University Ave across from the station. It's a great, friendly little pub and the #16 heading into Minneapolis stops on its doorstep.

Northstar Line, (http://www.metrotransit.o...). This commuter train connects the northwest suburbs to Downtown Minneapolis, terminating at a station near Target Field with connections to the light rail. The weekday schedule is oriented to rush hour commuters, with five trips heading to Minneapolis in the morning and five trips leaving Minneapolis in the late afternoon; there is only one reverse trip in the morning and in the afternoon. There are three trips in each direction on Saturdays and Sundays, and occasional special trips scheduled to take commuters to Twins or Vikings games.

By car

Interstate Highways 35W and 94 are the main arteries into town. Both will take you to the edges of downtown. I-35W runs north and south for the most part and I-94 east and west; both interstates will connect you to the I-494/694 beltway around the metro area. I-394 runs west from downtown to I-494, where it becomes US Hwy 12. Be sure to keep an eye on which lane you're in, as freeway interchanges come up fast, and traffic back-ups will occur at any time, day or night; the morning 7-9AM and evening 3-7PM rush hours are predictably congested.