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This may be one of the most unique places in the Midwest.
Key Points
- Bloomington, Indiana, is a vibrant college town with more than 350 restaurants, a thriving arts scene, and global cuisine ranging from Tibetan to Turkish.
- The city is also home to world-class cultural institutions like the Lilly Library and the I.M. Pei–designed Eskenazi Museum of Art.
- Outdoor lovers can explore Monroe Lake, the Hoosier National Forest, historic limestone quarries, and year-round festivals just an hour from Indianapolis.
I call the Midwest home, and I've visited destinations all across the country—but there's one city that continues to surprise me: Bloomington, Indiana.
Bloomington is primarily known as a college town and is home to Indiana University’s main campus. Recently, Bloomington and Indiana University were thrust into the news after winning the community's first-ever college football national championship. However, there’s plenty that Bloomington excels at beyond college sports. Bloomington also has a robust food scene, world-class museums, and is an all-around great, bustling town located just an hour south of Indianapolis.
The food in Bloomington is diverse to say the least. It has more than 350 restaurants, spanning Turkish, Tibetan, Burmese, Venezuelan, Mexican, Thai, and French cuisines. In a city of just 80,000, Bloomington’s culinary scene rivals cities of much larger populations, and it has one restaurant for every 230 residents. Along 4th Street, you'll find everything from steaming momos at iconic Anyetsang's Little Tibet to eggnog tart and Swiss röstis at The Elm. Local brewery Upland Brewing Co. offers craft beers, pub food, and both all-ages and 21+ spaces. Oliver Winery is nearly a heritage site in Indiana, and is the state’s oldest and largest winery.
Other local culinary businesses include Goods for Cooks, where you can get niche cooking accessories, and In the Kitchen, where visitors can take kitchen-related workshops centered around things like knife skills and pastry decoration.
 Visit Bloomington |  Visit Bloomington |  Visit Bloomington |  Anna Powell Teeter/Visit Bloomington |
Beyond dining, Bloomington has a thriving arts and culture scene. The Lilly Library on the IU campus houses rare books and manuscripts like a Gutenberg Bible New Testament, Shakespeare's First Folio, and a letter by George Washington in which he accepts the presidency. The Eskenazi Museum of Art was designed by I.M. Pei, who also created the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. Beyond the building itself, the museum holds more than 47,000 works spanning from ancient Islamic and Chinese art to pieces by contemporary masters such as Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock.
One of the city's most unexpected offerings is arguably the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, the only such institution in the U.S. While here, guests can enjoy meditation trails and overnight stays in traditional yurts. Founded by the Dalai Lama's elder brother, Thubten Jigme Norbu, the cultural center sits on 90 wooded acres just outside town. The center often hosts lectures, meditations, and retreats as well.
Monroe Lake, Indiana's largest lake, sits just minutes from downtown Bloomington and is an ideal place to boat, swim, and camp. Close by, the Hoosier National Forest is more than 200,000 acres of woods. Within the Hoosier National Forest is Indiana’s only federally-designated wilderness area, the Charles C. Deam Wilderness, which has 37 miles of hiking trails.
Then there's my favorite aspect of Bloomington—its limestone. Monroe County sits above a 35-mile corridor of Salem Limestone. This is the same rock that was used to build the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and more than 25 state capitols. The historic quarries (which appear in the Academy Award-winning, 1979 film "Breaking Away") are well worth a visit.
 Indiana University |  Visit Bloomington |  Visit Bloomington |
Each season in Bloomington offers something worth experiencing. Spring (from roughly late March through May) is the prime season for morel mushroom hunting. Local chefs also feature the prized fungi in their seasonal dishes. In late April, the largest collegiate bike race in the U.S., The Little 500, draws more than 25,000 spectators for what's nicknamed "The World's Greatest College Weekend." Summer brings the free Taste of Bloomington festival, where 58 different vendors gather to showcase their food and drink offerings. During Limestone Month each June, the quarries are open for a limited time for tours.
Fall transforms the region into reds, yellows, and golds, but the best view is from the 133-step Hickory Ridge Fire Tower in the Hoosier National Forest. The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival takes over downtown venues in late September, and performers from all over the world come to entertain festival-goers. In the winter, Freezefest brings in international ice sculptors to create epic sculptures, interactive ice games, and demonstrations.
Between historic manuscripts, Burmese tea leaf salad, and Tibetan Buddhist lectures, Bloomington is one of the best small towns in the Midwest, in my humble opinion. And the fact that it's just an hour from Indianapolis makes it the perfect weekend getaway.
Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
