Indianapolis travel guide
Where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Things to do in Indianapolis, planned over three days
Best time to visit Indianapolis
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best first visit window: Indy Jazz Fest and Penrod in September, then fall colour, Harvest and perfect trail and golf weather in October.
Best summer month for families: everything open, Victory Field nights and the Eiteljorg Indian Market, before peak heat.
Warming spring with Newfields gardens in bloom and sane prices, if you dodge tournament weekends.
Month of May: 500 Festival events all month and the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day Sunday, with metro wide hotel price spikes.
Hot, humid and festival dense, with Indiana Black Expo, Gen Con, IndyFringe and the Indiana State Fair, plus convention price cliffs.
Basketball season: Big Ten and NCAA rounds bring crowds, cold to mild grey weather and March hotel spikes.
Cold, quiet and cheaper, with Pacers season starting and prices dropping before the holidays.
Cold and cheapest outside event spikes, leaning indoors for Winterlights, Circle of Lights and uncrowded museums. January is quietest.
What's on
- Indianapolis 500 Memorial Day Sunday, late May
The largest single day sporting event in the world by attendance, with 500 Festival events all month.
- 500 Festival Mini-Marathon early May
One of America's largest half marathons, with the 500 Festival Parade the day before the race.
- Eiteljorg Indian Market & Festival June
Native artists from across North America sell work on the Eiteljorg grounds, with dance, music and food over a June weekend.
- Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration July
A week of concerts, an expo hall and community events celebrating Black culture, one of the city's biggest summer draws.
- Gen Con late July / early August
North America's largest tabletop gaming convention, filling the Convention Center and downtown hotels.
- Indiana State Fair August, three weeks
Fried food, animals and concerts on the north side fairgrounds. Go once and go hungry.
- IndyFringe mid-August, about ten days
Short, cheap fringe shows in small venues along Mass Ave over ten days.
- Indy Jazz Fest September
A week of club shows that builds to an outdoor grand finale with bands on two stages.
- Penrod Arts Fair September
Arts fair at Newfields in peak September weather.
- Winterlights late November to December
Holiday light walk at Newfields, one of America's best, and it sells out. Book ahead.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Indianapolis
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
Winning cars, simulators and a track tour ending at the bricks, converting even non race fans.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
The world's largest children's museum, with dinosaurs, space and hands on science across five floors.
Newfields
Art museum, gardens, a historic home and a 100 acre art and nature park on one campus.
Eiteljorg Museum
The Midwest museum for Native American and Western art, with strong permanent Native galleries.
Indiana State Museum
Indiana natural history done properly, from mastodons and deep time fossils to rotating shows.
NCAA Hall of Champions
A compact 45 minute add on in White River State Park, best for college sports obsessives.
Victory Field
Triple A baseball in a praised brick ballpark with skyline views and minor league prices.
Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Climb or ride to the observation deck of the 284 foot monument at the literal centre of Indy.
Where to stay in Indianapolis
Downtown
first trip, all-round base
Walk to the stadiums, White River museums, the Convention Center and St. Elmo, with the Cultural Trail at the door.
Mass Ave / Bottleworks District
food and couples
Indy's restaurant row and cocktail bars on a walkable diagonal, 10 minutes from Monument Circle.
Broad Ripple
nightlife and younger groups
A village on the Monon and Red Line with bars and the Vogue Theatre, walkable for a bar crawl and rowdy at night.
Fountain Square / Fletcher Place
foodies and local texture
Virginia Ave restaurants and HI-FI shows on the Cultural Trail, but few hotels, so treat it as a rental neighbourhood.
Carmel & Keystone (North)
golf, north side business and drivers
Affluent and quiet with free parking at full service hotels, but it fails as a car free base for downtown.
Speedway
race weekends only
Walking distance to the track and Main Street on 500 weekend, and far from everything else the other 51 weeks.
Think twice about
- Far Eastside motel strips
E. Washington St east of Emerson, Post Road and Shadeland Ave motel strips are flagged by locals for safety and blight. Cheap rates are cheap for a reason.
- Airport / I-70 W. Washington motel row
Branded airport hotels with shuttles are fine for an early flight. Older independent motels east on Washington are not a visitor base.
- Blocks south of Lucas Oil / S. Meridian below South St
Rentals marketed as stadium area sit on industrial blocks deserted after events. Stay north of South St for streets with people on them.
- Listings east of I-65/I-70 or south of I-70
The freeway ring is the practical boundary. Fountain Square and Fletcher Place just outside it are fine; further out on the east and south edges is car dependent and patchy, whatever the listing calls it.
Best restaurants in Indianapolis
St. Elmo Steak House
Since 1902, the special occasion ritual: fierce shrimp cocktail, navy bean soup and dry aged steak.
Vida
Indy's tasting menu address, building seasonal courses around Indiana farms and a hydroponic wall.
Bluebeard
Seasonal farm driven sharing plates and pastas in a 1924 warehouse, with the city's best courtyard.
Milktooth
A fine diner brunch in a former garage, famous for Dutch babies and a grilled cheese.
Tinker Street
Small, seasonal and romantic Midwestern cooking in a cottage like dining room north of downtown.
Livery
Latin American plates in an 1890s horse stable, with a rooftop that fills first on warm nights.
Bodhi
Upscale Thai locals rank as the city's best, with proper heat, good cocktails and a hip room.
Shapiro's Delicatessen
Since 1905, a cafeteria line deli with towering corned beef and pastrami sandwiches on rye.
Outdoor things to do in Indianapolis
Brickyard Crossing
Pete Dye golf with four holes inside the Speedway infield, a setting no other US course offers.
The Fort Golf Course
A wooded, hilly Pete Dye course on the former Fort Benjamin Harrison base, cheaper than Brickyard.
Prairie View Golf Club
The polished suburban championship test in Carmel, among the best public rounds in the state.
Purgatory Golf Club
A long links flavoured brute stretching over 7,700 yards from the back tees.
Coffin Golf Club
An honest municipal 18 along the White River for a fraction of Brickyard money.
Douglass Golf Course
One of the city municipal courses giving a casual group a cheap 18, best at twilight.
Riverside Golf Course
A cheap municipal 18 by the White River; conditions vary, so ask at the pro shop.
Sarah Shank Golf Course
A south side municipal course in the honest, low cost 18 hole rotation.
Best hotels in Indianapolis
Bottleworks Hotel
The city's best hotel, inside the art deco former Coca Cola bottling plant, with the Bottleworks food hall downstairs.
Conrad Indianapolis
Downtown's true luxury flagship, art filled with a spa, infinity edge pool and skywalk links.
JW Marriott Indianapolis
A 33 storey tower over White River State Park and Victory Field with floor to ceiling views.
The Alexander
An art hotel near Gainbridge with contemporary art throughout and the Plat 99 bar.
Hyatt Place Indianapolis Downtown
A sensible mid range default steps from Gainbridge, with free breakfast.
Hyatt House Indianapolis Downtown
The extended stay sister to Hyatt Place downtown, steps from Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Hampton Inn Indianapolis Downtown
A reliable skywalk connected downtown chain, often cheaper than the hotels around it.
Homewood Suites by Hilton Indianapolis Downtown
Kitchen suites on South Meridian making this the longer stay pick in the downtown cluster.
Is Indianapolis expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $100 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $180 a person |
| Splurge | $420 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum: weeks ahead
- The Children's Museum of Indianapolis: a few days ahead
- Newfields: a few days ahead
- Indiana Medical History Museum: weeks ahead
- Brickyard Crossing: weeks ahead
- The Fort Golf Course: a few days ahead
- Prairie View Golf Club: a few days ahead
- Purgatory Golf Club: a few days ahead
- Indy 500 weekend: hotels sell out metro wide months ahead at 2 to 4 times normal rates with multi night minimums.
- Gen Con in late July and early August fills every downtown hotel. Housing blocks go fast in winter.
- St. Elmo, Vida, Tinker Street, Bluebeard, Miller House tours, Children's Museum timed tickets and Newfields Winterlights need days to weeks.
- Milktooth takes no reservations for weekend brunch, so go weekday or queue early. Book Fever tickets early.
Is Indianapolis safe?
- Stay in lit, populated areas at night, rideshare from bar districts after midnight, and keep car interiors completely empty.
- Be aware around the S. Meridian bar strip and Broad Ripple Ave at closing time, where late night incidents concentrate.
- Do not walk the Canal alone at 2 a.m. and use normal city awareness around transit stops, the Central Library and underpasses.
Indianapolis travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Circle Centre Mall and generic chain dining on Maryland St when Mass Ave and Virginia Ave are a 10 minute walk away.
- Expecting the Zoo to be a best in America zoo. It is good, but Newfields plus the Children's Museum is usually the stronger day.
- Planning lunch at Indianapolis City Market: the market house has been closed for redevelopment since March 2024 with no reopening date. Use The Garage Food Hall instead.
- Paying luxury hotel money for highway motels in May, and treating the Canal as a nightlife destination when it quiets at night.
Getting around Indianapolis: public transport and more
- You need a car for the full city, but not for a downtown weekend covering downtown, Mass Ave, White River and Fountain Square.
- Learn IndyGo's Red Line BRT from downtown to Broad Ripple. The rest of the bus network is infrequent by coastal standards.
- IND airport is about 15 minutes downtown off peak. Rideshare runs roughly $25 to $40, and the Route 8 bus is the cheap, slow option.
- Downtown garages run roughly $20 to $40 a day and hotel valet $40 to $60 a night. Street parking is metered via ParkMobile.
- Pacers Bikeshare clusters downtown, on the Cultural Trail, Mass Ave and Broad Ripple. The Monon is the north south spine.
Who Indianapolis suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Indianapolis your trip
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