Have you ever planned a vacation based solely on an IG ad? No, just me? 😂 I’m a sucker for a colorful hotel and just as quickly as I added to my cart too many sweat sets, I booked a long weekend in Milwaukee, WI. Knowing nothing about Milwaukee other than it’s home to the Bucks, beer, and cheese, I was game to visit a new state.
Saint Kate the Arts Hotel in Milwaukee is named after Saint Catherine, the patron saint of artists and the original champion of the creative process.
Featuring multiple gallery and exhibition spaces, established and emerging artists showcase a variety of works. I LOVED walking through the spaces and viewing the art. While I’d rather wander city streets than visit a museum, I guess if you turn a hotel into a museum, color me interested!
What I Loved:
All the food options! We arrived in the evening of a snow storm and with our Uber driver nearly getting us hit, leaving the hotel for dinner was a hard pass. My nerves sure would have appreciated the complimentary champagne on check-in, damn drugs after surgery. I was grateful for Saint Kate’s pizza restaurant, Proof Pizza, because what a travel day! And obviously, I knew there was pizza – while the IG ad didn’t tell me that, I saw it while booking and knew that ad was divine.
There are four other eating establishments to choose from: the bar (photo below), Giggly, Aria, and The Dark Room. Besides our frazzled nerve pizza for dinner, we only had breakfast at the bar and ate other meals on the town.
Bummed that I couldn’t snag one of the three artist designed rooms, the canvas rooms, I loved our room choice! When the Lon Michels designed Leopard Room wasn’t available for several months (argh!) our second choice of room, the Superior King with the separate seating area, was an excellent choice. Not obvious in the pictures was the sliding door to close off the sleeping space and bathroom from the seating area. My partner moved to the couch in the seating area one night when his back was killing him.
All 219 rooms feature a record player and a small collection of records with more options at the front desk. The enthusiasm level was 10 outta 10 for my record loving partner. He’d have been happy as a clam to spend all day in the hotel room listening to records but adventure awaited us!
What more is there to love, you might ask? On checkout day, our flight was several hours after check-out time. Knowing the airport was small and didn’t have much in the way of food or entertainment, we wanted to kill time at the hotel. During our stay, we saw these bonus rooms, studies I believe, at the end of two floors. Colorfully decorated and filled with sunshine, we went to reception and asked if we could hang out there while we waited to depart. They said yes! While the TV didn’t work, we soaked up the sunshine and killed time.
What Else I Loved:
The Saint Kate is also dog-friendly! While we didn’t see any pups during our stay, I loved knowing that my pup could have joined us. Plus, finding dog-friendly hotels outside of IHG Kimptons is always a win.
The in-room perks! The paper scroll and colored pencils made my non-artist but color loving self happy. I loved the Saint Kate Erase Bar Soap by Niki Johnson! Full disclosure, I treat it like I do candles. 😄 I still haven’t used it because it’s so damn cute!
Kate’s Curiosities – the cutest gift shop EVER! Neon signs, colorful puzzles, and CANDY!
And obvi the art! Here are some of my favorites.
Not My Fave:
Not realizing that what I was hearing my first night was the elevator. I kind of assumed it was by the woosh click noise but I thought my walk down the hall was pretty far from the elevator so my mind couldn’t accept that that was what I was hearing. I should have immediately asked to switch rooms because my sleep was definitely not as fab as it should have been.
The nonslip stuff in the shower was chipped and actively chipping. And the shower drain was super slow. Not so slow that we had an overflow situation but it was well on its way to having that happen.
Fantastic or Flop
Pretty sure it’s obvious I loved my stay. So happy with the IG ad that led me to book a long weekend at Saint Kate the Arts Hotel in Milwaukee. Putting the good juju vibes out there to the IG ad gods to serve me up more colorful hotels in places I’ve never visited.
