The Best Places to Visit in October to Extend Your Summer or Lean Into Fall

Go this October for: new hiking and biking trails, plus a new contemporary art museum

As ever, outdoorsy types will have a grand time in good ol’ Indy, long known for its greenspaces, as the city rolls out 38 miles of brand-new trails and bike lanes. Add that to the existing 77-mile trail network and you have over 100 miles of lanes on which to walk, hike, and cycle—all of it navigable while using the new Trailways website. Love a night ride? There’s a new, quarter-mile glow-in-the-dark trail specifically for that purpose. Prefer seeing the city by water? You can paddleboard, kayak, and canoe on the White River, which runs through the city and is looking great after 50 years of cleanup. Frank’s Paddlesports Livery offers guided tours and rental equipment. October is prime time for great weather, just as the air turns crisp.

The more indoor-oriented among us should check out the newly opened Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis, cutely nicknamed CAMi, a community-facing arts site comprising galleries, artist studios, a reading and writing room, a kitchen for culinary classes, café, lounge areas, performance venues, and spaces for small local businesses across a 40,000-square foot space. Big Car Collaborative, the nonprofit arts organization that spearheaded the $7.3-million renovation, plans to commission artists for new exhibits continually rather than build its own collection, so no visit to CAMi will be the same as the last.

How to plan it: Indianapolis International Airport (IND) is reachable via every major US airport, so that’s easy. Fun fact: It’s a long-time winner of Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, currently holding the fourth spot on the list of the best airports in the United States, as voted by our readers in 2025. Keep an eye on the hotel scene, as the lifestyle hospitality brand Kimpton is expected to open a new property in Indy in the fall.

Where to stay in Indianapolis: