Weekend Getaway: New Harmony, Indiana
My husband and I recently spent a weekend in New Harmony, IN, about 2 hours west of Louisville (and located in the central time zone). We stayed at the New Harmony Inn. It’s a perfect getaway for couples, and a decent getaway for families, though children too young may not enjoy it as much (It’s not that it isn’t kid friendly, it just isn’t kid focused, and there’s a lot of historical, non-climbing, no – touching stuff).
New Harmony has an interesting history of being founded as a communal community with 150 buildings built the 1st year it was founded in the 1800s. The whole town was then sold ten years later to a developer for a communal society that would focus on philosophy, intellectualism, and spiritualism and many of the buildings from those time periods can still seen today.
The Inn itself is wonderful. Unique wooden furniture, WiFi, flat screen tv, and coffee makers in the rooms (but no tub, just a big shower in our bathroom). The air/heating system was loud, but kept the neighboring room noise down. The beds can be a bit squeaky, but comfortable. The cost of room is based on beds and views from the room. You can also rent one of the guest houses that has 1-4 bedrooms.
On the grounds of the Inn there are several nice walking/jogging and sitting areas, tennis courts, outdoor games including horseshoes, yard chess, checkers, croquet, and volley ball. There is a heated, indoor pool and hot tub, fitness center, a wooden and tire swing, bird coop, a pond with a waterfall, and outdoor art to view.
They have free bikes and bicycles built for two you can borrow, golf carts to rent ($18/hr, $40/4 hours, and $60/8 hour), and they mentioned horse drawn carriages on the weekends, but we didn’t see any during our stay. There is also a restaurant with the Inn called the Red Geranium which has a wonderful atmosphere and decent prices for lunch and dinner, and brunch on the weekends (the Inn has a free continental breakfast included which was great!)
The town of New Harmony has many historic buildings, neat housing architecture, a very modern visitor’s center, parks, and two labyrinths (one made of flat stone to walk and meditate, and one made of hedges). We also saw a very old fashioned metal playground, as well as a newer playground and park with several playground structures that my kids would love.
If you go to the visitor center you can pay $3 to watch a 10 minute, grainy video on the history of the area, but it doesn’t tell you anything different than the history page the Inn provides you in their welcome packet. You can also take a 2 hour historical walking tour of the town which gets you inside some of the historical buildings. You can do a self guided cell phone tour, but the houses are locked, and only accessible with the paid walking tour. Our packet said the tours were available at 10am and 2pm, but you may want to call ahead and book it, because the tour guides seemed very flexible to us on schedules.
The rest of the town is cute, but we didn’t spend a lot of time there. Antique stores, a pizzeria, a tavern, and a couple shops line main street. Several of the eateries/bars were 21 and over to enter (you may want to pack picnic food or snacks if you’re there a couple days rather than eating out for every lunch and dinner and running out of options).
We really enjoyed our getaway. I’d highly recommend the bicycle built for two, the Red Geranium Restaurant, and bringing good footwear to walk the trails and town. It was nice to learn some history while enjoying our getaway, and we’d love to go back again…maybe for their Christmas setup! For more information, check out www.newharmony.biz
By guest contributor: Caryn