Best Bike Shop: Twin Ports Cyclery (Photo by Roger LePage)

Best Health Club
YMCA

Duluth has a few different health clubs, but the YMCA is more than just a health club. Our YMCA and YMCA’s around the world promote health, well being and community action. They have many classes and camps unlike your typical health club. The YMCA was founded in 1844 in London as a Christian organization that helped young men flooding into the city to have something positive to do and to form communities. Each YMCA group around the country is independent and operates like a franchise. The international organization is based in Geneva Switzerland and Y’s are found around the world.

Best Bike Shop
Twin Ports Cyclery

Imagine a world run by gears. Before electricity, gear-based machines like watches were some of the most complex machines imaginable. People of that period pictured a future with robots run by millions of barely visible gears moving in incredibly complex ways.
The bike is one of the great purely mechanical machines that uses only human power and simple parts like bearings, chains and of course gears. The Twin-Ports Cyclery sells lots of new quality bikes of various prices and for older bikes keeps all these intricate metal parts moving smoothly.
During the last couple years the store has had more difficulty getting stock than other times. This has encouraged more people to keep their bikes going by using the skilled repair people at the shop. When the more complex parts of society break down, it is useful to be able to work on machines that use no fossil fuels and are made up of parts like bearings, chains and gears. 

Best Ski Shop
Ski Hut East

The Ski Hut has been serving the people of Duluth for more than 60 years. The Ski Hut’s long history in Duluth is a big part of why they are an area favorite.
”We’ve been a ski shop in Duluth for 65 years,” said owner Scott Neustel. "So we’ve always get people lined up with the right gear.”
While the age of the store is important, the time staff have devoted to the sport of skiing while inside the store or outside on the snow makes for good customer service. “Our staff is very experienced and we love to ski,” said Scott. “When people come in we teach them to love the sport and get them into the right gear.”

Best Skateboarding Spot
Superior Skate Park

Located in Heritage Park at 2828 Hammond Ave., the park features a variety of ramps, pipes, rails and boxes for skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX/trick bikes. The park is open until 10 pm daily.

Best Bike Trail
Munger Trail

Named after renowned state legislator Willard Munger, 1911-1999, this is 160 miles of multiple-use trails for hiking, bicycling, inline skating, snowmobiling and horseback riding. The paved Duluth-to-Hinckley section offers a spectacular 70-mile journey, following the historic 19th-century route of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad. Along the way are the St. Louis River, Jay Cooke State Park, Thomson Dam, Andrew State Forest and the picturesque towns of Barnum, Finlayson, Willow River and Moose Lake.

Best Public Park
Leif Erickson

Before the highway went through, Leif Erickson had an an isolated little pocket where hippies in the 1970s hung out, smoked weed and strummed guitars without being hassled by the cops. We need a park like that now. But it’s still a magical place with the bowl-shaped slope and Renaissance stone stage built in 1928, perfect for summer concerts and evening movies with the moon rising and ships sailing past.

Best Playground
Playfront

The wooden playground, built in 1990 with its castle walls and turrets, had its Harry-Potteresque charms, but its normal lifespan was 20 years. So in 2010 the Junior League replaced it with a space-age metal-and-plastic jungle gym complex and a rubber base that feels like you’re walking on the moon.

Best Place to Walk
Lake Walk

With a 5-star rating on TripAdvisor and listed as the No. 2 thing to do while in Duluth, the 7.25 mile Lake Walk stretches from Bayfront Park to Brighton Beach, offering a great walking, jogging or biking experience for residents and visitors alike.

Best Golf Course
Nemadji

The views throughout Nemadji, a public golf course, offer panoramas not found anywhere else near Superior. Nemadji Golf Course is a 4-star Golf Digest-rated championship golf facility featuring 36-holes with five sets of tees catering to all skill levels. Designed by world-renowned course architects Stanley Pelcher, Don Herfort and Roger Packard, you will be sure to test your skills.

Best Ski Hill
Spirit Mountain

Opening to skiers in December 1974, Spirit Mountain was proposed and designed by former Olympic skier George Hovland, with the assistance of late Mayor Ben Boo. Today it’s considered one of Minnesota’s must-see locations, with beautiful views of the lake from the 22 Alpine runs, 175 acres of skiable terrain, 700’ vertical drop, 5 chair lifts, 3 surface lifts. Ski and snowboard lessons, family rates, fat-tire biking, largest terrain park and half-pipe in the Midwest. There’s also winter day tubing and glow tubing at night under the lights. The two Nordic centers feature 2.5 km of Nordic specific trail and 22km of groomed cross-country ski trails (classic tracks and skating) through dense hardwood forest.

Best Sporting Goods Store
Northwest Outlet

Northwest Outlet manager Chris Terwey believes the reason the store was voted Best Sporting Goods Store has something to do with their large selection of items they keep in stock year-round and their expertise and customer service. Among other things, he says they carry a good selection of Columbia, Northface and hiking boots. He also thinks the store is a great place for someone to stop by on their way to the Boundary Waters.”We have a lot of Boundary Water-specific backpacks,” said Chris “I don’t think a lot of people find things like that at a lot of other stores.”

Best Yoga Studio
Align Yoga

A few blocks from the Blatnick Bridge is a brownstone building that once housed Superior’s City Hall and police department. Sadly Red Mug Coffee is no longer in the basement, but happily other great businesses are in the building. One great one is the Spirit Room and another is Align Yoga.
Align Yoga has now won our Best Yoga Studio award for its 4th year in a row! Align Yoga has in person classes and continues to offer the virtual classes that began during COVID.