Best Things To Do Near St. Paul, Minnesota – 2024

A few weeks ago, Dom and I drove up to Eagan, Minnesota (near St. Paul) for a friend’s wedding. I’d been to Minneapolis before for work conferences and meetings, but somehow those were all in the winter – not an ideal time to visit the area. So, it was nice to finally be there in the summer and do more outdoors things. We were only there for a few days, but we had a great time – the wedding was beautiful, the weather was great, and it was an easy weekend away.

What to do

Hiking

We try to hike pretty much everywhere we go, so I did some Googling for the best hikes in the area and Reddit quickly pointed us to Afton State Park, which is about 30 minutes East of Eagen. It felt really secluded even though we were only about 30 mins from the Twin Cities, was just $7 for a vehicle pass, had a cute little visitor center / gift shop, and had plenty of parking and picnic tables. If you’re in the area, it’s a great place to go to get away from the cities.

We hiked a little over 8 miles by mostly sticking to the Northern River, Trout Brook, and Prairie Loop trail on AllTrails. The AllTrails map was nice as a starting point, but it was easy to make the hike a little longer or shorter since different trails intersected each other a lot. It was probably the most well-marked hiking area I’ve ever been to – at every intersection, the labeling, signs, and maps made it really easy to see where you wanted to go. As an example, we’d get to an intersection, look at the map, see we wanted to go to intersection K, and then follow the marker with an arrow that said “to intersection K”. They were incredibly convenient for us, but I think they’d be arguably more helpful for cross-country skiers who don’t want to pull out their phone and make sure they’re where they meant to be.

The weather was perfect while we were there, so the area was a little busy right when we started but quickly thinned out. There were a few hills, but nothing crazy and there were plenty of benches to stop and rest at along the way. If you wanted to make it shorter, I would say the small loop in the southwest is the one to skip – it wasn’t very scenic. You could also add on a loop in the north – we did and it didn’t add much mileage.

The area had some ski lifts nearby for downhill skiing, and the trails we were on were marked to say if cross-country skiing, horses, and snowshoeing was allowed on each of them; it seems like it would be a great place to cross-country ski if you’re in the area in the winter. There was some pretty significant flooding from recent storms while we were there; if the water had been much higher, we wouldn’t have been able to go very far from the parking lot – so I would check the recent trail reviews on AllTrails and check the Afton State Park site for recent trail conditions before you drive out to the area and pay the fee.

You can pay the fee online, but it was also easy to just stop at the first visitor center when you drive into the park and pay in the office. They had stickers, pins, and maps in there, too. As always, be sure to bring plenty of food and water with you on the hikes and for in the car when you get back.

Running Trails + Parks

Big Rivers Regional Trail runs from Eagan to St. Paul – it’s supposed to be about 6 miles long before you switch to another trail, but while we were there part of the trail was severely flooded so the trail was closed before we got to any intersections with other trails, like the Lilydale Regional Trail. The portion of Big Rivers that we were able to do was really nice, though; it has some rolling hills which was nice compared to the really flat trails I’m on at home. It was busy but not too busy; there were bikers, roller bladers, runners and walkers, and some kind of German Shepherd club (it seemed like) – there were like 15-20 people each walking a German Shepherd in a long, single-file line.

Along the Big Rivers Regional Trail, there’s a cool overlook (Overlook at Quarry Island) – planes fly over almost constantly since the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is right across the Minnesota River from the overlook, so it’s a cool place to stop and relax for a bit and watch the planes fly right overhead. It also goes by the Lost Oak Golf Course, which is where my friend’s wedding was – they had a “congratulations” sign posted for them, which was fun to see while we ran past in the morning before the wedding.

While I was in downtown Minneapolis a few years ago, I really enjoyed running on the trails along the Mississippi River. There are a ton of trails and they intersect pretty frequently; I’ve listed the one-way distances below:

• (1.7 mi out & back): Stone Arch Bridge + St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail and Pillsbury Islands
• (2.1 mi loop): Nicollet and Boom Islands
• (1.9 mi out & back): Mississippi East Bank Trail
• The West River Parkway Trail runs along the West side of the Mississippi River. Different parallel trails are marked for bikers vs runners/walkers. You can pretty easily cross either the Stone Arch Bridge or one of the other bridges to get to the three AllTrails routes above

Shopping

We didn’t spend much time in Eagan, but our hotel was right next to a little shopping area with quite a few shops and food options. We did stop in the Sierra there which was fun, especially if you don’t have one near you – it’s the “outdoor” brand from T.J. Maxx.

We didn’t stop by on this trip, but the Mall of America wasn’t too far away in Bloomington, MN – I’d been to it on a work trip and it’s definitely something worth going to for a few hours if you can. The amusement park in the middle and the insane magnitude of stores (around 500) is really unique, especially today when so many malls are struggling.

If you’re near downtown Minneapolis, there’s a cute bookstore called Magers & Quinn Booksellers – it’s Abby Jimenez’s local bookstore, so I had ordered some of her signed copies of books from there before. We drove there to see if they had the one I was missing and I was able to complete my collection of her signed books – she’s one of my favorite authors. I think most new books in the store were 10% off MSRP, and they have a good selection of used books mixed in, too – we picked up a few used travel guide books which I’m very excited to look through.

Restaurants + Coffee Shops

We didn’t end up finding anywhere too exciting to eat – since we’re vegetarian, it limits our options quite a bit and we also ate at the wedding reception. In Eagan, we ended up going to a few chains – Chipotle and Naf Naf Grill were both great, as usual.

On a previous trip to the Twin Cities, I also went to a great pizza place south of Minneapolis called Red Wagon Pizza Company – their pizza was great and they have a long tap list with a beer + cider flight option, which was fun. They have great reviews and photos on Yelp, if you want to check them out.

A friend was visiting the Minneapolis area for work while I was writing this so I asked if she had any recommendations, and she texted a few days later and said I absolutely had to add Colita to my blog because it was some of the best food she’s ever had; she said the flavors were incredible. I’m disappointed I didn’t try it while we were there, but I’m looking forward to the next time I’m in the area so I can go then. It has amazing reviews online, is really vegan and vegetarian friendly, and is only open for dinner every day. It’s an up-scale mexican restaurant, but they have a variety of sister restaurants that are other cuisines and also have great reviews:

• Rosalia Pizza – south of Minneapolis
• Martina – Argentinian food – south of Minneapolis
• Cardamom – North Africa, Southern Europe, and Middle Eastern influence – near downtown Minneapolis
• Cafe Ceres – coffee and pastry shop – a few locations in the area
• Porzana – Argentinian steakhouse – downtown
• Flora Room – cocktail bar – downtown

While we were near downtown Minneapolis to go to the bookstore, we also went to a cute cafe called Lake & Bryant Cafe. It had some really great, diverse breakfast and lunch options; Dom had some unique huevos rancheros (meaning they didn’t look like any he’d had before) and I had an incredible breakfast burrito, which I was really excited about because it’s hard to find vegetarian breakfast burritos; they usually are pre-prepped with meat in them. They were also served with small potatoes which were good, and we both ordered coffee – I loved my vanilla latte.

The company Caribou Coffee is based in Brooklyn Center, MN – just north of Minneapolis – so there are about a million of those in the area. It’s like the Minnesota version of Dunkin or Starbucks.

Where to stay

We stayed at the Hoilday Inn Express & Suites Eagan – Minneapolis Area to be near the wedding, and somehow we both felt like we got the best sleep of our lives there. We are a little convinced that we get the best rooms because we have the IHG credit card and stay at IHG properties frequently, so we had a really large room on the top floor and on the end – so away from the ice machines, elevators, etc. We had no complaints – if we ever need to be in the area again, we’ll probably stay there.

It’s also really close to a shopping and dining area, so we were able to grab food from a few places and hang out at Starbucks for a while we were planning our upcoming trip to Hawaii.