Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana and the self-proclaimed amateur sports capital of the United States. To most outsiders it means one thing — the Indy 500 — but the city has more going on than the speedway. The downtown is compact and walkable, with Monument Circle and its Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at its heart, and there is a genuine cultural scene anchored by the Children's Museum — the largest in the world — along with the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the Indiana State Museum, and the small but excellent Kurt Vonnegut Library honouring the city's most famous native.
The city is not going to knock you sideways with charm, but it is friendly, affordable, and has a handful of places — the Slippery Noodle Inn, the canal walk, the old City Market — that give it character beyond the convention-centre sheen. Add a stop at the eerie Medical History Museum, an afternoon on Mass Ave or in Fountain Square, and at least one breaded pork tenderloin or St. Elmo's shrimp cocktail, and you have a perfectly good two or three days.