If shopping is important when you make vacation plans your choice is easy: book a round trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport as soon as the pandemic is under control, check an empty suitcase and on arrival head straight for Mall of America.
The shopping center – located in Bloomington, Minnesota, just on the outskirts of the Twin Cities – attracts more than 40 million domestic and international shoppers and/or visitors annually. They come from all over the world to shop designer brands at Mall of America’s 520 stores where there is no sales tax on either clothing or shoes. If your ambition is to visit every one of the store for maximum 10 minutes at each store, it will take you 86 hours. The Shoppers Travel Guide recommends three days at Mall of America.
In addition, the Mall of Malls is also a pure tourist attraction with 50 restaurants, ranging from fine dining to food courts, nightclubs, movie theatres, an aquarium, a zip line, mini golf, game rooms, stages for entertainment, be it music or acrobatics and of course Nickelodeon Universe, which just happens to be the largest indoor theme park in the United States. Another incredible fact about Mall of America is that it adds more than 20 new stores each year.
And every year there are new attractions as well. In 2016, for example, two new attractions saw the light of day. As the name indicates, FlyOver America located at Nickelodeon takes you on an amazing aerial tour of some of the greatest and most iconic landmarks and regions of the United States using virtual flight technology. During the flight you experience wind, mist, fog and scents. The second addition of the summer of 2016, the Crayola Experience, is where children discover the magic of color at the world’s newest Crayola attraction.
Where to stay when you visit? Mall of America is surrounded by hotels of all categories with shuttle service to the entrance door. In addition, The Radisson Blu and JW Marriott are both connected directly to the mall. In those hotels you will not only have top accommodations, but also courtesy package pick-up anywhere in the Mall if the shopping bug got the best of you. If you, after your three recommended days, want to experience something else, there is a light rail train station conveniently located at the mall which puts Mall of America just minutes away from the sites and attractions of both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.
