Convenient Location for Apt Hunting

I%26#39;m going to Minneapolis in May with my daughter to look for graduate housing. We would like to be centrally located and convenient to public transportation. Any recommendations for moderately priced hotels? Should we stay in the downtowm area or would say the DoubleTree Park Place be a wise choice? Thanks!

Convenient Location for Apt Hunting

Will she be attending the U of MN?

Convenient Location for Apt Hunting

Yes. She will be attending classes mostly on the east side of UM.

when i was a grad student at the U of M, I lived at Canterbury Court Apts on the west side of lake calhoun. The address is 3140 Chowen Ave S. in Mpls. Its a decent place, a little pricey, but the location is pretty awesome. Youre right by uptown and all it has to offer, as well as 2 blocks from a bus stop with an express bus to the U. I wouldnt necessarily recommend Canterbury, but I wouldnt not recommend it either - check it out.

As far as hotels, there is a Radisson on campus, or you could stay downtown closer to the light rail for transport. Note that there are tons of bus routes that go to the U and by the Radisson.

As far as apartment hunting goes, check out this place called Apartment Search on 27th and Hennepin in Uptown. They will show you all kinds of places and set up appts for you to view them. You may want to call ahead and make an apt with them, but they are very helpful.

How well does she know the area? Is she planning to search for places downtown or closer to the campus?

You could stay at the Holiday Inn Metrodome and have access to both Dinkytown and downtown. If you have a car, then you%26#39;re fine. Staying downtown to search for apartments would be pretty expensive when something like the Holiday Inn Metrodome (which really isn%26#39;t downtown, despite the name) would be cheaper.

Not sure of the prices on the Ramada. If she%26#39;s looking solely around campus and not in downtown or Uptown, then that%26#39;s a perfect location.

Since you%26#39;re asking for recommendations close to public transit, does that mean you won%26#39;t have a car? Where exactly are you planning to look for housing? Close to campus, or off campus?

If you stay downtown, you would have access to the most public transit. Have you familiarized yourself with metrotransit.com? It has a trip planner that can help you determine how to get around.

I would suggest you not stay at the DoubleTree Park Place, especially if you will not have a vehicle. It is west of downtown Minneapolis; if you are using public transit, you will probably have to catch a bus to get downtown to transfer to another bus.

My first thought is to stay downtown, or at the Holiday Inn Metrodome, from where you could even walk to the East Bank campus if you were up for a long walk. As I%26#39;ve said, if you are downtown, you have access to the most public transit.

If you will give us a better idea of where you are planning to look for housing, maybe the forum can provide more specific answers.

Wow! I learned more from these few posts than from hours surfing the net. Thanks, everyone.

I have a reservation at the Radisson Plaza but was looking for something cheaper. Suprising, the Holiday Inn Metrodome some of you recommend is just as expensive. My original thought was to locate downtown and take public transit to see how easy/difficult it is to get around since she won%26#39;t have a car when she relocates. I%26#39;ll definitely pass on the Doubletree.

You ask where we%26#39;re looking for housing and the answer is we don%26#39;t really know! She%26#39;s been looking on Craig%26#39;s list for apts and has identified the Uptown area but I think I will take Marsy00%26#39;s suggestion and call the apt service. She wants to be able to ride her bike to school year round(I don%26#39;t think she realizes how cold it is there)and doesn%26#39;t want to live in an area with loud students in typical substandard student housing (the pocketbook might dictate otherwise).

I haven%26#39;t goten a feel for the lay of the land yet. I%26#39;ve looked at maps with neighborhoods identified, but I don%26#39;t know the nature of the neighborhoods. We%26#39;re staying for 3 nights. Will that be enough time to get a feel for the place?

Thanks again for all your help!

P.S.- Would we see more in our three days if we rent a car? Then we could stay farther out for less $$$.

I think renting a car would probably be a good choice. Since you are only going to be here for three days, you will save quite a bit of time if you have your own transportation. While it may end up costing you a few more dollars, even with the money you will save by being able to stay farther out, I think the time you save overall will be worth it. You will be able to check out things instead of waiting for the next bus or light rail.

I don%26#39;t know how much research you%26#39;ve done about the area, but here is a link to some info that might be of use to you: www.minneapolischamber.org/relocation.php

Just out of curiosity, what is your daughter going to be studying? What made her choose Golden Gopher land?

the Radisson University may be cheaper than Radisson Plaza. Radisson University is literally on campus. Radisson plaza is downtown.

If you can find a good deal on a car, you could stay in Bloomington or Roseville... These suburbs have lots of moderately priced hotels. Bloomington is very close to the airport. I would recommend getting a car regardless of where you stay, because you%26#39;ll likely be driving around to lots of different apartments and neighborhoods which could be difficult to do with our bus system. It%26#39;s easy to get to many neighborhoods from the university but getting from neighborhood A to neighborhood B might require you to go back to the U and spend an hour in the process.

Try websites such as forrent.com to get an idea of whats out there and identify some places you want to visit before you get here... but the apt search place will def help.

The U has some pretty nice apartment style housing that grad students can rent. These are convenient because theyre on campus, but of course your subject to everything that comes with university housing.

There are many neighborhoods to the north and west of the university in the dinky town neighborhood. These are going to be your standard old style student housing surrounding a university. Mostly students will live there and the apts/houses will be older and run down. These are mostly safe, but you should be a little careful.

Uptown is a trendy neighborhood that will have a mix of very, very nice apts/houses, averagee places, and run down places. Its a relatively safe neighborhood, with fewer students and more young professionals and/or hippies.

PS. while not completely out of the question, it takes a certain ';type'; of person to ride a bike to school year round in minnesota.

This year we didnt have so much snow, but we did have something like 10 days with the actual temp below -10F and wind chills approaching -50F. I think today was the first day we hit 70.

That said, mpls has some of the best bike trails of any city in the country, and there are dedicated bike lanes all over the university and the surrounding area.