Maybe it’s because of our Scandinavian roots, and the quality-of-life quotient of like-minded countries like Sweden, Norway and Finland, but Minnesotans have long understood the importance of a place’s sheer livability. It’s one thing to have a stellar restaurant scene (we’ll get to that in a second) — another to also value a healthy work/life balance and sorely overlooked stress factors like a lack of access to nature and sleep.  

Just ask WalletHub; the personal finance company named Minnesota its Least Stressed State in 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, U.S. News & World Report has Minnesota hovering within its Top 5 of the Best States Overall, proving we know how to work and play.  

According to the Trust for Public Land’s annual ParkScore report, 99% of Minneapolis and St. Paul residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. The national average is only 76%, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two cities are often trading places in the race for Best Park System.  

Sprawling green spaces aren’t the only example of how Minnesota embraces the outdoors. We’re also home to a couple iconic spots (Voyageurs National Park, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness) for camping, hiking and staring at the stars, and offer a seemingly endless array of things to do in spring, summer, fall and winter.

Even biking is the very best here, whether you’re coasting across snowbanks or clearing trees. 

Thanks to Minnesota’s culturally rich immigrant communities, the entrepreneurial spirit of Somali, Lao and Hmong refugees, and the wide range of casual and cutting-edge restaurants that line the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul, rarely a year goes by where our food and drink leaders don’t land headlines or industry-wide accolades.  

In other words, it's not so much a question of where you should eat here as how much time you have. And that’s without even considering our myriad bakeries, food halls, distilleries and breweries.  

Minnesota spent $9.62 per capita on the arts in 2024, making us the #1 ranked state in public funding. That’s because Minnesotans have long considered the arts a crucial part of everyday life — entertainment that enriches us on a deep, fundamental level.  

We’ve got two Tony-winners (Children’s Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater), a hefty handful of heavyweight art museums (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Weisman Art Museum), two major classical ensembles (Minnesota Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra), and a serious music scene that’s produced such pop, indie rock, and folk stars as Prince, Bob Dylan, The Replacements, Trampled by Turtles and Lizzo.  

Culture vultures can also be kept busy at such idiosyncratic institutions as Winona’s Marine Art Museum, Shoreview’s Cafesjian Art Trust, Red Wing’s Pottery Museum, and such one-of-a-kind, impeccably curated collections as the American Swedish Institute and The Museum of Russian Art.  

Find out more about our theater, music and art scene. 

Between our stellar healthcare system (including the best-in-class Mayo Clinic), high concentration of Fortune 500 companies (Target, General Mills and Best Buy, for starters), excellent public education, and leading universities like the U of M, Carleton and Macalester, Minnesota isn’t just a nice place to visit. It’s also a well-balanced homebase for the many new and old Minnesotans that make the most of its universal opportunities and access.    

There’s a reason why the Airports Council International declared MSP the Best Airport in North America in seven of the past eight years. And it’s not just the fact that it’s a major Delta hub that can get you anywhere in the contiguous U.S. in under four hours.

As the organization’s director general (Luis Felipe de Oliveira) put it in a 2024 press release, “Flying through MSP isn’t just transit; it’s an experience crafted with care.”  

That goes for everything from its progressive Arts & Culture Program to the world’s largest airline-related pet therapy program. And then there is the thoughtful design of our bathrooms — something Gail King highlighted in a series of Instagram posts.  

“Once again, thank you Minneapolis-St. Paul,” King said after sharing the polar opposite in a New York airport. “It must have been a woman who designed that bathroom.”  

Thanks to the Timberwolves, Vikings, Wild and Twins, Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of only 12 metro areas within the U.S. that has a presence in every pro sports league. Our love of the game — no matter what it may be — doesn’t stop there, either. Minnesota’s fierce WNBA and PWHL squads have both won it all before. The latter did in its debut, too, echoing another local franchise: the St. Paul Saints, a minor league baseball team with five championships under their belt, including their inaugural season.

Also of note: our men’s (Minnesota United FC) and women’s (Minnesota Aurora FC) soccer teams, both of which have shown promising signs of being ready for their own big dances.  

While there’s no denying how strong Minnesota’s Scandinavian heritage is, there’s more to Minnesota than gravlax and lefse. According to MN Compass, nearly half a million immigrants currently live here, a mirror of the welcoming spirit Minnesota has maintained since 1867. That’s when the state launched a Board of Immigration to promote a homesteading program amongst European farmers.

Today, Minnesota is home to a diverse array of immigrant communities from places such as Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Somalia, and Ethiopia, each with their own vibrant cultures. This has led to a rich tapestry of interwoven communities and cultures that Minnesotans are eager to experience firsthand.

Minnesota also celebrates our Native American and LGBTQ+ communities, and our voter turnout is often the highest in the nation.

When The Daily Show poked fun at Duluth’s climate haven status in early 2024, they alluded to something we’ve all known all along: how important our mental and physical health is to Minnesotans. It’s clear in everything from our highly equitable healthcare system to how we let our worries slip away in a sauna, knock back non-alcoholic beer, and receive industry-leading treatments from Rochester’s world-renowned Mayo Clinic.  

Minnesota is also considered one of the country’s most active states, a rating that’s reflected in the many restless people who seize the season across the state every day. 

Not to sound nitpicky, but The Land of 10,000 Lakes actually has 11,842. That’s a lot of real estate for paddling, fishing, and living that resort life.

We're also where the Mississippi River begins its 2,552-mile journey towards Mexico; a state park-lined focal point of Lake Superior; and the home of not one but two International Dark Sky icons: Voyageurs National Park and the one-and-only Boundary Waters. Its 1,098,000 acres of raw wilderness include more than 1,500 miles of winding canoe routes. There’s no better place in the world to unplug — to truly get away from it all in an increasingly crowded world.

In other words, it's time to practice your portaging skills! 

Find out more about moving to Minnesota or check out our custom itineraries.