I knew shockingly little about Indiana’s second biggest city before I had a chance to visit in April. Mostly I associated Fort Wayne with Vera Bradley, the brand that makes colorful quilted bags and luggage. Which is reason enough for up to 54,000 people to attend the annual five-day outlet sale. But I found so many fun things to do in this northeastern Indiana town of 275,000 during my three-day stay.
Stay at a gorgeous hotel
I was very excited to stay in The Bradley, a collaboration between Vera Bradley co-founder Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Provenance Hotels. Baekgaard and her friend Patricia R. Miller cofounded the brand in 1982 and named it for Baekgaard’s mother, a stylish woman who’d been a model in the 1930s.
The Vera Bradley ideals of bold patterns and brilliant colors is evident throughout the hotel. Especially the lobby, which has very fun furniture groupings. Even the loaner bikes have patterns on them! In addition to being chic, The Bradley is a convenient place to stay for walking to downtown attractions like restaurants, shops, river paths and the botanic garden.
Rent a bike and cruise along the river
The city is named for Revolutionary Army General Anthony Wayne, who oversaw the building of a fort here in 1794. He chose the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys, and Maumee rivers as a place for white settlers to gain a foothold in the effort to wrest control from Native Americans.
I took a bike tour with Tim Hall, owner of Fort Wayne Outfitters & Bike Depot, to learn more about the city. His biz mostly does rentals but gives tours on request. “I’m always happy to show off Fort Wayne on two wheels. We also do it on kayaks, too, because we’re right here on the Saint Marys River.” The river was too high during my April visit, so we stayed out of the river and on the paths.
Hall is a Fort Wayne native and long-time road bike and cyclocross racer. He urges everybody to get off their screens and go outside. “Get some fresh air. It’s great for the mind and body.”
Discover street art
You can combine fresh air and culture with Fort Wayne’s thriving street art scene. The number of murals and art-focused outdoors gathering spaces is impressive.
Alexandra Hall, a local artist and manager Art This Way, gave my group a tour. Art This Way raises funds and liaises between property owners and artists to bring large scale professional art installations to Fort Wayne. It’s really impressive and organized.
If you don’t have Alex to show you around, you can read about the street artists on the Art This Way website. Steet signage even includes Braille text and tactile plates representing the murals, so that visually impaired people can feel small replicas of the mural. I’d never seen that before and thought it was really cool and inclusive.
See the zoo all lit up
People usually visit zoos to see animals, but we went for the lights. Glo Wild is a fabulous light and lantern festival running on select nights between March and May. You might freeze your butt off, but it’s worth it.
Strolling along zoo paths you come across huge lit-up installments, including a big peacock and the signs of the Chinese zodiac. The finale was an enormous dragon sprawled out over a lake. I took a bazillion photos trying to capture all its humps.
Don’t miss the carousel, which features endangered animals from Southeast Asia. Here’s your chance to ride a Javan pea fowl!
Cheer at a soccer game
Okay, I wasn’t excited to attend a soccer game on a cold night. But it was on the itinerary, so I grabbed a blanket and went.
It was the first home team game for the Fort Wayne Football Club in the brand new Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, and it turned out to be way more fun than I expected. The crowd was hyped up, and my companions were willing to explain the rules of the game to me. So I could finally appreciate more about the game than the haircuts and socks.
It was also a good reminder that when you try something new, you might surprise yourself by liking it.
Eat at a farmers market
Fort Wayne has more than a dozen farmers markets, depending on the season. I went to the big YLNI Market, which is for producers only. So much good stuff! There was even a Sri Lankan food cart—but too late, I’d already bought vegan pastries for breakfast.
I met the Trinidadian owner of the deliciously hot Trinbago Pepper Sauce. FYI, the TSA will not let you carry a bottle of hot sauce in your carry on, even if it’s not your fault that a stalled train prevented you from getting to the airport in time to check a bag. No mercy.
Watch butterflies in a botanical garden
The Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory is just a few blocks from The Bradley but a world away as you transit between tropical and desert environments. And there were butterflies!
Pet cats
The worst part about traveling is missing my cat Lucifer. So I always try to go to a cat café to get some feline companionship. (No, Luce, it’s not the same.) On a late afternoon, the staff at Fort Wayne’s Black Forest Cat Café pepped up the cats by bringing out trays filled with catnip. Shenanigans and territorial hissing ensued! These cats were cute, but I’m not sure how well they’d fit into a sober household.
Learn some religious history
This one is pretty niche, but I love Catholic history museums. The Diocesan Museum has thousands of religious artifacts from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. My favorite was a display showing nun dolls showing in the traditional outfits of different religious orders.
Drink a delicious mocktail
I do not know how I missed this at the time (too busy petting cats and ogling nun dolls, I guess) but Fort Wayne has a nonalcoholic bottle shop called Swizzle! You should visit.
You’ll find some good mocktails on regular restaurant menus. My favorite was at Nawa, an upscale Thai restaurant with five mocktails on the menu. Some feature Ritual zeroproof spirits, such as the Bangkok Blaze, with faux tequila, lime juice and spicy syrup.
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