Minnesota

• 🌍 St. Paul, the capital and second-largest city, with a historic-looking state capitol.
• 🌍 Bloomington, home of the Mall of America, and the only IKEA in the state.
• 🌍 Duluth, the primary city in northeastern Minnesota and gateway to the North Shore and Arrowhead Region.
• 🌍 Mankato, the hub of the smallest metropolitan area in Minnesota.
• 🌍 Minneapolis, the largest city in the state and the center of the "North". Extremely rich in culture and diversity.
• 🌍 Northfield, on the Cannon River with the motto "Cows, Colleges, and Contentment" and the annual "Defeat of Jesse James Days" celebration.
• 🌍 Pine City, the primary city in the East Central region, equidistant to Minneapolis and Duluth, and home to the Snake River Fur Post.
• 🌍 Rochester, the primary city in southeastern Minnesota and a global destination for health and wellness, home to the Mayo Clinic.
• 🌍 St. Cloud, the largest population center in the State's central region.

• 🌍 Boundary Waters Canoe Area
• 🌍 Flandrau State Park
• 🌍 Itasca State Park
• 🌍 Pipestone National Monument
• 🌍 Voyageurs National Park – Minnesota's only national park, commemorating the French–Canadian fur seal traders

Minnesotans generally present a cheery, genial attitude ("Minnesota nice") and may be caught off-guard when people don't reciprocate. Minnesotans' cheery attitude combined with a sing-song accent contrasts them with their fellow Midwesterners. Also, Minnesota represents a rare left-wing presence in the Midwestern United States, famously described in the book Main Street by Minnesota author Sinclair Lewis as Mr. Stowbody, "Trouble enough with these foreign farmers; if you don't watch these Swedes they turn socialist or populist or some fool thing on you in a minute." In fact, these Swedes and foreign farmers did turn socialist, forming the Farmer-Labor Party in 1918, electing three successive governors, four senators and eight US representatives, until it merged with the Minnesota Democratic party in 1944. The state maintains liberal leanings and is home to the second largest LGBT population in the US.

Unlike many other US states that sport several major urban centers, most of Minnesota's urban culture is centered in the "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which effectively form one large city divided into separate political areas. Although other urban centers exist in Rochester and Duluth, the centralization of population, wealth, and political power in the Twin Cities makes visiting "the Cities" a very different experience than the rest of the state.

It is the 12th largest state in the country.

The stereotypical Minnesotan dialect as popularized in the film Fargo is more prevalent in northern (Iron Range) and rural parts of the state than it is in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. In fact, in the metropolitan area, the accent is rarely noticed by visitors, much less the locals. The dialect is characterized by long vowels and a slight inflection (especially Os as found in the word "boat"). The sing-songy intonation is less common with each generation removed from the Scandinavian ancestors. Some Native Americans (primarily Ojibwe) have an accent of their own.

In addition to a unique dialect, Minnesota also has several phrases and colloquial expressions that can be overheard somewhat frequently. These are most frequently heard in the northern parts of the state, and are rarely heard in urban areas. These include:

• Uff-da – Norwegian exclamation meaning "Off it!" Typically used as a response to surprising or exasperating circumstances.
• You betcha – You bet/of course.
• Yah sure – I agree. Sometimes used in conjunction with "You betcha". "Yah sure you betcha".
• Don-cha-no – Meaning "Don't you know". Used at the end of sentences as a sort of emphatic phrase. "Sure is cold outside, don-cha-no!".
• Hot dish – Casserole.
• Oh yah – Yes.
• Oh, for [adjective]! - "Oh, for cute" or if you went sledding last weekend one might say "oh, for fun!" ("Oh, for silly; oh, for funny; oh, for crazy") - the word "for" is used in place of the standard word, "how." - "Oh, how fun!"
• Choppers – Leather mittens with wool inserts, used for the really cold days.
• Tuque – [Pronounced "Tuke"] or *Stocking cap (Knitted winter hat).
• Boughten – Adjective for a store-bought item, as opposed to home-made, as in 'boughten bread.'
• Sled – Slang term for a snowmobile.
• Popple – Aspen or poplar tree, one of the most common trees in northern Minnesota and important part of the logging industry.
• A forty – 40 acres (about 16 hectares), or quarter-mile by quarter-mile of land, a derivative of the Public Land Survey (PLS) system.
• Acrost – Scandinavian influenced regional pronunciation of "across."
• Up north – Usually refers to anywhere that is north of the Twin Cities or where the person is at that time. ex.- Up north to Ely [while in Duluth].
• Whipping Shitties – Braking suddenly in an icy parking lot while the steering wheel is turned sharply causing the vehicle to spin.
• Skol – From the Swedish term skål, a common drinking phrase used when clinking glasses together, such as "Cheers", "Salud", or "Chin Chin." Also used in their song for the Minnesota Vikings American football team, "Skol Vikings."
• Snus – A Swedish word for wet snuff, a tobacco variety common in the North.
• schnort – ("Would you like a schnort?) an extra splash or shot of whatever your drinking, schnapps, whiskey, rum. usually hard alcohol.
• The Cities – (The Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul). For those living outside "The Cities" it is rare to refer to Minneapolis or St. Paul individually. Instead, the collective name is typically used.)
• Outstate – Used to describe non-metropolitan (i.e., non-Twin Cities) Minnesota. Also sometimes known as "Greater Minnesota".
• Duck Duck Grey Duck – A version of "Duck Duck Goose."

Metro Transit offers bus and light rail services to the Twin Cities and their surrounding suburbs. Average fare for either service is typically $2 ($2.50 for the peak times of 6AM-9AM and 3PM-6:30PM.) The fare buys the rider a pass that can be used to ride on or transfer to any Metro Transit bus or train for 150 minutes. The Duluth Transit authority offers bus and trolley service to the Twin Ports area.

Senior citizens and individuals with a disability are able to ride the buses and light rails for a reduced fair of $1 upon verification.

The relatively new light rail service offers a visitor-friendly line that connects the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), the Mall of America, the Warehouse District, and downtown Minneapolis among other places.

Information on transit can be found here.

If your vehicle can run on E85, you can save money by using E85 instead of gas—however, if you have a "flex fuel" vehicle that can run on any gasoline/ethanol combination from E0 (pure gasoline) to E85, you're likely to get 20–25% lower fuel economy when running on E85 than on standard gasoline, which in Minnesota is 10% ethanol. The mileage loss will vary with the actual composition of E85, which differs seasonally (winter blends of "E85" are actually 70% ethanol). There are over 350 stations that sell E85.

• Minneapolis means "City of Lakes" and is home to an impressive array of recreational lakes. Lake Nokomis, Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun), Lake of the Isles, Cedar Lake, and Lake Harriet are just a few that make up the city's waterfronts. Many have biking/running/walking trails, or canoe/paddleboat/kayak rentals.
• Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester provides recreational activities, cross country skis, and snowshoes.
• Itasca State Park. Itasca State Park in Outstate/Greater Minnesota is home to the Mississippi River headwaters at Lake Itasca. 
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Part of the Superior National Forest. 

The Mall of America in Bloomington is the nation's largest indoor mall boasting over 500 shops, and an indoor amusement park.

Traditional Minnesotan food is generally of the hearty meat & potatoes variety found all over the Midwest, but, as you might expect from The Land of 10,000 Lakes, with more of an emphasis on fish. Two locally popular fish are walleye, with fine, firm, white flesh, and lake trout, with firm, pinkish flesh vaguely similar to salmon.

Lutefisk is a popular dish brought to Minnesota by Norwegian immigrants. Made from dried cod reconstituted in caustic lye, it is an acquired taste, to say the least. This dish is more often brought out at Christmas time, in church basement suppers all over the state. For the less adventurous, there is lefse, a kind of tortilla-thin flatbread made with potato flour that can be used in a variety of ways, but is usually slathered with butter and sugar and rolled up into a tube.

If you are in the Twin Cities area, you can find almost any kind of ethnic cuisine you desire, especially along Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, popularly known as "Eat Street". St. Paul has a large southeast Asian population, and there is a large East African population spread throughout the Twin Cities, but centered mostly in Minneapolis--the Safari Restaurant (Somali), the Blue Nile (Ethiopian), and the Holy Land Deli (Middle Eastern) are three well-known restaurants catering to those communities, along with countless hole-in-the-wall places along Franklin, Nicollet, and Central Avenues.

Minnesota - the land of 10,000 Lakes - has beautiful wilderness and camping sites. It is home to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or BWCA), a 1,090,000-acre (4,400 km²) wilderness area within the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota (USA). Northwest of the BWCA is Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota’s only national park. There are also numerous state parks.

See also Camping in the United States.

• North Dakota - Minnesota's western neighbor is America's least visited state, but its isolation provides opportunities for uncrowded visits to the state's hills and lakes, badlands, plains, and old frontier forts.
• South Dakota - Home to such natural and cultural wonders as Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park and Mount Rushmore, Minnesota's neighbor to the southwest offers a surprising amount for travelers to see and do.
• Iowa - Rural Iowa is Minnesota's southern neighbor and provides the opportunity to explore America's agricultural heartland.
• Wisconsin - "America's Dairyland" borders Minnesota to the east.
• Michigan - The Upper Peninsula offers wilderness areas similar to those found in Northeastern Minnesota and can be reached by heading east across Lake Superior.
• Ontario - Northeast of Minnesota, Northern Ontario covers 90% of the actual land mass of Ontario but only holds 6% of its population.
• Manitoba - Minnesota's northwestern neighbor is known for its prairies, agriculture, culture and history.