Things to do in Indianapolis

Landmark · Dead centre of downtown

The 1902 limestone monument at the exact centre of the city's street grid, with an observation deck near the top and a war memorial museum in the basement.

Local tip: You can climb the 331 steps, or take the small lift for a nominal fee — most residents have never done either. Indianapolis has more acreage dedicated to war memorials than anywhere in the country outside Washington, DC, and the plaza north of the Circle is where you see it.

Neighborhood · Threading the six downtown cultural districts

An eight-mile protected path for walking and cycling, separated from traffic, linking Mass Ave, Fountain Square, the Wholesale District, Indiana Avenue, the Canal and White River State Park.

Local tip: Ride it end to end on a bike-share in an afternoon and you will have seen more of the real city than a week of driving gives you. The Fountain Square leg passes under the old interurban viaduct and is the best stretch.

Landmark · Town of Speedway — not, technically, Indianapolis

A 2.5-mile oval opened in 1909, the highest-capacity sports venue in the world, with a museum of race-winning cars inside the infield and a golf course crossing the track.

Local tip: Outside race month you can usually take a bus lap of the track and, on some tours, kiss the bricks at the start-finish line. Main Street in Speedway, just outside turn one, has become a genuinely good bar and restaurant strip that has nothing to do with the race.

Nightlife · South-east of downtown

A compact former streetcar suburb of two-storey brick storefronts, now the city's densest concentration of music venues, bars and small restaurants, with two floors of vintage duckpin bowling above the theatre.

Local tip: First Friday here is the art walk that actually has people at it. Duckpin bowling at the Fountain Square Theatre building is the standard 'take a visitor somewhere Indianapolis' answer, and it deserves to be.

Culture · North-west of downtown, on the White River

The Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Lilly House, formal gardens and a 100-acre park of large-scale outdoor commissions along the river and around a lake.

Local tip: The 100 Acres park is free and open beyond museum hours; the floating 'Funky Bones' sculpture in it is the one people photograph. Go for the park, not just the galleries.

Nature · North side, running to Hamilton County

A rail-trail on the old Monon Railroad corridor running from downtown north through Broad Ripple Village and out to Westfield, with a canal towpath running parallel closer in.

Local tip: The Monon is the commuting and running spine of the north side and the reason property prices step up within a block of it. Broad Ripple after dark is a student and nightlife district; the same village on a Saturday morning, at the farmers' market, is a completely different place.