Indiana Travel Guide

Indiana is part of the Midwest region of the United States.

Indiana Travel Guide - Regions

* Northwest Indiana - Outlying Chicago and Lake Michigan counties in the Central Time Zone
* Central Indiana - Indianapolis and surrounding areas
* Northeastern Indiana - Counties near Michigan and Ohio
* Eastern Indiana - Counties near or bordering Ohio
* Southeastern Indiana - Counties near Ohio and Kentucky
* Western Indiana - Counties near or bordering Illinois in the Eastern Time Zone
* Southern Indiana - Hills, caves and wine country
* Southwestern Indiana - Southern Counties in the Central Time Zone

Indiana Travel Guide - Cities

* Bloomington -- Home of Indiana University.
* Evansville -- Third largest city in Indiana
* Fort Wayne -- Second largest city in Indiana.
* Gary
* Hammond
* Indianapolis -- Most populous state capital and home of the Indianapolis 500 car race. (12th largest city in the USA)
* Lafayette -- Home of Purdue University
* Muncie -- Home of Ball State University
* South Bend -- Home of the University of Notre Dame
* Terre Haute -- Home of Indiana State University

Indiana Travel Guide - Other Destinations

* Brown County State Park
* Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
* Spring Mill State Park
* Holiday World

Indiana Travel Guide - Understand

* Indiana is mostly rural with high population concentrations in a few major cities/towns. The majority of Indiana is open farmland

* The vast majority of Indiana is on Eastern Time and -- as of 2006 -- does now observe Daylight Savings Time; a few counties near Chicago and around Evansville are on Central Time.

Indiana Travel Guide - Getting There

Indianapolis International Airport is the major airport in the state with flights to many cities around the country. Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend offer flights to nearby hub cities. Air service is also available from nearby airports in Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville.

Numerous interstate highways enter and leave the state. Interstates 80 and 90 form the Indiana Toll Road in northern Indiana, linking Gary, South Bend and Ohio. Interstate 94 hugs most of Lake Michigan from Illinois to Michigan. Interstate 65 is the major north-south route from Gary south to Indianapolis then entering Kentucky at Louisville. Interstate 70 is the busiest east-west route linking Illinois (at Terre Haute) with Ohio (at Richmond), passing through Indianapolis midway. Interstate 74 does the same thing, except it enters near Danville, Illinois and leaves near Cincinnati. Interstate 64 crosses southern Indiana from Illinois (25 miles northwest of Evansville) to New Albany. Interstate 69 runs from northeast Indiana, out of Michigan, through Fort Wayne to Indianapolis, where it ends (there are plans to extend it to Evansville and eventually to Texas). Interstate 275 (the Cincinnati bypass) briefly enters Indiana for about five miles.

Indiana Travel Guide - Getting Around

* Indiana's motto is "The Crossroads of America" and it is deserving. Indiana has more Interstates (14) than any other state, although the original name comes from all the railroad tracks that went through the state.

* Amtrak offers a daily train service from Indianapolis to Chicago and vice versa. The fare is reasonable (about 15-25 dollars each way). The train also passes through Lafayette as well as a few other towns along its way to Chicago. The time of travel is roughly about 4.5 hours as compared to about 3-3.5 hours by car.

Indiana Travel Guide - See

* Hoosier National Forest
* Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
* Covered Bridges in Parke County and other central west counties

Indiana Travel Guide - Things To Do

Racing- The Indianapolis 500 race is the most attended sporting event in the world. It's common to see many vendors and spectacular displays during the pre-race (most notably the singing of "Back Home Again In Indiana" by Jim Nabors and the overfly of the stealth bomber at the conclusion of the National Anthem). Also don't forget the Allstate 400 (formerly the Brickyard 400) NASCAR race and the F-1 Race held every summer in Indianapolis. IRP (Indianapolis Raceway Park) also holds the grand nationals of drag racing at it's facility. IRP is located about 10 miles west north-west of Indianapolis in Hendricks County

Indiana Travel Guide - Important Cities and Towns

Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana, near the geographic center of the state. Other Indiana cities functioning as centers of United States metropolitan areas include Anderson, Bloomington (home of Indiana University's main campus), Columbus, Elkhart, Evansville (home of University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana), Fort Wayne, Gary (home of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore), Kokomo, Lafayette (home of Purdue University) , Michigan City, Muncie (home of Ball State University), South Bend (home of University of Notre Dame), and Terre Haute (home of Indiana State University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology).

Indiana cities that function as centers of United States micropolitan areas include Angola, Auburn, Bedford, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Decatur, Frankfort, Greensburg, Huntington, Jasper, Kendallville, Logansport, Madison, Marion, New Castle, North Vernon, Peru, Plymouth, Richmond, Scottsburg, Seymour, Vincennes,Wabash, Warsaw, and Washington.

Other communities with populations of 10,000 or more include Beech Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Chesterton, Clarksville, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Crown Point, Dyer, East Chicago, Fishers, Franklin, Goshen, Greencastle, Greenfield, Greenwood, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Hobart, Jeffersonville, Lake Station, Lawrence, Lebanon, Martinsville, Merrillville, Mooresville, Munster, New Albany, New Haven, Noblesville, Plainfield, Portage, Schererville, Shelbyville, Speedway, Valparaiso (home of Valparaiso University), West Lafayette (home of Purdue University), Westfield, and Zionsville.

The suburbs of Indianapolis include Anderson, Avon, Beech Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Clermont, Danville, Fishers, Franklin, Greenfield, Greenwood, Lawrence, Lebanon, Noblesville, Pendleton, Plainfield, Southport, Speedway, West Newton, Whiteland, and Zionsville.

The Indiana suburbs of Chicago, Illinois include Crown Point, Dyer, East Chicago, Gary, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Lake County, Hobart, Merrillville, Munster, Valparaiso, Portage, and Chesterton.

The Indiana suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky include Clarksville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany.

Fort Wayne's Indiana suburbs include Huntertown, Leo-Cedarville, Monroeville, and New Haven, Woodburn.

Evansville's Indiana suburbs include Princeton, Newburgh, and Mt. Vernon.

South Bend's Indiana suburbs include Granger, Mishawaka, North Liberty, Osceola, Walkerton, and Roseland.

Indiana Travel Guide - Transportation

Highways

The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana are I-69, I-65, I-94, I-70, I-74, I-64, I-80, and I-90. The number of intersecting highways in and around Indianapolis earned it the nickname as the "Crossroads of America".

Airports

Major airports are in Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary, and South Bend. A long-standing proposal to build a major Chicago airport in the Gary area received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years. Terre Haute's airport is listed as international, but there are no airlines operating out of the facility. The only flying done out of the airport is private flying and the F-16's of the Air National Guard's 181st Fighter Wing, which is scheduled to lose its aircraft and become a non-flying unit.

Largely rural, Indiana has a fairly low crime rate per capita. In 2003 (the latest year for which data is available) it ranked 30th in crimes per 100,000 population. Large urban areas are exceptions like the former steel town Gary and the outlying Chicago area in the Northwest and certain segments of Indianapolis.

While outside of Tornado Alley, Indiana has a fairly high occurrence of tornados. You might want to check the Tornado safety page if you are visiting Indiana.

Article Source: Wikipedia