Iowa Hotels

Although at times serene, and almost always verdant, nothing about IOWA truly stands out: this 55,000-square-mile chunk of the Great Plains doesn't even manage to be completely flat, it just wobbles up and down a little. The state is the very essence of smalltown America, close to the geographical center of the mainland US, and ranking decidedly average in size, population and level of personal income. Even the cities seem at times to be merely villages grown large.

Iowa's history, too, has been relatively uneventful. It was opened for settlement after the Black Hawk Treaty of 1832, a one-sided exercise in negotiations with the Sauk Indians, conducted after many of them had been chased down and slaughtered in neighboring Wisconsin and Illinois. The Northern European immigrants who replaced them made agricultural development their prime concern, turning Iowa into the " Foodbasket of America " - a role it generally achieves with scrupulous efficiency.

Tourist attractions in Iowa are few and far between; its most visited destination is the throwback Germanic enclave of the Amana Colonies . However, the state does also hold a few oddball sites, such as the original locations for the movies The Bridges of Madison County (in south central Winterset , birthplace of John Wayne) and Field of Dreams (near Dubuque in the northeast). You can also see, but not enter, the original house that featured in Grant Wood's much-parodied American Gothic painting (at Eldon in the southeast, and now owned by the state).

Greyhound buses out of Chicago call at all Iowa's major towns, with at least seven services per day in each direction along I-80. St Louis is also well served by six daily buses from Des Moines and Iowa City; these towns are connected less frequently with Minneapolis/St Paul. Amtrak's east-west route misses the cities, stopping instead at assorted small communities in the south, though a bus usually makes the short trip to Des Moines from Osceola. The only sizeable airport is in Des Moines. Somewhat surprisingly, Iowa is a good place for cycle touring . Each year the extremely popular cross-state bike ride - the RAGBRAI - attracts thousands of entrants, any of whom can tell you that the plains aren't always flat (tour details tel 1-800/474-3342, ).