Official site for the Midwest High-speed Rail

Located along the Mighty Mississippi River – the only place, in fact, where that river runs east to west – The Quad-Cities is the largest metropolitan area between Minneapolis and St. Louis.  The name “Quad-Cities” is also a bit of a misnomer, as the collection of river cities and towns that make up the region include nearly a dozen in Illinois and Iowa.  The major cities include Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Moline, East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois, with a total population of more than 380,000.

Davenport River Fest

People in the Quad Cities know how to celebrate and recreate, with hundreds of festivals and attractions delighting visitors and residents alike.  From the John Deere Pavilion and other Deere attractions, biking trails, the Rock Island Arsenal, historic sites, and its wealth of museums, arts, and cultural venues, there is something for everyone here. The Quad Cities combines big-city amenities with true Midwestern hospitality in a destination that is easy to navigate and located just 2 ½ hours from Chicago and Des Moines.  

Greater Des Moines is an affordable, safe, family-friendly community with more than 556,000 residents.  As Iowa’s capital city, Des Moines, is a hub of government action, business activity, arts and cultural affairs. Affordable housing, one of the nation’s shortest commute times and an increasingly diverse population, make Des Moines a wonderful place to live, work and visit.

Dos Rios on Court Avenue

Greater Des Moines has 850 restaurants, 4 major malls and multiple shopping and dining districts.  The metro has over 100 hotels, just minutes from various attractions, including Bass Pro Shops, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, Adventureland Park and Adventure Island – amusement park and soon-to-open water park, Science Center of Iowa, Iowa Speedway, Blank Park Zoo and Iowa Hall of Pride.

After exploring the attractions, check out our nightlife.  From neighborhood hangouts to upscale wine bars, Des Moines offers all the nightlife you’d expect of a hip, cosmopolitan city. Dance clubs, sports bars and piano bars can all be found within the Metro. Downtown Des Moines has over 50 bars and nightclubs.

Des Moines Skyline

Quick Facts:

For a look at Greater Des Moines rankings, updated weekly, visit http://www.seedesmoines.com/media/in_the_news.php.  Below highlights a few of the recent announcements.

• Tradeshow Week names Greater Des Moines the most affordable city for tradeshows, 2008-2009
• New York Times features the Pappajohn Sculpture Park, October 30, 2009.
• Forbes.com ranks Iowa the 15th Healthiest State in America, November 17, 2009
• MSN ranks Des Moines most-livable bargain market, November 2009

For more information on Greater Des Moines, visit www.SeeDesMoines.com.  Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/SeeDesMoines and become our fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeeDesMoines.

A truly surprising and inspiring city, Fort Wayne, Indiana is just the right destination for you. Not only do we have exciting events and attractions, but they all come to you with great value! Get V.I.P. access to first-rate attractions and entertainment without the big price tag. Experience our award winning, All-America City first hand.

Fort Wayne Skyline

New offerings abound in Fort Wayne – Indiana’s second largest city! Enjoy a memorable visit to the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, named one of the top five best zoo’s in the nation by Parents Magazine. Uncover your family roots at the largest public genealogical collection in the country here at the Allen County Public Library.

Experience our “Title Town” with a wide variety of sporting activities and events including the back-to-back IHL Champions, Komets Hockey. Don’t miss a championship TinCaps baseball game at the much talked about Parkview Field in downtown Fort Wayne. A crown jewel of minor league ballparks, Parkview Field provides one of the best fan experiences in the country. Named #1 Minor League Sports Market by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, we’re proud of our sports heritage and culture.

Rest easy here. Fort Wayne’s wide open spaces aren’t limited to our outdoor places – we offer room to stretch out and relax with spectacular overnight accommodations too! With choices ranging from luxurious full service hotels to quaint bed and breakfasts, you’re sure to find the lodging choice that best suits your needs. Many offer on-site dining; convenient amenities and all stand equipped to serve you with the kind of Hoosier Hospitality for which Fort Wayne is famous!Whether you’re savoring a unique dining experience at a local restaurant, getting in some retail therapy or applauding our thriving arts community, we welcome you to our community. Get more value and take home more memories with a retreat to Fort Wayne.

The city of Dayton, located in southwestern Ohio within the Miami Valley region, is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state.   Dayton is home to 166,179 residents (2000 census), and is known as the birthplace of aviation.  The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, researched and built the world’s first airplane here.  The city’s long history with aviation has continued to this day as Dayton was recently designated as Ohio’s Aerospace Hub by Governor Strickland.  In 2008, Site Selection magazine ranked Dayton the #1 medium sized metropolitan area in the nation for growth and expansion.

Visitors to Dayton are able to explore the National Museum of the United States Air Force; an 800 year-old Native American village; the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery; and the home of acclaimed poet and author Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Dayton Skyline

Dayton Quick Facts:

• Dayton is home to the Bombers, which most recently played the North Division of the East Coast Hockey League’s American Conference;
• The Vectren Dayton Air Show, an annual event that takes place at the Dayton International Airport, is one of the largest air shows in the United States and is known as one of North America’s premier events; and
• South of Dayton in Kettering is the Fraze Pavilion, a premiere outdoor entertainment venue which hosts many nationally and internationally known musicians.

Columbus, the capitol city of Ohio is located at the center of the state.  It is the 16th largest city in the United States, and is home to about 733,203, residents.  A part of the second-fastest growing major metropolitan area in the Midwest, Columbus was named among the 10 best cites in the United States for economic development  by MarketWatch.com.  In 2008, it was named No. 1 among the Top 10 Up-and-Coming Tech Cities by Forbes.  The city is home to the Greater Columbus Convention Center and the Franklin County Veteran’s Memorial which can host a variety of meetings and conventions.  The Columbus Museum of Art hosts a continuous program of national and international traveling exhibitions, and the city is the proud home of the Ohio State University– the second largest university campus in the United States and ranked currently by U.S. News & World Report as among the top 20 public universities in the country.

Columbus Skyline

Quick Facts:

• The Columbus’ Arena District in the city’s downtown area is its premier entertainment district, offering exceptional dining, accessible parking, live entertainment and affordable hotels;
• Columbus sports franchises include the Columbus Crew (Soccer)  and the Columbus Blue Jackets (Ice Hockey); and
• Columbus earned one of its nicknames, “The Arch City,” because of the dozens of wooden arches that spanned High Street at the turn of the twentieth century. The arches illuminated the thoroughfare and eventually became the means by which electric power was provided to the new streetcars.

Located along the Ohio River, the 77-square mile city is home to about 365,000 residents. With its diverse and strong economy, Cincinnati is the headquarters for a variety of national and international companies, including the American Financial Corporation, Duke Energy and the Procter & Gamble Company.  Cincinnati is a world leader in the production of machine tools, playing cards, soaps and detergents; the city figures prominently in the production of building materials, cans, chemicals, clothing, cosmetics, electronic equipment, jet engines and valves. Cincinnati is home to countless entertainment attractions which bring tourists from around the world to its nationally recognized museums, such as the National Underground Freedom Center, popular summer music festivals, Oktoberfest, and several major sports teams.

Cincinnati Skyline

• The Cincinnati area boasts two nationally recognized public high schools with Walnut Hills and Wyoming High School ranked 36 and 50, respectively, in the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best High Schools of 2009;

• The Carew Tower, the Scripps Center and the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal are recognized for their architectural and historic significance; and

• Construction has begun on a new building that will dominate the Cincinnati skyline. Queen City Square is scheduled for opening in 2011. The building will be the tallest in Cincinnati and the third tallest in Ohio, reaching a height of 660 feet.

St. Louis was founded in 1763 by French Traders who named the city for the King Louis IX of France.  St. Louis was once the fourth largest city in the U. S. and the 1904 World’s Fair and 1904 Olympics took place during the City’s peak of influence.  St. Louis is known as the “Gateway to the West,” because of its role in the westward expansion.  In 1965, the famous Gateway Arch was constructed as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial operated by the National Park Service.

In 2008, the St. Louis Gateway Transportation Center, a $26.4 million state of the art intermodal facility in downtown St. Louis, opened to serve Amtrak, Greyhound, light rail and city buses.  In addition to easy intermodal connections, the station offers free Wi-Fi access, Amtrak’s Metropolitan Lounge for sleeping car passengers, and a food court offering a wide variety of selections.

Gateway station was funded fifty-fifty between the local and the federal government.  Local resources came from a capital improvement sales tax and refinancing of bond issues.  In November 2009, the city opened a long term parking lot a short distance from the station with a fee per day.

St. Louis Arch

Historically, railroad passengers departed and alighted from St. Louis Union Station, the largest and busiest train station in the world at the time of its construction in 1894, and today a National Historic Landmark.  St. Louis Union station is one of the country’s greatest architectural treasures with its design being a Mélange of Romanesque styles.

St. Louis is a city full of attractions and has a vibrant culture.  The St. Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis Zoological Park, and the St. Louis Cardinal Hall of Fame Museum are just some of the many tourist attractions. St. Louis has long been associated with ragtime, jazz and blues and the city continues to offer a wide-array of entertainment and performing arts.  Rock n roll artist Chuck Berry is a native St. Louisan, and continues to perform there several times a year.

Kansas City has long been a meeting place and transition point; it is located at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, and was declared by Lewis and Clark to be a “good place for a fort” when they visited it after the Louisiana Purchase.  The first recorded European settler in the Kansas City area was a French fur trader, Etienne de Veniard in the early 18^th Century; many other fur traders worked out of the Kansas City area in those early years.  Throughout the nineteenth centuries, its central location made it an ideal launching place for travelers passing westward on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails.

Union Station

Arabia Steamboat Museum

Today Kansas City is know for both its particular style of Blues, steak, and barbecue, as well as being the City of Fountains, having over 200 fountains; indeed, a fountain forms the logo for the city.

Today Kansas City Union Station provides not only intermodal transportation, but also serves as a destination in itself, with the large interactive science museum, rail exhibit, Irish museum, five-story Regnier Extreme Screen theater and Gottleib Planetarium, the Block theater as well as restaurants, shops and event spaces.

Grand Rapids is Michigan’s second largest city. With more than one million residents in the metro area, it offers all the big-city amenities and excitement you can imagine. Yet it’s also a region of abundant natural wonders, where outdoor recreation is a year-round pursuit. And it’s all served up with a heaping helping of small-town friendliness, safety and affordability.
Grand Rapids is named after the river that runs through the heart of the city. There are no longer any rapids to be found in the Grand River as it winds its way through downtown – but there are plenty of fishermen casting for trout, salmon and steelhead amidst the vibrant energy of our city streets. (No wonder Field & Stream Magazine named Grand Rapids America’s 6th Best Fishing City.)

Downtown is clean, safe and walkable – there are more than 75 hotels, restaurants, museums, and sports and entertainment venues within a five-minute walk of each other. Some of Grand Rapids’ other unique attractions are less than a ten-minute drive away: Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park (one of the Midwest’s most popular tourist spots); John Ball Zoo (one of the nation’s oldest urban zoos); and Woodland Mall and Rivertown Crossings (two of Michigan’s largest indoor malls).

Voight House Victorian Museum

Grand Rapids Night Skyline

John Ball Zoo

da Vinci's Horse Sculpture at Meijer Gardens

Gerald Ford Museum

Quick Facts:

• Grand Rapids has two homes in the city designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. One is the Amberg House and the other the Meyer May House which is open to the public three days per week.
• There are 28 public golf courses with many only fifteen minutes from downtown making it one of the top cities in the U.S. in number of public golf courses-to-population ratio.
• The 1913 Room at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel is the only 5-Diamond restaurant in the Midwest outside of Chicago.
• Heritage Hill Historic District, adjacent to downtown, has 60 architectural styles and 1300 homes.

Click here for  more fun facts about Grand Rapids, Michigan!

Located in southeastern Michigan, Detroit is the largest city in the state, the 10th largest city in the United States and the eighth largest metropolitan area.

Detroit has had a profound impact on the world – from the putting the world on wheels to the Motown sound – Detroit has crafted American culture. Metro Detroit has always been a great place to work, live and visit. The region is currently undergoing a renaissance with new developments and attractions. Downtown Detroit’s development boom is unparalleled in the country.

Top-notch entertainment venues, fun family attractions, glitzy casinos and world class museums. These are just a few reasons to plan a weekend getaway in Detroit! Ambitious redevelopment and renovations are sparking excitement in the 303-year old city.

Greektown Casino

Comerica Park

Fox Theater

Motown Museum

Comerica Park/Detroit Skyline

Belle Isle Scott Fountain

Quick Facts:

• Detroit is home to the Motown sound founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in 1957, now a must see for all visitors, the Motown Historical Museum.
• Detroit installed the first mile of paved concrete road, just north of the Model T plant, on Woodward Avenue between McNichols and 7 Mile Roads in 1909.
• Detroit is home to the nation’s first soda, Vernors, created by pharmacist James Vernor in 1862. Also the home to Sanders hot fudge, Better Made Potato Chips, Faygo soda pop and Stroh’s Ice Cream.
• Detroit has the most registered bowlers in the United States.

Click here to find out more fun facts about Detroit!