Des Moines, Iowa City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Des Moines, Iowa Travel Guide has been your connection to Des Moines's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
Des Moines Downtown
While enjoying the staggering amount of tourist activities that showcase and embrace the past, do not forget to enjoy the modern city vibe! Downtown Des Moines is hip, happening and full of restaurants and shops. Your Des Moines bed and breakfast vacation is not complete without a visit to the newly restored downtown area. And whether you like antiques or designer clothes, sushi or barbeque, anything you feel like doing is available to do in downtown Des Moines. One unique (and often hilarious!) activity in downtown Des Moines is Skywalk Golf, which is a miniature golf course set up along the 3.2 mile indoor Skywalk system. If golf is not your thing, then just enjoy the unique and revolutionary Skywalk system—designed to make downtown Des Moines accessible and fun, even on blustery winter days. Also, no bed and breakfast vacation to Des Moines will ever be complete without a visit to the famous Des Moines farmers market. In an area as rich in agriculture as Des Moines, a bed and breakfast traveler would naturally expect the farmers market to be exceptional. From bright yellow sunflowers to red, plump tomatoes, the market is a feast for the eyes as well as the belly. Midwestern farmers will share their bounty at reasonable prices and you can trust that your produce is fresh, healthy and straight from the heart of America. You can count that those same local ingredients you sample at the market will be on your bed and breakfast plate. There are many sweet things about Des Moines—from the succulent peach that drips down your chin as you bite into it, to the rich collections of art, to the celebration of past and present. Your Des Moines bed and breakfast vacation will be just as rich, just as sweet, and just as memorable as the city of Des Moines itself.
Guest Editor: Carola Valdes
