There are hotels you stay at, and there are hotels you come home to. After two stays at the Four Seasons Minneapolis (the first in 2023, the latest this past memorial day), I’ve decided it belongs in the second category. It’s the nicest hotel in Minneapolis, and walking back through the doors this time felt less like checking in and more like coming back to a place that already knew us. So let’s get on with our Four Seasons Minneapolis Review.
I lived in the Twin Cities for 30+ years before we moved to California, then were nomadic for 4.5 years, then back to California, and now 5 years in Virginia. So coming back feels less like tourism and more like a homecoming. And this is the hotel we keep choosing.
The First Visit (2023)
We stayed for the first time in May 2023, right after the hotel opened. New as it was, every part of the service was already dialed in, which is rare for a property that fresh.
We had a suite, and the first thing that struck me was the beds. Even the kids’ bed was as nice as the adult beds at most hotels anywhere. That’s the kind of quality they put into the rooms.
The welcome set the tone. They sent up a champagne gift waiting in the room when we arrived.
Alongside it was a sculpture of chocolate you had to break open yourself with a little wooden mallet, shards of gold-dusted chocolate under the shell. “Jack of all travels” thought that was the greatest thing he’d ever been handed in a hotel, and honestly it was a lot of fun for the adults too.
Then the detail that actually floored us as parents: they’d set up a Diaper Genie in the room. In years of traveling with a little one, no hotel had ever done that, and this one just did it without being asked. It’s a small thing that tells you how seriously they take families.
Our son and his cousin also got to order room service that trip, which to a then three-year-old is about the height of luxury on earth. I mean, they gave Jacksetter a little sugar treat he got to crack open and eat, which made him feel like the most important guest in the building. They are really good at making a family feel welcomed.
That first stay is the one that hooked us. A brand-new Four Seasons in my hometown, service already firing on all cylinders, and a location I immediately fell for. I’ll be honest about how much I liked it: when they first announced the Four Seasons was coming, I actually looked into buying a residence there. The residences ended up priced for full-time residents more than part-time visitors like us, so we passed. But the fact that I even ran the numbers tells you how I feel about the place.
Coming Back in 2026
This time the trip was short, less than 48 hours on the ground, but we built the whole weekend around this hotel. We flew in Friday, dropped our son with my parents, and split up at the airport: Mrs. Jeffsetter went straight to the hotel, I followed a little later.
The Room
The rooms are in genuinely great shape, and at a three-year-old property, that’s not a given. Clean lines, big windows, and a bed you sink into at the end of a travel day.
The views are the first thing you notice. We looked straight out over the North Loop and the downtown skyline, the kind of window you stand at with a coffee before you’ve fully woken up.
The bathroom is where a hotel either shows off or gets lazy, and this one shows off. Double vanity, marble everywhere, and the kind of lighting that makes you slow down.
The walk-in shower was heavenly, with the same Le Labo products I learned to love on our first trip.
Speaking of, I have to single out the soap. The bath products are Le Labo, and the hand soap is the Savon Mains in Hinoki and Sea Buckthorn. It is the best-smelling soap I have ever used, full stop. I liked it so much I bought a giant bottle when I got home from our 2023 trip and I still use it. It reminds me of the soap at The Vines in Mendoza, one of my favorite hotel stays ever, which is about the highest compliment I can pay liquid hand soap from a hotel.
Even the closet had enough space for everything we brought on our 48 hour trip (and could be useful for an entire week if we stayed that long).
And they keep finding little ways to make a kid feel special. One of the welcome touches was a plate of Minnesota-shaped pastries with an apple and house-made apple chips, the state cut right into the pastry. It’s the kind of local, thoughtful detail you remember.
The Rooftop Pool and Riva Terrace
The rooftop is the part of this hotel I’d plan a trip around. Riva Terrace runs the pool plaza in the warmer months with Italian-inspired small plates and cocktails, and the whole deck looks straight into the skyline.
The scale of it is what gets you. Between the sauna, the cabanas, the daybeds, and the umbrellas, the patio just goes and goes. This is a real rooftop escape, not a token plunge pool wedged onto a roof.
There are outdoor showers that are a nod to the Scandinavian heritage that runs deep in Minnesota, the sauna-and-cold-water tradition built right into the design.
One thing that made the pool a genuine win with a kid: they supply pool toys. Dive rings, floaties, the works. It’s clutch, and keeps your kid is entertained for two hours.
There’s a hot tub up here too, which kids will prefer when the Minnesota cold kicks in.
The Service
This is the part that actually separates a Four Seasons from a very nice hotel. On the second stay the pool attendant was a woman who was absolutely delightful. The wind knocked over my wife’s drink when it was nearly finished, and without being asked she brought a full new one. They fix the small stuff before you’ve even registered it as a problem.
Where We Ate
We grabbed a flatbread up at Mara, Gavin Kaysen’s pan-Mediterranean room off the lobby, and it was exactly the easy, high-quality bite you want without leaving the building. For dinner we headed out to Sanjusan nearby, which was fantastic and deserves its own write-up another time.
The North Loop Location: The Real Reason
If I had to point to one thing that makes this hotel, it’s the location. It’s in a perfect place to enjoy all that Minneapolis has to offer. You’re never more than a few blocks from anything that matters.
You can walk down to the river. You can walk to Target Field and catch a Twins game. During basketball season, Target Center is right there too. Plus all the new restaurants in the North Loop are all nearby as well.
Here’s the fun side effect of that location: a lot of teams stay here, across every sport, so there’s a real chance you’ll run into players or even a celebrity in the lobby. On our first visit in 2023, the Twins’ opposing team was staying here for a series, and fans were lined up out front getting autographs. When we came back in 2026, it was University of Minnesota football recruits in for a visit. There’s something genuinely cool about a hotel that’s so well-placed it becomes the de facto home base for everyone coming through town.
Saturday morning we were up early (still on East Coast time), grabbed coffee at Spyhouse, and walked down to the Mill City Farmers Market: real farmers, real growers, the good kind. Mrs. Jeffsetter picked up flowers and a vase for a gift for our friends birthday party we were attending later that day. It’s the perfect location to enjoy the morning walks around the Mississippi river in Minneapolis.
What to Know Before You Book
- Location: North Loop, 245 Hennepin Ave, at the edge of downtown Minneapolis and the riverfront. Walkable to the Stone Arch Bridge, Mill City, and the warehouse district.
- Opened: 2022. Still feels brand new, and is maintained like it.
- Rooms: 222, with skyline and river views. Ask about the higher floors. Marble bathrooms, walk-in showers, Nespresso, and the Le Labo Savon Mains that will follow you home.
- Dining: Mara (Gavin Kaysen, pan-Mediterranean) and Bar Mara year-round; Riva Terrace by the rooftop pool in the warm months; Socca Café for grab-and-go coffee and pastries.
- Amenities: Spa, a big rooftop pool deck with a sauna, cabanas, outdoor showers, and a hot tub. The pool scene is a genuine reason to stay, not an afterthought.
- Traveling with kids: Quietly excellent at it. Quality beds even in the kids’ configuration, a Diaper Genie in the room (a first for us anywhere), supplied pool toys, room service the kids will remember, and a welcome that makes a little one feel like a VIP.
- Sports & events: Walkable to Target Field and Target Center, and a frequent home base for visiting teams across sports, so keep an eye out in the lobby. Time a trip with a Twins homestand and you’ve got a perfect weekend.
- Best for: A grown-up weekend, a family stay, a special occasion, or (in our case) coming back to a city you used to call home and wanting the stay to feel like an event.
Would We Stay Again?
Our rating: ★★★★★ 5 out of 5
We already have. Twice now, and the second time confirmed the first wasn’t a fluke. The Four Seasons Minneapolis is, to me, the nicest hotel in the city: beautiful, modern rooms, a rooftop pool worth planning around, service that quietly does everything right, and a North Loop location that puts the best of Minneapolis out your front door. It’s a genuinely awesome addition to the Twin Cities skyline.
When a hotel makes you feel at home in a city that used to be home, you keep going back. We will, as often as we can.
Have a favorite Minneapolis hotel, or a North Loop spot we missed?
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