| Route 66 | Cities | Beaches |
|
|
Restaurants |
| The biggest ride you take at Indiana Beach is
the one back in time. The whole park is a time warp. The amusement park
industry began on the piers and boardwalks the Atlantic Coast. Coney Island
was the most famous, but there were 20 others, most notably Atlantic City,
Ocean Beach, Rehobeth Beach and Virginia Beach. These “parks”
evolved a unique style : a linear park, clever use of tight space, public
access to the throughway with pay-as-you-go concessions, games and rides
along the way, and a heavy beach flavor. The others are all gone now, but
Indiana Beach preserves that 1930s atmosphere despite its modern engineering
and management. |
Where else does the 89 year old founder spend each day strolling the midway
and sitting on park benches talking to customers? Holiday World gets more
credit for its hospitality, but the folk at Indiana Beach are just as friendly
and attentive. This is the greatest park in America for spatial use. Rides are built out over the water, over and under and through each other, sharing walls and supports, towering up and up in a bewildering maze of steel. Architectural students should bring cameras. Indiana Beach offers longer ride cycles, repeat rides, and superb maintenance for extremely smooth operation. |
| The irony is that Indiana Beach sees itself as a smaller park so it tries harder to please the customer, but by actual count it has as many rides as many of its imagined larger rivals. Access --- Not every park has the interstate location of PKI or CW. Indiana Beach is about half an hour off I-65, about 90 minutes north of Indianapolis or south of Chicago. Take I-65 to Route 24, follow that to Monticello, and take 421 north to the park. Food --- The Sky Room is the finest restaurant within any amusement park in America except for the high end establishments at Disney World. This is a restaurant so good people drive in on Sunday afternoons from Chicago and Indianapolis just to eat here. You can enjoy everything from shish-ke-bab Polynesian Luau, a complete wine selection, and a breakfast buffet, all at 1950s prices. Turkey dinner for $7 ? Full breakfast for two for $10 ? |
 |
 |
The walls are full glass, so you eat looking straight up
the midway, with the Giant Wheel rotating at the other end and the lake
out to your left. Indiana Beach has the usual junk food counters up and
down the midway, but we ate all our meals at the Sky Room. Admission --- If you stay at Indiana Beach lodging, you’re already in the park, so you can walk around 24 hours a day. To ride anything, you buy individual tickets or a ride all day wrist band. Indiana Beach posts a sign on the ticket windows telling you which rides are closed temporarily or for the day, a nice touch other parks should emulate. |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
|