Go to Canal Park to watch ore boats slide under the Aerial Lift Bridge, and join the crowd on the Lakewalk. Duluth clings to a steep hillside above Lake Superior at the western tip of the lake, a port city of about 88,000 people with an old industrial spine and a lot of scenery. Ore boats slide under the Aerial Lift Bridge in Canal Park, and people crowd the Lakewalk to watch them go. The Twin Ports arrangement with Superior, Wisconsin, means the harbor is busy.
Visitors stroll the Lakewalk, tour the Glensheen mansion, walk the aquarium, and drive up the North Shore to Gooseberry Falls. Locals get outside all year, running Grandma's Marathon in June and skiing and sledding in winter. It is affordable, with housing costs near the national norm. But winters are long, cold and snowy, summer can bring fog, and the lake is dangerously cold with rip currents at Park Point. The Central Hillside and parts of downtown have more drug activity and petty crime, so park with valuables out of sight.
Cities with a similar character, anywhere on the site.
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- Known as
- Zenith City; Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas; Twin Ports (with Superior WI)
- Founded
- Settled 1850-51; incorporated as a city 1870
- Languages
- English; small Spanish, Ojibwe and Hmong-speaking communities
- Airports
- Duluth International Airport (DLH) about 8 miles northwest of downtown; Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP) about 155 miles south; Range Regional (HIB) about 75 miles northwest; Bemidji or Thunder Bay are further options
- Tipping
- Restaurants 18-20% for table service; bars and breweries $1-2 per drink or 15-20%; taxis and rideshare 10-15%; hotel housekeeping $3-5 per night; guides and charter captains 15-20%
About this data
City pop is Census July 2025 estimate; metro is Duluth MN-WI MSA July 2025 (281,219 via citypopulation.de citing Census). Area, elevation, coordinates from Wikipedia. Crime from NeighborhoodScout, approximate. Home value and rent from Census ACS 2020-2024. Hotel rates, cost index, tipping, budgets, distances and some event months are approximate estimates. Visitor and events URLs loaded. Data date Sept 2026
