Iowa City, home of the Iowa Hawkeyes and the famous ‘Kinnick Wave’ (where the whole football stadium turns around and waves at patients on the 12th floor of the Iowa City Children’s Hospital next door) and listed as one of a handful of cites in the world to be recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature! There are plenty of things to keep you busy during a visit!
Keeping with the football theme, any Hawkeye fan would love a stop at the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame and Museum! It celebrates some of their greatest athletes and achievements. I particularly enjoyed seeing the progression of the sports through the years and seeing how the uniforms have changed!
Some of them look so impractical for physical exercise!
For those that are interested in history, the Old Capitol Museum is located in Iowa’s first state capitol building that was in use in the mid 1800’s. Some are the rooms are set up to look like how the did during this time! The building is now part of the University of Iowa’s college campus.
It wouldn’t be a city guide without the mention of food! The Vue Rooftop Bar and Restaurant is on the top floor of the Hilton Garden Inn hotel. It has loads of cool technology features (some behind the scenes) as well as an awesome outside seating area with views across the city and amazing food for very reasonable prices!
The Hamburg Inn is famous for being a stopping point for former presidents during their visits to Iowa City. This cozy retro restaurant with a large menu pack with comfort food dishes, great prices and great ‘pie shakes’, hosts the ‘Coffee Bean Caucus’ during elections. There are plans to open a 3rd ‘Hamburg Inn’ location in Iowa City and then potentially stretch as far away internationally as Asia!
Other places worth mentioning are ‘Scratch Cupcakes’ because who doesn’t love cake?! And Scratch Cupcakes do them brilliantly well! The Wig and Pen is a British themed pub and the Clinton Street Social Club is a cute hidden little ‘speakeasy’! Iowa City has so many bars and restaurants to pick from, it’d be impossible to mention them all, I haven’t even touched on their live music scene!
Kylie blogs at Between England and Iowa. She resides in Dubuque, Iowa and has a passion for travel and adventure. Visit her blog and connect with her through social media, as she’s always traveling somewhere that will spark your interest.
