Minneapolis is a huge city, so all individual listings should be moved to the appropriate district articles, and this section should contain a brief overview. Please help to move listings if you are familiar with this city.
Minneapolis on the surface seems like a pretty but rather quiet tourist destination. If you properly do your research though, there is plenty to do.
As mentioned earlier above, Minneapolis has beautiful lakes and riverfronts that the local residents work hard to keep clean. It is also easy with a car, the proper permits, and necessary equipment to go camping as close as twenty miles east on the St. Croix River, or as far as seven hours north on the Canadian border. And it can be delightfully cheap.
Biking
An old freight train railway has been converted into the midtown greenway, (http://www.ci.minneapolis...), which cuts through the middle of south minneapolis beginning on the west bank and crossing west all the way to the lake calhoun area and meeting up with the kenworth trail, (http://www.ci.minneapolis...) which in turn connects with the cedar lake trail, (http://www.ci.minneapolis...).
Lakes and parks
Minnehaha Creek
Minnehaha creek connects lake minnetonka in the far west suburbs with the mississippi river, running through lake nokomis and other small lakes along the way. a short tributary connects it to the southeast corner of lake harriet, but it is not navigable directly from any of the lakes..
Boom Island Park
Minneapolis features many other parks with recreational, natural, and historical merit in various degrees. Boom Island Park, just North of Nicollet Island and most easily accessible from the Stone Arch Bridge (http://www.nps.gov/archiv...), features nice fishing on side channels and some of the most unique skyline views in the United States, as well as a look at the century-old remains of massive brickworks and water-power tailrace tunnels of the Pillsbury A Mill. The Mill was the last functioning reminder of Minneapolis' boomtown heyday to shut down in 2005, and is slated to become yet another retail/restaurant/condo building lining the redbrick St. Anthony Main.
Mill Ruins Park
Directly across the river is the Mill Ruins Park and Mill City Museum (http://www.millcitymuseum.org/), next to the St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam—the final lock on the journey up the Mississippi. The Mill Ruins was the site of the Washburn A Mill among others, host of an infamous explosion and fire in the 19th century. And the 20th. And the 20th again. Oh, and there were two more in the 19th. Eventually, the burnt shells were given up on and left standing, and much of the canal and tunnel system which provided water power was covered with earth and paved over to form West River Road. The park features excavations of quite a bit of these early stoneworks from an age when very rich men prided themselves on the quality of even the most mundane, invisible, underground works; as well as the outfall of Basset Creek, buried for the last 1.5 miles of its run beneath downtown.
Tower Hill Park
In southeast minneapolis is home to the venerable witch's hat (http://www.pperr.org/hist...), the prospect park neighborhood's 1914 water tower. it is on the national register of historic places, and offers maybe the best if not the broadest view in the city on the one day per year that its observation deck is open.
Walk, bike, drive, swim or paddle
Around the chain of lakes running north to south along the western side of minneapolis proper. some are connected by lagoons and creeks which eventually spill into the mississippi river at the famed minnehaha falls, inspiration of longfellow's "song of hiawatha". these are all part of the minneapolis grand rounds (http://www.minneapolispar...), a 40-mile loop around the city begun over a century ago during the nation's first grand movement to toss the "keep off the grass!" signs into the dustbin of history. each of the chain of lakes has a walking path and a one-way biking/skating path. at least one path is kept clear even during snowy winter month, and it is possible to use the paths almost every day of the year.
Only beer in cans are allowed in Minneapolis Parks.