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What are Indiana's hottest tourism attractions and regions? We asked the experts at AAA Hoosier Motor Club.
To find the answer, AAA surveyed its staff of travel advisers, the people who field phone calls from members interested in touring Indiana. From the votes these travel experts cast, we've assembled a run-down of the state's most-asked-about tourist destinations.
NORTHERN INDIANA
Begin in South Bend. As the home of the University of Notre Dame, the area is known as "Golden Dome Country." Appropriately, it boasts the new College Football Hall of Fame, which opened last year near the downtown convention center. Car buffs need plenty of time in Studebaker National Museum to trace the automaker's history from the Conestoga wagon to the Avanti.
Then move east into Amish Country, picking up the Heritage Trail's 90-mile loop tour through Elkhart and LaGrange counties. Watch the Amish work with horse-drawn plows, and be on the lookout for horses and buggies.
Goshen and other nearby towns present an assortment of shopping choices--quilt shops, country and folk-art shops, and bakeries. Goshen's South Side Soda Shop is a great stop for '50s and '60s music, food and drink. Dutch Village in Nappanee also offers old-time flavored sodas and phosphates.
Nappanee's Amish Acres--a living, working demonstration--celebrates the quaint Amish life in which visitors may enjoy a thresher's dinner or take in "Plain & Fancy," the Broadway musical of Amish customs. Shoppers and collectors can hunt for antiques and collectibles at the auction, the flea market or the Farm Store.
Auction fans will love the Shipshewana Flea Market and Auction Center for purchasing just about anything--even a horse. A stop at Shipshewana's Crafter's Marketplace--a trade, folk art and craft center--is recommended for those seeking furniture.
To find more out-of-the-way places in the state, read the "Indiana Historical Tour Guide" by D. Ray Wilson (Crossroads Communications, 847/426-0008) and "Backroads America" by Wendell Trogdon (Backroads Press, 317/831-2815)
SOUTHERN INDIANA
Next on our list of top tourist destinations is the rolling-hill region of Southern Indiana, with scenic natural features as well as a casino, grand resort hotel and theme park.
In the Evansville area, discover a reconstructed prehistoric Native...