Travel writer and Minneapolis Tricia Cornell reveals the best things the Twin Cities have to offer, from the lakes, theaters, and 70-block sky walkways in Minneapolis to the farmer's market, Broadway shows, and artistic district of St. Paul. Tricia provides travel strategies including A Frosty Day in the Twin Cities, Twin Cities for Next to Nothing and From High Brow to Low Brow: Twin Cities Arts. Packed with information on dining, transportation and accommodations, Moon Minneapolis and St. Paul has many options for a range of travel budgets. Complete with details on where to go urban spelunking, gawk at a massive ice palace during the Winter Carnival, or walk across the world's shortest suspension bridge while gazing at the Mississippi, Moon Minneapolis and St. Paul gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

Drive through lush valleys, across rolling farmland, and out to the edge of the West where sacred Natie American pipestone quarries are preserved in the Minnesota River Valley escape. Visit Al Capone's country retreat, relax in the rustic ambience of the Spider Lake Lodge, and enjoy a historic excursion on the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad in the Hayward Lakes Area escape. Learn about the 1850s communal life of the True Inspirationists, the architecture, factories and mills, crafts, and cultural traditions, as you tour seven little towns in the Amana Colonies escape.

The landscape of Minneapolis and St. Paul is a mix of lakes, rivers, expansive wetlands, evergreen forests, and grassy prairies. Because of the abundance of scenery around the city, hiking in the Twin Cities is more than just a trek around the town. Hiking enthusiast and local Jake Kulju shows you the best hikes in and around Minneapolis and St. Paul. All hikes within the guide take less than 2 hours to reach by car, with details on public transportation options and clear directions on how to reach the trailhead. Jake has compiled lists of his favorite hikes, including:

Best River Hikes
Best Lake Hikes
Best Historical Hikes
Best Hikes for Families
Best Metro Hikes
Best Nature and Wildlife Hikes

Let Jake show you all the worthwhile hikes, from short, flat routes suitable for families to the more advanced hikes. Each hike profile contains practical information including point-by-point trail navigation, contact information, facilities, fees, parking instructions, and an easy-to-use map for each trail. From abundant lakes to bluff country, evergreen forests, and lowland areas, your trip begins with Moon Take a Hike Minneapolis & St. Paul.

The Best Travel Writing 2010 is the seventh volume in the annual Travelers' Tales series launched in 2004 to celebrate the world's best travel writing — from Nobel Prize winners to emerging new writers. The points of view and perspectives are global, and themes encompass high adventure, spiritual growth, romance, hilarity and misadventure, service to humanity, and encounters with exotic cuisine. In The Best Travel Writing 2010 readers will explore the mysteries of superstition in Cameroon, discover the meaning of life with an Irish carpenter on a long flight, take adopted children to Korea on a Homeland Tour, delve deep into a sacred Japanese pilgrimage, travel solo in Panama's forbidding Darien jungle, comprehend the nuances of bargaining in Senegal...and much more.

This authoritative guide to Twin Cities hiking details 60 of the area’s best trails, most of which are within an hour’s drive of the metro area. This second edition is completely updated and includes new trails, photos, trailhead coordinates, and updated maps. ithin the seven county "metro" area that encompasses the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, nearly 1,000 beautiful trails lie within these urban borders. Minneapolis was recently named "the most athletic city in the nation" in the February 2006 issue of Men’s Fitness and this is the only hiking guide for the Twin Cities

The decisive guide to day hikes in the Twin Cities’ area just got better. Updated maps, new hikes, new photos, and brand-new trailhead coordinates—provided as UTM and latitude/longitude formats—make Tom Watson’s authoritative guide to Minneapolis and St. Paul’s best hiking even more useful than before. For readers who asked for actual driving mileage and wheelchair accessibility, each hike now contains that information in the Key At-a-Glance information box. Twin Cities’ hiking is huge; get the guide that gets you there and back.

Within the seven county "metro" area that encompasses the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul lies a network of literally hundreds of miles of trails. In the state of 10,000 lakes, nearly 1,000 of them lie within these urban borders. Consequently, Minneapolis was dubbed the "City of Lakes". Once you discover all the trails throughout this same area, you may be inclined to call the Twin Cities "The Cities of Trails."

Some of these trails are broad, paved corridors through multi-use parks generously developed to provide myriad recreational opportunities for the young and old, the robust trekker and the casual stroller. Other trails are country lanes, walkways of grass winding through majestic stands of Minnesota hardwoods. Still others are a spider-web networks that remind one of well-used deer trails.

Some are isolated within a pocket of greenery surrounded by vast ribbons of freeway concrete and broad subdivisions. Others are woven within the fabric of parklands so expansive that you could literally spend weeks hiking all the networks lying within their folds.

The Trails Included

Wherever there was a network of trails, we tried to pick a trail that was representative of the area—those that showcased the park or region’s main attractions or personality. As you find certain areas more appealing, you will also find other trails that you feel are more exciting or more challenging. That’s the beauty of exploration and discovery. The trails cited in this guidebook are offered to introduce you to a particular hike and let your own wanderlust take it from there.

We deliberately chose not to include the regional corridors that are part of this vast system of trails. These are wonderful pathways—the Luce Line Trail that bisects the entire western region of the Twin Cities, the Hennepin Regional Trails, and the Scott County Regional Trail—many sections of which were reclaimed from discarded railroad right-of-ways. They are primarily bike corridors upon which you can also hike. They are great for connecting one park to another via greenbelts or low-traffic routes. We consider these the interstates and freeways of the hiking world. The trails covered in this book are more the back roads and neighborhood routes that really showcase the areas through which they pass.