I'm heading to Indianapolis on the weekend of November 8 and 9 for a workshop and I'd like to take advantage of the trip to explore a little the city. I've never been.
I obviously want to go see the Speedway and check out the museum (is it worth it?).
Any suggestion of things to do or see?
Places to avoid?
Smoking deals on a rust-free car to bring back to Canuckistan?
Your help would be appreciated.
We don't get rust free anything. If anything, its worse because we use more salt.
Where are you staying in the city? Theres some great food/bars in different areas. Zoo is supposed to be good, wrong time of year though. Really not a great time of year because a lot of things are over/done and our weather could be 60* or 10.
Eat some Broad Ripple chips.
Indy is kinda on the line of rust belt and not. So beware that rust free will probably be better than Detroit rust free as well as worse than Atlanta rust free.
I think the speedway is worth it. Auburn and Cord museums are north by about 1.5 to 2 hours from there. If you have kiddos in tow, the Childrens museum is worth it. For drinking, try Broad Ripple or Mass Ave. I prefer Mass Ave, specifically I really like the Rathskellar.
I'd say that IMS and the museum are very worth it if you have any interest in motorsports. As far as places to avoid, any of the rest of the town of Speedway.
And you're going to need to keep going south if you want rust-free cars.
Big fan of track. They have a lame bus tour around the track that is awesome. Museum and gift Shop is good. In the Summer the snack bar is weak but feels right eating where legends have been.
I attended a marching band event at Lucas Stadium and was impressed with all the cool car stuff they have inside the lobby.
Indianapolis is one of my favorite towns. This might put you in the right mood although not Indy one of my favorites.
'The Track' as it's known locally is hallowed ground for a gearhead. November isn't the best time to visit, but if you've never been it's worth it to stop in. The museum and bus tour are good enough to be enjoyable. The Dallara factory across the street is also a cool, car guy tour. There's an indoor karting track right next to the Dallara factory, and another good one on the very northern border of Indianapolis (Fastimes). The area around the Speedway has seen nice growth recently in the bar/restaurant segments (BBQ and Bourbon or Big Woods are both good) so there's enough nearby IMS to fill most of a day probably. Most of the top level NHRA teams are based about 20 minutes west of downtown in Brownsburg and some of them do tours or shop open houses too if you like really high hp stuff.
As for the other stuff, what are you into?
There are quite a few art/history museums downtown. If the weather is nice, the canal is a decent walk and connects a few of the museums around town. The Cultural Trail is also good, and connects the trendy neighborhoods but probably better on a bike than on foot. Lots of cool bars/restaurants depending on your taste (steakhouse, farm to table, microbrew, soul food, breakfast stuff, Italian, Jewish deli, Jazz/blues bar, etc). The Colts have a game that weekend at Lucas Oil Stadium, and Datsun is correct that they've got a lot of cool, motorized hardware incorporated into the atmosphere if you like football.
Overall, it's a pretty clean, walkable downtown area. Broad Ripple is artsy by day and dominated by bars filled with mostly college kids at night as it's nextdoor to Butler University. Mass Ave is similar to a larger Broad Ripple, but closer to downtown, and with fewer college kids. Fountain Square is just southeast of the downtown core and is hipster central, but they do have cool bars and good restaurants.
Driving in the city is generally very easy with minimal traffic, so you can probably get about anywhere in the city limits within 30-35 minutes. I live about 25 miles from the heart of the city and can be downtown in about 30 minutes.
I don't live near Indy but have visited many times to attend the PRI trade show in early Dec.
The downtown area is very walkable especially if the weather is nice!
The Indy museum is worth it.
If you're into aviation at all, Rolls Royce Indy has a small museum attached to their lobby that's free and open to the public. They have full engines and cutaways on display.
If you time it right they have tours given by some of the guys who helped design/develop the engines. I didn't get a tour but there's enough there to look at to kill atleast 30 minutes. I'll dig up a pic or two when I get home.
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
After I wrote my OP, I went on Indianapolis Craigslist. While the cars look much less rusty than here (We don't have 90's cars anymore), I was kind of surprised how expensive everything is. No deal there
I'll be attending a workshop near the airport, so I was looking for a hotel in between the airport and the Speedway. But if the driving really isn't that bad, I think I'll broaden my search area.
From everyone`s suggestions, I think I'm going to keep myself a day for the Speedway and another for general sightseeing.
In reply to fanfoy :
Presuming you get a hotel just off I465 on the west side of town(vs. off I70 out further west by the airport), you could be at the speedway in 20-30 minutes depending on traffic.
The western suburbs (Plainfield, Brownsburg, Avon) are likely to have nicer hotels and more options for things to do than anyplace right near the airport or along 465. You'll probably be within about 20 minutes of both the airport and IMS at any hotel in these spots. They're typical suburbs with typical hotels. Safe, clean, tons of restaurants nearby, etc.
For not much more/night, there are also some very nice hotels downtown (JW Mariott, Conrad, Crown Plaza, Hyatt Regency, The Alexander, etc), maybe 15 minutes from the airport on a busy day/time . They'd put you into the heart of the city, within walking distance of tons of things, and about 15 minutes from IMS. This part of downtown has the added benefit of tunnels and skywalks that allow you to navigate a large part of the city without going outside if the weather isn't overly hospitable.
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