I have been to Indianapolis every month since 1994 (except when I worked there 14 months straight, while flying home on the weekends). I know the city really well.

Where you stay really depends on where you want to be while in the Indianapolis area. The Marriott North, which is about a year old, is great, but it and the Carmel/Castleton area it is in are 22 miles northeast of IND airport. It's more than an hour down to Bloomington from there.

I'd personally stay in Bloomington, or, at the least, stay downtown Indianapolis. There's some great restaurants, brewpubs, and sports arenas (RCA Dome and The brand new Field House where the Hoosiers play)downtown, and great hotels, including Hyatt, Westin. If you are more on a budget, a Courtyard. What's nice about Indianapolis is that like a lot of cities, it's downtown has been completely revitalized. If you decide to stay in Indy downtown, you'll find the drive from Bloomington much quicker as well as when you go to the airport.

In Indianapolis, if you like motor racing, there is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Georgetown Road. It's worth it to visit it. The size, even from the air, is amazing.

If you stay downtown, there's a great mall there too, Circle Center with a Nordstroms as their anchor store, tons of theatres for a good movie.

If the leaves are starting to change early(and I won't be in Indianapolis until October 3), a great place to see them is Nashville, Ind. It's about 30 miles (I'm guessing) east of Bloomington, or about an hour south of Indianpolis. It's pretty touristy, but I took my folks there and they loved it.

Favorite Indy restaurants