madison county/amama visit

we were planning to visit madison county and the amana colonies while basing ourselves in indianola for 2-3 nights. is this a better option than changing accommodation nightly or staying in des moines as we are not too fond of cities? i don%26#39;t think the distnces involved are too great for day tripping but would like some input. thanks

madison county/amama visit

You%26#39;re correct; the drive time between the Amanas and Madison Co. is about 2 hours, so you could visit both in a long day.

Even though the Des Moines area has about a half million residents, the pace and atmosphere are more relaxed than in Sydney or Melbourne. There is much less traffic than I remember seeing in the large Australian cities and it typically takes me no more than a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to drive all the way across town.

You may want to base yourselves near the Des Moines airport (on the far south side of Des Moines, near the town of Norwalk) where you can easily skirt around the city on a bypass road. Other options are Altoona or Newton if you want to stay between Madison Co. and the Amanas. Indianola may be a good choice, but I don%26#39;t know how plentiful hotel options are there.

Enjoy your trip! I hope you%26#39;ll be joining us in a more temperate time of year, as it has been extraordinarily cold here this week. (It reached -30 F in some parts of Iowa.)

madison county/amama visit

thanks for the information. very helpful.

am aware of mid west winters as i have family in sd (where we will be travelling from this trip in september.) and i avoid them. was +95F here the other day.

we found this b%26amp;b in indianola which looks fine to us.

http://www.gardenandgalley.com/

we are interested in the wine area as well as the bridges and colonies so thought we could do those over 3 days and head back via i35/i90 unless you can suggest a more scenice route. we have been to okoboji/spirit lakes and %26#39;blue bunny%26#39; in le mars.