Frommer's Names Indiana Among the World's Top Places to Visit in 2020

A trusted travel adviser for 60+ years, when Frommer’s releases a list of top destinations, people pay attention. With America’s newest national park reaching a year of parkhood and the 200th birthday of Indianapolis in 2020, it is no surprise Frommer’s Best Places to Go in 2020 features the Hoosier State.

Indiana Dunes National Park hosted a record number of visitors in 2019, and 2020 should bring even more explorers to enjoy beaches, hiking and an incredible ecosystem that is among the most biodiverse in the National Park System! Indiana Dunes National Park should definitely be among the top places to visit in 2020.

Indianapolis is celebrating 200 years in 2020! Home to the world’s most famous speedway, the world’s largest children’s museum and much more, the new year will see two new openings that Frommer’s noted: The Bottleworks District and Madam Walker Legacy Center.

This is what Frommer’s Andy Seifert had to say about Indiana: 

“Don’t look for America’s newest national park in a wilderness like Alaska or Montana. Instead, hang a right at the steel mills south of Chicago. Officially designated in February 2019, Indiana Dunes National Park encompasses a pleasant stretch of Lake Michigan beachfront, thick forest, and a bog brimming with unique plants. In summer, visitors make a beeline for the beaches to swim near the lake’s southernmost point, but smart travelers budget time to hike up Mount Baldy, a 126-foot-tall dune that constantly changes shape. Most unexpected are the park’s waterfront model homes left over from the 1933–34 Century of Progress World’s Fair. With names like the “House of Tomorrow,” these structures seem lifted from a vintage magazine promising a dreamy future.

While the Dunes celebrates its first anniversary as a national park in 2020, Indianapolis (about 150 miles south) celebrates its 200th birthday. Tourism in Indiana’s capital has grown beyond its iconic speedway. A rich assortment of museums includes what is arguably the country’s finest children’s museum as well as an important collection of Western and Native American art. Promising to be a banner year, 2020 marks the opening of Indy’s Bottleworks District, a revamped Coca-Cola facility featuring a massive food hall, bars, shops, and a 140-room hotel. Over on historic Indiana Avenue, the Madam Walker Legacy Center is slated to reopen early in the year. This Egyptian- and Moorish-inspired art-deco building houses a theater, cultural events, and a museum detailing the landmark’s past as the headquarters of Madam C.J. Walker’s cosmetics and hair-care empire. Walker, the subject of an upcoming Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, held the distinction of being America’s first female African American millionaire. —Andy Seifert”