Indianapolis

Indianapolis sits in the flat till plain of central Indiana, about 98 miles northwest of Cincinnati and 164 miles southeast of Chicago. It was established January 6, 1821, as a planned state capital and platted by Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham on a one-square-mile grid, with a central traffic circle that gave the city its “Circle City” nickname. Few American state capitals were built this deliberately from a blank map.

That circle is Monument Circle, anchored since 1902 by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument — part of what is, per the city's own claim, the largest collection of monuments dedicated to veterans and war casualties in the United States outside Washington, D.C. Around it, downtown Indianapolis is unusually compact and walkable for a Midwestern capital: the Canal Walk (redeveloped from the 1830s Indiana Central Canal), White River State Park, and the Mass Ave Cultural Arts District are all within easy reach on foot.

The other Indianapolis is the one on television every May: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909 and has hosted the Indianapolis 500 for more than a century. Wikipedia describes race day itself as “the world's largest single-day sporting event.” The rest of the year the Speedway grounds host road racing, a museum, and a quieter version of the roar that fills the place every Memorial Day weekend.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the anchor and the reason most people put Indianapolis on a road trip at all. Opened in 1909 on the city's west side, it has hosted the Indianapolis 500 since 1911 and is described by Wikipedia as the site of “the world's largest single-day sporting event.” The museum’s own site lists hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and says it is open 363 days a year, closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Its Winners Gallery shows 17 winning “500” cars on the main level and 12 on the lower level. Track tours require museum admission and can change without notice with weather or track activity, so check the museum’s tour schedule before planning around one.

Visit Indiana, the state tourism office, calls the breaded pork tenderloin Indiana’s unofficial sandwich since 1908 and describes it as a piece of pork, pounded and breaded and usually fried. It says the sandwich is on menus at diners, breweries, family restaurants and food trucks across the state.

St. Elmo Steak House says on its own history page that it began in 1902 as a saloon in downtown Indianapolis, that its earliest menu featured shrimp cocktail, and that the shrimp cocktail is still prepared with a fiery, horseradish-laden sauce. Visit Indy describes Mass Ave as a cultural district of art galleries, boutiques, restaurants and bars, walkable from most downtown hotels.

15 breweries within 10 miles of Indianapolis, 7 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

9 more Highway Heads places lie within about 180 miles of Indianapolis in a straight line — far enough that most are a night away rather than an afternoon.

• CincinnatiOhioabout 100 mi
• DaytonOhioabout 100 mi
• LouisvilleKentuckyabout 110 mi
• Santa ClausIndianaabout 120 mi
• FrankfortKentuckyabout 130 mi
• South BendIndianaabout 130 mi
• LexingtonKentuckyabout 150 mi
• ChicagoIllinoisabout 160 mi
• ColumbusOhioabout 170 mi

• Twisted HouseFolk art / sculpture gardenIndianapolisabout 8 miles away

  Cost to see it

  Free

  When you can see it

  Any time — outdoors, visible from the road

  Nearest road

  I-465 / Keystone Ave

  Walk-through cottage sculpture that warps as you enter.

  Read on the page we checked

• Rotary Jail MuseumQuirky museumCrawfordsvilleabout 44 miles away

  Cost to see it

  Costs something — we did not find the price published

  When you can see it

  Only while it is open, and we did not find its hours published

  Nearest road

  US-231 / I-74

  1881 jail with a cell block that spins like a turntable.

  Read on the page we checked

These are things you can go and look at, not a recommendation of any of them. Oddities move, get sold and quietly disappear more than anything else we list, so check anything you are driving a long way for. Where this list says we did not find a price or opening times published, that is exactly what we mean. A blank is not “free” and not “always open”. Some sit on private land and can only be seen from the road — please do not go onto anyone’s property. Every entry links the page we read it off.

Downtown is walkable. Monument Circle, Mass Ave, the Canal Walk and both stadiums are all within a 20-minute walk of each other; a car is really only needed for the Speedway.

Race week changes everything. The week around Memorial Day brings the Indy 500 crowds, higher hotel rates, and a genuinely different city energy — plan around it deliberately either way.

Downtown parking has its own online guide. Visit Indy says downtown has over 73,000 parking spots and points to a Downtown Indy parking guide with a map and filters; it names ParkIndy as the provider of pay boxes and a parking app. Rates and availability vary, so check the guide before arriving.

Give the Speedway its own half-day. It's 15–20 minutes from downtown but deserves unhurried time, especially the museum.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum

Address

4750 W 16th St, Indianapolis, IN 46222

Hours

Check the official site for current hours

Price

Check the official site for current admission fees

Link

imsmuseum.org

We checked contact details, operating status, opening hours and fees on 2026-10-15. These change without notice — confirm with indianapoliszoo.com, discovernewfields.org, childrensmuseum.org, connerprairie.org, imsmuseum.org and visitindy.com the week you travel.

Straight-line distance from Indianapolis, not drive time.

• Indianapolis International (IND) — 8 miles
• Columbus Municipal (CLU) — 38 miles
• Monroe County (BMG) — 49 miles