Awesome Things To Do In Roseville MN & The Surrounding Area | USA

Roseville MN (Minnesota) is proud of the fact that it’s ‘Perfectly Positioned’ for a visit to Minneapolis and St Paul and I would have to agree! It’s the only town to border both of the cities to the North. Located just off the I-35W gives quick access to many places in the Twin Cities! Here are some things to do in Roseville and the surrounding area!

Disclosure: My trip to Roseville and the surrounding areas, was hosted by the Roseville Visitors Association. This post contains affiliate links. I may make a small commission on purchases made after clicking the link. For more information visit the Privacy & Disclosure Policy.

Roseville dates back to the mid 1800’s and holds a few crazy USA ‘firsts’. It was home to the very first Target store in America and the first McDonald’s in Minnesota!

Things To Do In Roseville MN

• 🍺Bent Brewstillery
• 🍔Grumpy’s Bar & Grill
• 🐠Seaquest
• ⛳️Can Can Wonderland
• 🌳Boom Island Park
• ΩUniversity Avenue
• 🎢Mall of America
• 🛏️Where To Stay In Roseville NM

Bent Brewstillery

🗺1744 Terrace Dr, Roseville, MN 55113, United States

Another Roseville first! The Bent Brewstillery is Minnesota’s first brewstillery! It’s a mash up between a brewery (beer) and a distillery (spirits/whiskey). The taproom is right next to where the magic happens, you can see giant barrels and fermenters through the fence! 

My favourite way to experience a micro brewery is to have a flight of beer, which is a great way to sample several flavours, especially when the Bent Brewstillery offer so many unique choices!

They stole a little piece of my heart when I discovered that one of their year round beers called “Nicked” has the London Eye and Big Ben on the beer tap handle and the can! Yay, England!  Another London style beer is called Enuff, being from Essex this is spot on pronunciation! I also tried the Pub Stout with Coconut which was AMAZING and the Plum Surprised…very fruity!

There was a blizzard during my stay, but doesn’t stop the taproom from opening. However it did unfortunately cancel the Saturday food trucks! They also offer tours of the brewstillery. For $13 you can sample spirits during the tour and then have a beer flight at the end (which is included in the price).

If there’s no special events on there’s plenty of popcorn and board games to keep you entertained.

Grumpy’s Bar and Grill

🗺2801 Snelling Ave, Roseville, MN 55113, United States

The name is what drew me to Grumpy’s and it certainly didn’t disappoint, I had fun just reading the menu, it’s full of sarcastic comments and descriptions! It’s a bit like Minneapolis/Roseville’s cheaper answer to Dick’s Last Resort…just in written form rather than verbal abuse! 

They have daily events and a breakfast menu at the weekends (available until 3pm)…just in case you can’t find anything on the regular menu which is HUGE. Of course the food was tasty as well!

Seaquest

Since my visit another attraction has opened in Roseville! SeaQuest allows visitors to get up close with several different animals. They mainly have sea animals with a few land based species too. On top of the regular entrance ticket, you can buy ‘feed tokens’ and additional experiences. Such as snorkelling with stingrays and sharks and sloth interactions!

St Paul – 10 Minutes From Roseville

Can Can Wonderland

🗺755 Prior Ave N Suite #004, St Paul, MN 55104, United States

The city of St Paul is just 10 minutes from Roseville. I visited Can Can Wonderland, an artistically creative indoor mini golf course. Complete with vintage arcade games and a huge range of unique cocktails and milkshakes! As a mini golf fanatic, I thought this course was absolutely brilliant. Tickets are $15 for 12 yrs+ and $13 under 12.

Read more: Can Can Wonderland – Mini Golf & Cocktails in St. Paul, Minnesota!

St Paul Attractions

There are so many attractions in the St Paul area! The Minnesota State Fair takes place during the last week of August at the fairgrounds located in St Paul (just 5 minutes from Roseville). 

I had planned to visit Como Park Zoo and Conservatory…a FREE attraction (although there is a suggested voluntary donation of $3 for an adult and $2 for a child). However the blizzard cut my trip short, although I’m sure the polar bear was absolutely loving life! (The zoo was OPEN though even with the bad weather conditions).  

The Wabasha Street Caves look really interesting, as does the Science Museum of Minnesota!  The Cafe Astoria located on Grand Ave serve colourful coffees which would be an Instagrammer’s dream, I’m gutted I missed out!

Downtown Minneapolis – 10 Minutes From Roseville

Boom Island Park

Just like St Paul, Downtown Minneapolis is just 10 minutes from Roseville too! Even in the snow, the journey only took 15 minutes! I took part in the 5K Hot Chocolate Run in which Minneapolis is one of the annual host cities.

The run starts in Boom Island Park, crosses the Mississippi River, continues along the W River Pkwy before crossing back over the river on the Stone Arch Bridge which was a former railway bridge.  

It’s a good job there was a blizzard during my run because I would have stopped to have taken about 5 million photos of this area and my race time would have been awful. I had seen the Stone Arch Bridge from the I-35W and was desperate to take a picture of it but alas, it just wasn’t meant to be.

On the left (out of shot) is the St Anthony’s Falls.  Just to the right in the picture above is the Mill Ruins Park area and the Mill City Museum. I hear from a fellow Midwest Blogger that this is well worth a stop!

I loved the look of the architecture in Downtown Minneapolis but as you can see, the weather really wasn’t on my side so I was unable to just wander around and take it all in, I could barely open my eyes because of the heavy snowfall!

University Avenue

As an expat, driving along University Avenue was fascinating. A lot of this road is home to the University of Minnesota and you go by a whole line of fraternity and sorority houses with the greek letters on the front! 

It’s something that Brits would consider a stereotype from films but it really does exist! It feels like you are driving along a movie set! (Ames IA has a lot of fraternity and sorority houses too!)

*Tip* There are hundreds of different parking lots in Downtown Minneapolis. I used Best Parking to find the car park with the best rate as some can be very expensive. This site was recommended in the Hot Chocolate run participant guide!

Bloomington – 20 Minutes For Roseville

Mall of America

🗺60 E Broadway, Bloomington, MN 55425, United States

If there isn’t enough to keep you entertained in Roseville, St Paul AND Minneapolis, 20 minutes from Roseville is Bloomington! Bloomington is where the absolute monster that is the Mall of America is located! You could easily spend a day at the Mall alone!

Not only are there over 500 stores to choose from, but you’ll also find North America’s largest indoor theme park and multiple other attractions including a Sea Life centre!

Where To Stay In Roseville

Residence Inn by Marriott

One of the benefits of basing yourself in Roseville, is that it offers a quieter alternative the hustle and bustles of the larger cities. Yet it is still close enough to be a ‘part of the action’. I stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott Minneapolis St Paul/Roseville, in a quiet business park area. The hotel is renovated in 2017 and offers everything for a comfy stay.

For just $20 a night extra, you can upgrade from a studio room to a 2 bedroom suite with (as it says on the tin): 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large sitting area, dining room, a full kitchen (with Marriott popcorn for a snack!) and 3 TVs.  

My favourite part was the real fireplace which was much needed during the worst April blizzard in 10 years! The fire was on a timer so it simply turned itself off after a while. The WiFi had great connectivity, being an expat I video chat home a lot from hotels so the video quality is a great way to gauge this!

Other facilities at the Residence Inn that I loved was the free breakfast (egg, sausage, oatmeal, waffles, cold items etc), the gym (last minute workout before my 5K race in Downtown Minneapolis) and the swimming pool and hot tub (much needed relaxation AFTER my 5k race!).  

There’s even an outdoor basketball court and a 2 mile walking path! On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the hotel also holds social evenings.

And being in Minnesota, they even have salt and snow shovels available to use if your car gets buried in a blizzard…!

Roseville also has some of the cheapest lodging tax in the area 😉

The Roseville Visitor Guide

I recommend picking up a copy of the Roseville MN visitor’s guide (the Residence Inn had them in the lobby area). It’s jam packed full of information and inspiration of things to do while in the area.  

The coupon book in the centre is an awesome resource to help save pennies during your visit to Roseville. Such as: lodging discounts, attraction/tour discounts and coupons that can be used at the local restaurants. During my stay there was a ‘buy one get one free’ draft beer coupon for the Bent Brewstillery, you can thank me when you’re drinking your free beer!

As you can see, even on a blizzard hit weekend I still managed to cram so much in to my visit to Roseville! Roseville has an average summer temperature of 70F/21c and an average winter temperature of 19F/-7C.

There are plenty of indoor attractions to visit on a cold/rainy day but there are equally multiple ways to enjoy the outdoors on nicer days too!

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Last Updated on March 7, 2024