Do you have a day or two in Detroit? Here is a list of the cool stuff to do from a local who lives in the motor city.
Downtown
I would just walk around the downtown area. There are a lot of beautiful buildings. Everywhere in Detroit is safe during the day, and you can see a lot just by walking around downtown.
- Guardian Building – It’s really beautiful on the inside. Check out the Guardian Building Website
- Greektown – It’s a little strip of restaurants, etc. next to the Greektown casino. There’s always a lot of people around here, and it’s a cool little area.
- Belle Isle – It’s a bit of a drive out of downtown, but you can see the entire Detroit skyline, and across the river to Canada. Along the drive, you could also cut back into Indian Village which is kind of a standard Detroit neighborhood – there’s blocks of beautiful homes in perfect condition and the next block is abandoned.
- Check out a Tigers Baseball Game – Not sure if you’d want to see it, but you can usually get $10-15 tickets, and the stadium is really pretty
- Riverwalk/Hart plaza/Renaissance Center – You can stroll along the river (Canada is right across it), Hart Plaza has some iconic Detroit statues. Renaissance center is GM headquarters, and you can walk in and look at cars on the ground level. Renaissance Center is the giant black, glass tours next to Hart Plaza.
Midtown
- Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) – It’s a beautiful building with an incredible art collection. Make sure to see the Rivera/Kahlo mural.
- Motown museum – Gives you a great history of Detroit and the Motown music movement
- Jolly Pumpkin Brewery – A brewery on Canfield St has great beers and good pizza.
- Cass Corridor – If you drive along Cass Corridor between Midtown and downtown, you’ll see abandoned buildings and a lot of cool restaurants and bars.
Corktown
- Batch Brewery – Brewery on Porter St. surrounded by awesome beers
- Johnny Noodle King – A new pho and noodle restaurant on W. Fort which is really cool. The bartender/servers here can tell you a wealth of information on great things to do in the city.
- Mexican Village – It’s across the freeway from Corktown, but it has THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD!
- Walk along Michigan Ave. There are a lot of car restaurants and bars. There is a large grassy lot at the corner of Michigan and Trumball – This is where the old Tigers baseball stadium was until they moved it downtown in 2000.
Have fun exploring!!!!!