Places we love to visit in Southern Indiana

Visit Southern Indiana
The following is a compilation of ten cities for families to review before they visit Southern Indiana. These places offer lots of relaxation, family fun, and sites to see together!
These are in no particular order. (Well, they are alphabetical!)
  • Bedford is a great cultural-filled town, with things to do like theater, wineries, history, museums, local fruit markets and farms, a world famous doll factory, great parks and caverns, and a pretty cool covered bridge-the longest active covered bridge in Indiana.
  • ClarksvilleJeffersonville/New Albany – Clarksville is home to Falls of the Ohio, a great waterfront park and walkway, Derby Dinner Playhouse for children’s theater, and Widow’s Walk Ice Creamery, which also rents bicycles to patrons! Gateway park has a new play structure and is very nice. Jeffersonville and New Albany are bustling with small town charm as they grow their small towns with businesses, shops, and small eateries. Watch the making of old fashioned candy at Schimpff’s Confectionery, dine at Adrienne’s, walk from downtown Louisville to Jeffersonville on the Big 4 Bridge. Now is a great time to pay each of these SI cities a visit!
  • Brownstown boasts lots of quaint shops, good tree views in the fall, and horseback riding-tips from one of our writers who loves Southern Indiana!
  • Columbus- Visit Southern Indiana to find this small artsy town for two main things: The Commons and historic Zaharako’s Ice Cream Parlor. Those in themselves (along with a visit across the street to Kids Commons Museum- review coming soon!) will take up a day trip. We have a general review here, and we love Columbus so much we featured it in our Top 10 Day Trips! My family and I in particular went for two days over spring break last year and loved it.
  • Corydon is the first state capitol, thus it has a lot of history for the history buffs in the family. It also is home to Squire Boone Caverns and Old Capitol Jamboree, which were highly recommended by one of our writers.
  • French Lick has Big Splash Adventure (review here), and the French Lick Resort and Hotel is very nice, we have a review here. The French Lick Scenic Railway runs from here as well. There’s plenty for families to do here and feel like you got away for a good while!
  • Madison – Here in Madison, Indiana, you can do SO many things. One recent tip from one of our readers: “Go to Clifty Falls during or right after a good rain. The falls are spectacular then!” My family visits Madison, Indiana about once or twice a year. We always find something fun to do together, even if it’s just walking the quaint streets and window shopping. They have a slew of events on their website. Here’s our review here.
  • Nashville (Brown County) – In this little piece of paradise about 80 or so miles from Louisville you can be as adventurous as you want (zip lines, hiking, horse back riding, mountain biking), or as laid back as you want (with trail walking, taking in the colors in fall, walking the quaint streets of historic sites and shops and eateries, etc.) We have a review of Brown County State Park here. See the Nashville, IN tourism site and the Brown County site as well.
  • Salem – What is there to do in Salem, Indiana? It’s more of a history kind of town, with dedicated memorial museums, Pioneer Village, a genealogy and historical library, and a very cute town square with a great little places to eat. There are many lakes, a speedway, trails and parks, and a really cool gristmill! Check out their tourism site here.
  • Utica has this little hidden gem called the Hidden Hill Nursery; we recently reviewed it here.
  • Honorable mentions: Charlestown – for Charlestown State Park and many festivities seasonally and the Indiana Cave Trail system looks great for the adventurous! A friend of mine told me to visit Franklin, Indiana too for the old theater and the Flying Frog Bed and Breakfast-maybe that can be a parent’s overnighter away from the kids! Decided that yes, you want to visit Southern Indiana? See the Explore Southern Indiana or GoSoIN.com for more ideas.
 Also, you can go to our website calendar and under locations, sort only by Southern Indiana to show what is going on!
By guest contributor: Erin
DCPD
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