This Underrated Midwestern Metropolis Is Trending on Google Flights

• Madison, Wisconsin, is a trending home vacation spot in response to Google Flights’ 2025 Summer season Journey Traits Report.
• Wisconsin’s capital is house to thriving cheese, farmers markets, and culinary scenes.
• The town was additionally Frank Lloyd Wright’s hometown and structure buffs will discover a lot to see right here.

After I first landed in Madison, Wisconsin, just a few weeks in the past, I solely had faint reminiscences of the town primarily based on a household journey I went on practically three many years in the past. I remembered a quintessential Midwestern expertise—however what I discovered was a well-rounded metropolis that had grown and was now undeniably numerous in its experiences, structure, cuisines, and other people.

Now, the town landed a spot within the high 10 trending home locations in Google Flights’ 2025 Summer season Journey Traits Report, which relies on search knowledge for flights scheduled to happen between June 1 and Aug. 31.

Madison is considered one of simply two American cities constructed on an isthmus (Seattle is the opposite) and the town is sandwiched between Mendota and Monona Lakes, two of 5 lakes within the space—which means there are waterfront views in nearly each route you look. This metropolis of about 280,000 folks is the capital of Wisconsin, aka “America’s Dairyland,” a nickname emblazoned on each license plate.

Having just lately visited Toulouse, France, I believed nothing may examine to French cheese—till I attempted the bespoke tasting expertise at Fromagination. Should you’re down for a bit highway journey, drive 14 miles south to the small city of Paoli. Right here, Seven Acre Dairy Firm has reworked a former dairy manufacturing facility right into a boutique resort, restaurant, and ice cream store. 

However Wisconsin has a thriving agricultural scene that goes properly past dairy. On Saturdays from April 12 to Nov. 8, the downtown Capitol Sq. transforms into the nation’s largest producers-only farmers market. Throughout my early March go to, I caught an abbreviated model, the Late Winter Market, held inside Garver Feed Mill, a repurposed turn-of-the-century landmark.

Subsequent door, you may discover the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, the place you’ll be able to see the Royal Thai Sala, an open-air pavilion crafted in Bangkok and rebuilt right here by Thai artisans with none screws or nails. And Madison’s worldwide influences solely continued to lure me by the town with its delicacies.

I began on the Laos-inspired Ahan, by James Beard nominee chef Jamie Brown-Soukaseume, the place the khao poon kathi dang (coconut crimson curry soup) and chevre-filled wontons appeared simply as stunning as they had been scrumptious. Then I went for a nightcap at Paul’s Pel’meni, widespread with the school crowd since a half order of the hearty Russian dumplings is simply $7. Get them organized with “the works,” which incorporates butter, cilantro, bitter cream, yellow curry, and candy chili sauce.

I am at all times looking for delicacies from my dad and mom’ house nation of Taiwan, and I used to be blown away by Taiwan Little Eats. Its Tainan-style braised pork over rice was palms down one of the genuine variations of the dish I had outdoors of the island nation, and tasting it introduced me again to my journeys there.

Moreover its cheese and fast-growing culinary scene, Madison is probably finest often called the hometown of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, recognized for his revolutionary fashion of American structure. Of the eight websites alongside the state’s 200-mile-long Frank Lloyd Wright Path, two of them are in Madison: the Monona Terrace, a group middle accomplished in 1997, and First Unitarian Society Assembly Home, an icon since its 1951 completion.

And although it is not a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed constructing, it is also price trying out the Capitol Constructing, accomplished in 1917 utilizing 43 sorts of stones from six nations and eight states. (Professional-tip: take into account becoming a member of one of many free excursions to listen to all about its historical past.)

The town’s handy location inside the state places you inside simple proximity to different Wisconsin highlights, together with Wisconsin Dells about an hour northwest, Milwaukee about 90 minutes east, and La Crosse about 2.5 hours west. For Wright chasers, his former house and studio, Taliesin situated in Spring Inexperienced, is about an hour west.