Start from 22 curated places around Auburn, IN, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Sandra D's Italian Garden
Family-run Italian spot that has been hand-making soups, sauces, and pastas since opening in 2001 — the kitchen is famously small, the portions generously oversized. Friday and Saturday nights fill up fast with regulars who come for the lasagna and the genuine warmth of the Dillinger family running the floor.
Bo Doogie's BBQ
Serious wood-smoked barbecue out of a no-frills building on the north end of Auburn — brisket, pulled pork, rib tips, and burnt ends done the slow way. The two-meat lunch with two sides is the move for value; locals run out of brisket by mid-afternoon on Saturdays.
Trails & outdoors
DeKalb County Trail
Indiana's first rail trail, built in 1976 on a former interurban electric railroad right-of-way between downtown Auburn and the Waterloo Amtrak station — nearly four miles of flat asphalt through parks, fields, and the Greenhurst Commons urban preserve at the southern end. Wheelchair-accessible and good for bikes, inline skates, and slow walks alike.
DeKalb Memorial Trail
Short 0.4-mile nature trail inside Riley Memorial Park in Auburn, looping through a birding-rich riparian area that most visitors to the auto museums never discover. Small enough to walk in under 15 minutes, quiet enough to make you forget you're in town.
Things to do
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival Grounds
The annual ACD Festival transforms Auburn's downtown and the museum campus into one of the world's great classic car gatherings — a swap meet, concours d'elegance, parade, and live music compressed into a late-summer weekend. Even outside festival season the fairgrounds area around 15th Street is the gravitational center of Auburn's automotive identity.
DeKalb Outdoor Theater
Free outdoor performing arts venue adjacent to the DeKalb County Fairgrounds running a summer Friday Night Performance Series from June through mid-August — local and regional acts covering everything from bluegrass to country to classic rock. Bring your own chairs and a cooler; the lawn fills with genuine community.
Landmarks & sights
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum
Three floors of over 120 prewar American classics inside the original 1930s Art Deco national headquarters of the Auburn Automobile Company — itself a National Historic Landmark. The building alone is worth the visit; the cars include Babe Ruth's Auburn 8-88 Roadster and Frank Lloyd Wright's coral Cord L-29.
National Automotive and Truck Museum (NATMUS)
Spread across the original Auburn Automobile factory buildings adjacent to the ACD Museum, NATMUS runs broader and more eclectic — trucks, muscle cars, fire engines, petroliana, and the enormous GM Futurliner #10 that once toured the country as a mobile science exhibit. Twice the floor space of the ACD Museum with a fraction of the crowds.