Indianapolis, IN Tourism Hotels, Restaurants & Events

All skyscrapers are in a relatively compact cluster downtown. Taxi services are available 24/7 and will transport you anywhere in the city and the surrounding areas. IndyGo buses include two bike racks in the front for storing your cycle, but if they are full, then you’ll be out of luck.

Welcome to Indy

In a few minutes, you can go from a sleepy and peaceful cornfield to a vibrant downtown. Today, Indianapolis is known as the “Crossroads of America” due to its centrality in America’s Interstate Highway System. The pay-off is that this desire for a port left the city with a gorgeous canal district, though the canal itself is only useful for recreational kayaks and paddleboats. Although Indy has been mocked with the epithet “India-noplace”, visitors will encounter a mix of a large metropolitan city and a simple Midwestern community. For those who want to bike around, the city also has a bike rental program through the Pacers Bikeshare program, with free 30-minute rides for Marion County residents. Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are also readily available and popular for short trips within the city.

St. Elmo Steak House

Mainly comprising of antique, thrift and art shops.
Additional venues near the central business district include The Cabaret, the Indianapolis Artsgarden, Phoenix Theatre, the Slippery Noodle Inn, and Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park, the city’s largest outdoor venue.
The center offers year-round programming, including art classes, exhibitions, art fairs, and community outreach initiatives.
Indianapolis became a seat of county government on December 31, 1821, when Marion County, was established.
Indianapolis, the largest city in the state, lies at the heart of a nine-county metropolitan area.

Private ridesharing companies Lyft and Uber as well as taxicabs operate in the city. Sports radio stations include WFNI (ESPN Radio), WNDE (Fox Sports Radio), and WXNT (Infinity Sports Network). Since 1983, WFBQ has been the flagship station for the popular nationally syndicated radio program The Bob & Tom Show. Sports talk program The Pat McAfee Show broadcasts from the city, airing weekdays on ESPN. Indianapolis natives Jane Pauley and David Letterman launched their Emmy Award-winning broadcasting careers in local television, Pauley with WISH-TV and Letterman with WTHR, respectively.
As a consolidated city-county, Indianapolis’s city limits are coterminous with Marion County, except the autonomous and semi-autonomous municipalities outlined in Unigov. In 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a FedEx facility on the city’s southwest side, killing nine (including the gunman) and injuring seven others. Ballard pursued several environmental sustainability efforts, including establishing an office of sustainability, installing 200 miles (320 km) of bike lanes and trails, and spearheading a controversial deal to start an electric carsharing program.

Top Central & South America Destinations

The city’s first luxury hotel in nearly two decades is housed within the historic 1926 Illinois Building, and is recommended by Travel+Leisure’s A-List advisor Maria Diego. The property includes downtown’s only hotel spa, fine dining, and luxurious marble bathrooms with deep-soaking tubs in every room. From the historic Slippery Noodle Inn—Indiana’s oldest tavern—to creative cocktail bars and farm-to-table restaurants, Indianapolis has big-city luxuries without losing an iota of small-town charm. Other prominent city residents have included Charles Warren Fairbanks (vice president under Theodore Roosevelt), authors Booth Tarkington and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery.
It is a planned municipality, its layout resembling that of Washington, D.C., with radiating streets that converge on Monument Circle at the city centre. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. You value the authentic experience a meal provides – the process, the artistry, the connection to a place and a culture. Between ballet lessons, soccer season, and art classes, you know that vacations are a precious time for the family. You go where your team goes and judge a city by its arena food. IU Health is consolidating and replacing Methodist and University hospitals with a new $4.3 billion academic medical center which is slated to open in 2027.

Visual arts

During the administration of the city’s longest-serving mayor, William Hudnut (1976–1992), millions of dollars were invested into sports venues and public relations campaigns. During the mayoral administration of Richard Lugar (1968–1976), the city and county governments consolidated. As in most U.S. cities during the civil rights movement, the city experienced strained race relations, including 1969 riots. While campaigning in the city in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy delivered one of the most lauded speeches in 20th century American history following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The Williams Institute reported that the Indianapolis metropolitan area had an estimated 4.6% LGBT adult population in 2020, totaling about 68,000. Much of this growth can be attributed to thousands of Burmese-Chin refugees who have settled in Indianapolis, particularly Perry Township, since the late 1990s. In 2015, Brookings characterized the Indianapolis metropolitan area as a minor-emerging immigrant gateway with a foreign-born population of 126,767, or 6.4% of the total population, a 131% increase from 2000. The consolidated city is coterminous with Marion County, except the independent municipalities of Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and Speedway. Severe weather is not uncommon, particularly in the spring and summer months. The city lies at the transition between USDA plant hardiness zones 6a and 6b.

Other notable interments at the cemetery include three U.S. vice presidents (Fairbanks, Hendricks, and Marshall), notorious American gangster John Dillinger, and First Lady Caroline Harrison. Harrison is buried about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the site at Crown Hill Cemetery. The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site includes the archives and restored home of the 23rd president of the U.S., Benjamin Harrison.

Cityscape

The downtown center of the city is very safe, but the inner-loop (inside I-465) suburbs can be dangerous in certain areas.
IndyGo operates and manages the city’s public bus system, including bus rapid transit, microtransit, and paratransit services.
14.7% of families and 18.9% of the city’s total population lived below the poverty line.
Between ballet lessons, soccer season, and art classes, you know that vacations are a precious time for the family.
As of 2010update, 32% of the non-family households included individuals living alone, 8.3% of these households included individuals age 65 years of age or older.

Part of downtown Indianapolis, this mixed-use development has continued to expand over the years, offering all kinds of activities within the beautifully restored historic Coca-Cola bottling complex. This historic Arts and Theater District stretches for nearly a mile through downtown Indianapolis and is generally considered the city’s most vibrant area. Indianapolis https://www.royalspiniacasino.org/ International Airport (IND) is the city’s primary gateway, and it’s only 15 miles from downtown. This small but fascinating museum celebrates Indianapolis’s preeminent literary icon, and includes displays of his trusty typewriter, paintings, family artifacts, and recreated writing space.
The Red Line is a good alternative, which is a new rapid transit route that runs two blocks west of #11 East 16th Street in downtown. Although the city has slowly increased funding for transport, outside of rush hour routes, you may still find yourself with a half-hour wait or longer. Half-price discount fares are available for eligible riders with the approval of an application at the Julia Carson Transit Center in downtown. It travels through much of the city and into some suburbs. Meters accept cards, coins, and small bills and parking is free in late hours and on weekends.
For statistical purposes, the consolidated city-county is organized into 99 “neighborhood areas” with most containing numerous individual historic and cultural districts, subdivisions, and some semi-autonomous towns. The White River flows 31 miles (50 km) north-to-south through the city and is fed by some 35 streams, including Eagle Creek, Fall Creek, Pleasant Run, and Pogue’s Run. The consolidated city-county borders the adjacent counties of Boone to the northwest; Hamilton to the north; Hancock to the east; Shelby to the southeast; Johnson to the south; Morgan to the southwest; and Hendricks to the west. Two of the city’s largest capital projects, the Indianapolis International Airport’s new terminal and Lucas Oil Stadium, were completed in 2008. Further consolidation of city and county units of government resulted in the establishment of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department in 2007. It was the first major city-county consolidation to occur in the U.S. without a referendum since the creation of the City of Greater New York in 1898.