travel options from Indianapolis to Bowling Green, Ohio

I am going to two conferences in September, one at Purdue and one at Bowling Green State. I found out that I can fly (from New Brunswick, Canada) into Indianaoplis and get a shuttle bus to Purdue. Does anyone know how I could get from Purdue or Indianapolis to Bowling Green? I%26#39;d rather not a rent car because I find it stressful to drive in unfamiliar places. If I did rent a car are there some special sites to see on route?

Thanks so much for any help you can give me.

travel options from Indianapolis to Bowling Green, Ohio

You could look into a Greyhound bus fare. I%26#39;m not sure if they leave out of Lafayette, but they do from downtown Indy. That is the only advice I have. Unless you change your mind %26amp; decide to drive. Mapquest makes going to unfamiliar places so much easier than it used to be. Hope this helps.

travel options from Indianapolis to Bowling Green, Ohio

Unfortunately I don%26#39;t know of other options for you either. If for some reason that doesn%26#39;t work for you, even though you feel uncomfortable driving in unfamiliar places, I do want to encourage you. For a city, Indianapolis driving isn%26#39;t really that bad especially if it%26#39;s not rush hour.

I was also actually in both Lafayette and Bowling Green this week--very unusual! The area between the two is mainly country and small towns so the drive shouldn%26#39;t be bad at all. Fort Wayne is a city, but the mapquest.com route has you go around it. Bowling Green is a small town so finding your way around should be pretty easy.

I went to Bowling Green for the first time this week and was fine. Lafayette does have more traffic and can sometimes be confusing but I think that if you%26#39;re just heading toward campus, it%26#39;s generally pretty clearly marked. Where will you be staying? A lot of the hotels are quite far from campus, so if you%26#39;re not staying nearby, a car would be REALLY helpful. I%26#39;ve never used their public transportation system, so I%26#39;m not sure how easily and quickly you can get places with it.

I always keep maps in my car, so I know that no matter what, I can figure out where I am. That cuts way down on the stress of driving in unfamiliar places for me! If you want to go a step further, my brother-in-law travels a lot for work and makes a binder where he puts directions and close-ups of maps for each portion of the trip. Very organized!

You%26#39;ll be headed straight through part of Indiana Amish Country on the trip between Lafayette and Bowling Green, Ohio. www.amishcountry.org

Other things to see that are directly on your route:

Indianapolis www.indy.org

Fort Wayne www.visitfortwayne.com

Peru www.perucircus.com

Your destinations:

Bowling Green, Ohio

www.visitbgohio.org

West Lafayette, Indiana

http://www.lafayette-in.com/

If you do decide to drive and want more specific directions and tips, feel free to ask.

I hope this helps!

Lily

By the way, the drive from Lafayette to Bowling Green is 4 hours. The Greyhound bus trip to the nearest station (which seems to be in Toledo about 30 miles north of Bowling Green) is 10 hours and 45 minutes!

www.greyhound.com

I don%26#39;t know if they still do this, but there used to be a posting in the Purdue Student Union listing travel needs/driving partners wanted. It wouldn%26#39;t be unusual for there to be someone going from Purdue to Nashville, TN - and going right by BG. Kind of a hit or miss possibility, but I%26#39;m sayin%26#39; at least you%26#39;ve got a chance ...

Maybe rent the car with a GPS and leave the stress behind (usually $7 to $10 per day).

Regardless, good luck, have fun %26amp; best wishes for stress-free travel (it can happen).

Dave had a good idea about sharing a ride. Do make sure they%26#39;re going to/by the right Bowling Green. There are at least two that I know about, and both have colleges. One is Bowling Green, Ohio and the other is Bowling Green, Kentucky. Both states border Indiana but are in very different directions! :-)

Thanks for the great info! I think I may go for the rental car after all. I could even pop into a few other college towns along the way. I believe Earlham College is not too far off my path and it sounds like Bloomington would be worth a detour - it has been rated as one of the top 5 most beautiful college campuses in the country.

I%26#39;m glad to hear that you might go ahead and rent a car! That sounds like a good choice!

If you%26#39;re definitely headed to Bowling Green, Ohio and not Bowling Green, Kentucky, both IU Bloomington and Earlham would add several hours to your trip, but they%26#39;re very nice places.

Here are links to their surrounding areas:

Earlham in Richmond, Indiana

http://www.visitrichmond.org/

Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana

http://www.visitbloomington.com/

Brown County, Indiana is very close to Bloomington and a nice place to visit especially in the fall.

http://www.browncounty.com/

I don%26#39;t know how much time you%26#39;ll have, but if you have any interest in covered bridges, there are several in the counties south of Lafayette. Parke County has been called ';The Covered Bridge Capital of the World.'; (Seeing most of them does involve a lot of wandering on country roads.)

http://www.coveredbridges.com/

Also, if you%26#39;re headed to Earlham in Richmond and then up to Bowling Green, Ohio, you%26#39;ll probably take Interstate 70 to Interstate 75 near Dayton, Ohio. In Dayton is a wonderful aviation museum that many people rave about. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/visit/

That%26#39;s probably way more than you%26#39;ll have time to do, but I at least wanted to tell you about them.

I hope you have a wonderful time!

Lily

Bowling Green State is in Bowling Green Ohio.

Western Kentucky University is in Bowling Green Kentucky.

Sounds like you are going to Ohio. Honestly I don%26#39;t know of any way you can get to BG from Indy or Purdue other than renting a car that is not going to take you hours out of your way.

If you are at all into the history of the space program, the Neil Armstrong Museum is in Wapakoneta, Ohio - about an hour south of BG on I-75. I will tell you that 75 is an old freeway, narrow median in a lot of places and probably could be stressful if you are not used to that kind of driving.

Thanks for the suggestions. I followed the links you suggested and now I am very excited about renting a car and seeing the sites of Indiana. The Amish country looks beautiful and they have a wonderful web site that outlines their heritage trail. I am a space fan so the museum will be on our list!

I bought a book called ';Cafe Indiana'; by Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and now I have to eat Chicken and Noodles and all kinds of pie!

Our proposed itinerary so far:

Day 1.Fly into Indianapolis, take shuttle to Purdue

Day 2-5. Go to a conference (and a football game) at Purdue

Day 6-8. Rent a car and drive North to Amish country, maybe visit Notre Dame

Day 8-11. Drive to Bowling Green, OH for conference

Day 12-14. Drive to see Earlham and Bloomington

Day 15. Return car and fly home out of Indianapolis

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