The Road Trip Issue 2022: Bloomington, Ind.

If you want an unfussy but unique road trip experience, the relatively under-the-radar college town of Bloomington, Ind., is as good as it gets.

From the moment you arrive, you’ll notice a very specific confluence of elements — namely, basketball and sex. Look closely and you’ll see references to the Indiana Hoosiers and The Kinsey Institute everywhere: headshots of Hoosiers star Gene Hackman and Kinsey star Liam Neeson; references to Bobby Knight and The Kinsey Reports; design motifs that incorporate basketball nets and Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. For a small town, it’s got an unexpectedly cool and interesting combination of cultural influences.

Stay

When visiting a college town, I always look forward to staying at one of the Graduate Hotels. The Bloomington outpost is right on the square, and is upscale enough to offer desirable amenities like luxe bedding and Malin + Goetz toiletries, but still quirky enough to include offbeat design elements like a crossword-puzzle-themed lobby floor that references Indiana University alum Will Shortz.

On the topic of quirky, there’s also a Stranger Things-themed suite that you can stay in if you’re feeling brave — or nostalgic for the early 1980s. The suite of two rooms — replicas of the Byers’ living room and the Wheelers’ basement — is large enough to sleep six, and features stacks of pulpy sci-fi paperbacks, board games and Trapper Keepers. There’s also a Dungeons & Dragons set that’s available to play near a wooden table and chairs that are exact matches of the ones in the TV show, and a chandelier that mimics the vines in the Upside Down. There are innumerable details that fans of the series will love, like boxes of Eggo waffles stuffed into every corner, and a tape deck that plays “Rock the Casbah” on repeat.

If the Graduate isn’t your speed, there is, of course, a pretty wide assortment of short-term rentals available via sites like Airbnb and Vrbo.

Do

Indiana University has a lot going for it, but perhaps its most exceptional feature is The Kinsey Institute. The institute’s collection of material culture related to human sexuality is jaw-dropping in more ways than one — there are more than half a million items from across the globe in a collection that spans more than 2,000 years of human history. A new exhibition that draws on this expansive collection opens in early September. Universal Language: The Legacy of Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Kinsey Institute Collections includes an array of work that addresses the spectrum of gender identity — from photographs of natural rock formations that seem to mimic genitalia to erotic paintings and traditional Japanese woodblock prints.

But Bloomington also has plenty of stuff for the kids. Switchyard Park features an accessible outdoor playground and splash pad, and WonderLab Museum is a hands-on children’s science center. Among the museum’s highlights is an enormous Rube Goldberg machine called the Kinetic Contraption and a climbable vine of grape leaves that goes all the way up to the building’s ceiling. If you have a membership with Nashville’s Adventure Science Museum, you get in free.

As far as shopping goes, one of the many benefits of visiting a college town is that there is generally a variety of bookshops in the area. Bloomington has several options: Caveat Emptor is a used and rare bookstore that has library ladders to help you reach the highest shelves, which are stacked with volumes that cover seemingly every subject imaginable, but especially history, philosophy and cultural studies. Morgenstern’s Bookstore & Café is a massive indie shop with a comprehensive collection of essays and New York Review of Books classics, and The Book Corner has more pop-up books and jigsaw puzzles than seem possible for such a compact space.

Sure it’s a small town, but Bloomington has an exceptionally wide variety of eating options — there’s an entire blockedicated to international markets and restaurants near downtown. The perfect lunch spot is a traditional Tibetan restaurant called Little Tibet. The fare is hearty and wholesome — steamed Tibetan dumplings called Tsel are stuffed with shredded cabbage, carrot and onions, a cup of steaming-hot Tibetan tea is at once savory and creamy, and the traditional Tibetan stew called Kham Amdo Thugpa is made from handmade noodles, daikon radish and cilantro. 

A fairly new restaurant called The Elm offers upscale dining and unusual cocktails like I Beg Your Garden, which combines gin and vodka with refreshing leafy elements like basil syrup and celery bitters. House-made potato chips are a fun addition to the traditional charcuterie plate, which features Benton’s country ham and Smoking Goose rabbit terrine. Main courses include a grilled eggplant with roasted tomatoes that is as satisfying as a sirloin, and melt-in-your-mouth scallops garnished with fennel soubise and smoked trout roe. For dessert, the berries and cream is an unexpected contemporary spin on an old-fashioned favorite — rice milk panna cotta and watermelon granita garnished with a crunchy freeze-dried balsamic crisp. 

The Road Trip Issue 2022

Five nearby destinations for the perfect weekend getaway — plus details on five Middle Tennessee rivers for your upcoming day trip