De Pere – The Experience

When an outsider thinks of Wisconsin, they might think of one large city (Milwaukee) and two small cities (Madison and Green Bay) surrounded by nothing but cows, but to me, it’s much more than that. Wisconsin is collection of decent sized communities that most outsiders might consider small, but I think are just the right size. I’m not a fan of the suburbs, in fact I think one of the biggest plagues of this country is suburban sprawl (not to be confused with urban sprawl), but with that being said, sometimes, if a community has been around long enough, it ceases to be a suburb and becomes it’s own unique community. De Pere is a great example of this. Being so close to Green Bay one might think this is just a normal and boring suburb, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. With a rich history and unique geographical layout, De Pere has taken on a life of it’s own completely separate from Title Town that is well deserving of its own story, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do for the next three weeks.

I’m going to get this out of the way right now… I’m from De Pere. Born and raised. So this post might seem a little biased but I tried to make my last trip there as “touristy” as possible. Normally when I go home for an event or to visit, I stay with a family member or a shared family house so as to not spend much money. For this most recent trip we decided to instead, like I mentioned above, act the tourist for the weekend, complete with a hotel stay and everything. When you grow up somewhere, you tend not to explore as much as you would think. You have your routines and favorite places and that’s it. But to get a completely unbiased look at this city I needed to pretend I’ve never been there before. And so pretend I did.

The first task would be finding a place to stay. De Pere doesn’t have a ton of hotels, and due to its close proximity to Green Bay, it doesn’t really need to. De Pere is located on the Fox River, which empties into the Green Bay. As a kid though, there was always a super cool and old building, a hotel, right on the river. The James St. Inn was always a building I would see, ride my bike past, etc., but never really knew what it was. I mean, I assumed it was a hotel, given the obvious name, but it didn’t have traffic like one. It was smaller than an average hotel, and didn’t really even look like one. But this was still the first thing that came to mind when I thought of places to stay in De Pere. A quick google search showed a change of name, but still a hotel. With no website though (which infuriates me given it’s 2025 now…) we had to take a gamble on the relatively few reviews and limited pictures. I’m not normally one to gamble, but after this perhaps I should do it more often. The hotel, now called Nuk’s Executive Suites, joined with the Thai food restaurant of the same name, had an eclectic collection of rooms. Our riverfront suite (I’m using the term suite here because that’s the title of the room… the price is not a suite price by any means) was clean, spacious, included a kitchenette, private balcony with a great view of the river and sunsets. And an insanely cheap price for what we got. I will be recommending Nuk’s to anyone that will be staying in the area. Five stars for sure.

The Fox River dominates the activity sector in and around the Green Bay area, and if you’re not a major fisher, or don’t have a boat, it can be hard to think of other things to do around the region. Voyageur Park and the connecting De Pere Riverwalk are a great way to get up close to the Fox River. The western border of the park hugs the shore of Fox, and at the southern end of the park you can find the riverwalk, a short pathway that leads to other parts of the river that didn’t used to be accessible a decade or so ago, with two piers extending over the river itself for awesome views. The river is a hotbed for birds and regardless of the time of year you’re there, there will be plenty to see. If you are a fisher, one of the piers (and much of the shore) is dedicated to fishing too. Hundreds of years ago the rapids (now the dam) was a spot where thousands gathered to fish, and today is just as good for that activity as it was back then. Evening is the best time to walk these routes as the sunsets over the river are very pleasing to the eye. Closer to the town of Ledgeview sits the East river with a lot of trails weaving their way throughout the floodplain. Add in a former state park, Lost Dauphin Park, and you’re not going to be hurting for ways to explore nature.

If window shopping/bar hopping/cafe visiting is more your thing, De Pere has two downtowns with great storefronts, awesome bars and cafe’s, and unique art hotspots. East De Pere tends to have a few more shops and boutiques, while West De Pere has more restaurants and bars. St. Norbert College is on the western shore of the river and the west De Pere downtown caters to that crowd, while the east is more business forward. Again, both are great no matter what you’re looking for. One of my favorite things about it is how walkable it all is. Despite being a suburb, the downtowns have a very big city feel to them. A brand new cultural center sits right at the base of the bridge on the east side and reminds me of a miniature version of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. They had a Star Wars exhibit when we were there so of course I wasn’t going to miss that. Beautiful on the inside, and just what De Pere needed to further enforce the idea De Pere is its own city, not just a suburb of Green Bay. The campus of St. Norberts is also one of the prettiest in the state, if not the country. De Pere has all the fanciness with none of the price tags that go along with “fancy”.

For those of you with your bucket-list items, whether that be breweries, supper clubs, state parks, etc., De Pere is worth a visit in that regard as well. Cocoon Brewing Company is located in Ledgeview, just outside the city limits of De Pere on the east side, and has fantastic beers and food, but that’s not even the best part. They have individual cabin-style buildings located in the courtyard across from the main taproom that you can rent. Containing TV’s, WiFi, and bluetooth speakers, these are the perfect places to host a small party. In Greenleaf, also just outside the city limits of De Pere sits the combo of LedgeStone Vineyards and Gnarly Cedar Brewery. Gnarly Cedar is moving soon to Wrightstown while the Winery will remain, but the views of the ledge (Niagara Escarpment) are fantastic and they have live music all summer long. For those trying to get to every supper club, The Union Hotel sits in downtown De Pere on the east side. Every bit historic as it is delicious, this is definitley a must stop as well.

I’m well aware I missed multiple cool, fun, and unique things to talk about with De Pere, but luckily for me I will have plenty of times to come back. For those of you that are just like me and tend not to do those tourist things in your hometown, you’re missing out, as I just found out this past weekend. De Pere is not just a suburb of Green Bay… it deserves it’s own flowers. For those of you that live in the area, what are some of your favorite places and things to do? What did I miss that needs to be on here? Let me know in the comments.