🏛️ CulturalLong weekend · from Indianapolis, IN
Classic Cars & Amish Country — Auburn, Shipshewana & Elkhart
A three-day loop through northeastern Indiana that pairs the golden age of American automobiles with the enduring traditions of the state's largest Amish and Mennonite community. Day one visits Auburn, home of the legendary Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg motorcars, where the original 1930 Art Deco factory showroom now houses one of the finest automobile museums in the world. Day two immerses you in the plain-living country around Shipshewana — the Midwest's largest flea market, horse-and-buggy back roads, and hearth-cooked Amish tables — with a firm note that most Amish businesses close on Sundays. Day three turns to Elkhart, the self-styled 'RV Capital of the World,' its RV/MH Hall of Fame, and the quilt-garden village of Middlebury, before the drive home. It is a rich, contrasting weekend of Hoosier ingenuity and heritage.
Day 1 — Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile MuseumDay 2 — Shipshewana Amish country: the flea market & buggy back roadsDay 3 — Elkhart's RV/MH Hall of Fame & Middlebury
Day 1 — Auburn, IN
Day 1 — Auburn, IN
🚗 3 hr 25 min driving📍 4 stops
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Morning
🚗
Drive
Indianapolis, IN → Auburn, IN
2 hr 30 min8:00 AM → 10:30 AM
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum
★ 4.9The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum occupies the original 1930 Art Deco administration building and showroom of the Auburn Automobile Company, a National Historic Landmark that is itself a masterpiece of terrazzo, chrome, and etched glass. Inside gleam more than 120 rare and classic cars, led by the elegant Auburns, the front-wheel-drive Cords, and the magnificent, hand-built Duesenbergs that were the fastest and most luxurious American cars of their era — the 'Duesy' that gave the language a superlative. The restored showroom, design studios, and factory spaces trace how a small Indiana town produced automobiles that rivaled the finest in the world. Plan two hours; it is one of the great automobile collections anywhere.
10:30 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
🍽️ Lunch11:30 AM
Mad Anthony Brewing / The Tavern at Auburn
Downtown Auburn offers a relaxed, walkable lunch a few minutes from the museum, with a local brewpub and tavern scene that suits the town's easygoing pace. Hearty American fare — burgers, sandwiches, and pub plates — pairs with regional craft beers in restored storefronts near the courthouse square. It is a convenient, satisfying midday stop before the afternoon's second museum. The friendly, small-town atmosphere is part of the appeal.
3 options · tap to switch
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Afternoon
Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum & National Auto & Truck Museum
★ 5Auburn is a three-museum town for anyone drawn to automotive history, and the afternoon offers a choice of complements to the morning's Duesenbergs. The National Auto & Truck Museum occupies the original Auburn factory buildings behind the main museum and displays post-war cars, trucks, and prototypes amid the raw industrial architecture where the cars were once assembled. Nearby, the Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum chronicles the flathead V-8 that democratized speed for ordinary Americans from 1932 onward. Either gives a grittier, factory-floor counterpoint to the polished elegance of the ACD showroom. Pick whichever suits your interest, or split the time between them.
12:30 PM📍 See location
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Evening
🚗
Drive
Auburn, IN → Shipshewana, IN
55 min5:00 PM → 5:55 PM
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Blue Gate Garden Inn, Shipshewana
Drive northwest into Amish country to base for the next two nights in Shipshewana. The Blue Gate Garden Inn is the town's flagship lodging, a large, comfortable hotel at the center of the Blue Gate complex of restaurant, theater, and shops, within walking distance of much of the village. It puts you in position for an early start at the flea market and the back-road drives to come. Several smaller inns and bed-and-breakfasts in and around Shipshewana and neighboring Middlebury offer a quieter, more rural alternative if you prefer a farmhouse setting.
Day 2 — Shipshewana, IN
Day 2 — Shipshewana, IN
🚗 5 min driving📍 4 stops
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Morning
🚗
Drive
Blue Gate Garden Inn, Shipshewana, IN → Shipshewana Flea Market
5 min8:00 AM → 8:05 AM
Shipshewana Flea Market & Auction
★ 4.4The Shipshewana Flea Market is the largest in the Midwest, sprawling across dozens of acres with up to 900 open-air vendor booths in peak season, running on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from spring through fall. Alongside it, the year-round Antique & Miscellaneous Auction fills a warren of barns where multiple auctioneers sell simultaneously and the famous horse and tack auctions draw Amish buyers from across the region. It is a sensory immersion in the trading culture of northern Indiana's plain communities, from handmade furniture and quilts to produce, tools, and curiosities. Note carefully that the market and nearly all Amish businesses close on Sundays; plan this day accordingly.
8:05 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
🍽️ Lunch9:05 AM
Blue Gate Restaurant
The Blue Gate Restaurant is Shipshewana's best-known table, serving hearty Amish and Mennonite country cooking family-style and à la carte in a large, bustling dining room. Expect skillet-fried chicken, roast beef, real mashed potatoes, homemade noodles, and dinner rolls, all finished with the bakery's celebrated fruit and cream pies. It captures the abundant, unpretentious hospitality that defines eating in Amish country. It is deservedly popular, so anticipate a wait at peak hours; the adjacent bakery is worth a stop for pies to carry home.
3 options · tap to switch
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Afternoon
Menno-Hof & Amish Country Buggy Back Roads
★ 4.8The afternoon pairs understanding with immersion. Menno-Hof is a thoughtful interpretive center that tells the story of the Amish, Mennonite, and Hutterite peoples — their Anabaptist origins in Reformation Europe, their persecution and migration, and the plain-living faith that shapes daily life in Shipshewana today. Afterward, take a narrated horse-and-buggy ride or simply drive the quiet county back roads, where you will pass working farms, one-room schoolhouses, roadside produce stands, and buggies clopping along the shoulder. Drive patiently and share the road courteously; these are living communities, not exhibits. Photographing Amish faces is discouraged out of respect for their beliefs.
12:00 PM📍 See location
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Evening
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Blue Gate Garden Inn, Shipshewana
Spend a second night in Shipshewana. The Blue Gate complex includes a performing-arts theater that stages musicals and concerts many evenings, a low-key way to round out a day in Amish country, and the village's shops keep an early close so the evening is quiet and restful. Staying put a second night avoids repacking and keeps you positioned for the drive toward Elkhart in the morning. As with everything here, note that Sunday evenings are especially still, with most businesses closed.
Day 3 — Elkhart & Middlebury, IN
Day 3 — Elkhart & Middlebury, IN
🚗 3 hr 5 min driving📍 3 stops
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Morning
🚗
Drive
Shipshewana, IN → Elkhart, IN
30 min8:00 AM → 8:30 AM
RV/MH Hall of Fame & Museum
★ 4.6Elkhart calls itself the 'RV Capital of the World,' and the RV/MH Hall of Fame tells the story of the recreational-vehicle and manufactured-housing industries that made it so. The centerpiece is a remarkable collection of vintage travel trailers and motorhomes stretching back to the 1910s — hand-built wooden campers, streamlined Airstreams, and a 1931 house car owned by Mae West among them — arrayed along a re-created period streetscape. Exhibits trace how American wanderlust and postwar mobility built an entire industry in this corner of Indiana. It is a genuinely charming and unexpected museum, engaging even for those who have never set foot in an RV.
8:30 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
🍽️ Lunch9:30 AM
Das Dutchman Essenhaus, Middlebury
Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury is one of Indiana's largest and most beloved country restaurants, a rambling complex famous for its family-style Amish-country dinners and, above all, its bakery. The kitchen turns out broasted chicken, roast beef, and homemade noodles, but the pies — dozens of varieties baked fresh daily — are the true draw and a fitting way to mark the last full meal of the trip. The surrounding grounds include shops, a covered bridge, and gardens for a post-meal stroll. It is hearty, wholesome, and quintessentially northern-Indiana.
3 options · tap to switch
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Afternoon
Middlebury Quilt Gardens & Krider World's Fair Garden
★ 4.8Before turning south, spend the afternoon in and around Middlebury, whose village charm and gardens make a gentle close to the trip. In the growing season the region's celebrated Quilt Gardens bloom in intricate quilt-block patterns planted from tens of thousands of flowers, part of a heritage trail spread across Amish country. Nearby, the restored Krider World's Fair Garden preserves whimsical features first created for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, including a giant toadstool and a windmill. It is a relaxed, colorful stop that gathers up the quilting, farming, and craftsmanship traditions seen across the weekend. Then begin the drive home.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Middlebury, IN → Indianapolis, IN
2 hr 35 min5:00 PM → 7:35 PM
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