Have a good breakfast to start your day. You are welcome to try the L Street Kitchen, PEGGS, American Pancake House, the Yellow Cat, Sunrise, the Original Pancake House, Chico’s, or Jeannie’s.
At the South Bend Farmers Market, you can buy fruits, vegetables, crafts, meats, flowers, and more on Saturdays.
Go to Four Winds Field to watch a South Bend Cubs baseball game.
You can rent skates and skate on the 16,000-square-foot ice trail and pond that opened in November 2019 in Howard Park.
Try the new Studebaker Grill and Brewing Company in the old Studebaker mansion, which used to be the Tippecanoe Place Restaurant for a long time.
Potawatomi Zoo is the oldest zoo in Indiana. Kids can get close enough to its 500-plus animals to enjoy them.
At The History Museum, you can see Copshaholm, the home of the Oliver family from around 1895.
You can find the best hotels to stay close to the Notre Dame Stadium HERE.
At the Studebaker National Museum, you can see old cars, and presidential carriages, and learn about the history of transportation.
At South Bend Brew Werks, Evil Czech Brewery and Public House, Bare Hands Brewery, or Crooked Ewe Brewery & Ale House, you can try beers made in the area.
Visit Mishawaka’s Beutter Park, which was built on the site of the old Uniroyal plant. It has beautiful perennial gardens, bridges, and a gentle water flow.
At night, check out the “South Bend River Lights” sculpture near the dam in downtown or the “reborn” Studebaker Electric Fountain in Leeper Park, where the colors change.
You can go on a trip down the St. Joseph River if you rent a canoe, a kayak, or a stand-up paddleboard.
LangLab is a creative space in a 33,000-square-foot brick warehouse at 1302 High Street where you can see a play, concert, art show, or workshop.
Visit Shiojiri Niwa, a Japanese garden on East Mishawaka Avenue that is 1.3 acres big and was built to honor the fact that Mishawaka and Shiojiri, Japan, are sister cities.
Take your whole family to Plymouth, where the Tri-Way Drive-In Theatre has four screens and shows new movies.
You can make a reservation at Café Navarre, LaSalle Grill, Carriage House Dining Room & Gardens, or Render Kitchen & Bar.
Corby’s Irish Pub at 441 East LaSalle Avenue is a great place to remember your college days. (This is the “new” Corby’s. It got a new name after it was used in the 1993 movie Rudy. The original Corby Tavern used to be south of campus at a place called Five Points, which is no longer there.)
At Make South Bend, you can learn how to make jewelry, stained glass, prints, pots, and more.
Since Rockne was head coach, the Sunny Italy Café has been serving traditional Italian food.
Check out the newest show at the South Bend Museum of Art, the Snite Museum of Art, or both.
Drive by two privately owned Frank Lloyd Wright homes in South Bend: the 1906 K.C. DeRhodes house on West Washington Street and the 1948 Herman T. Mossberg house in Twyckenham Hills.
Go see a professional show at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at Notre Dame or the restored historic Palace Theater, which is now the Morris Performing Arts Center downtown.
The Griffon Bookstore’s Game Room on West Colfax Avenue is open until midnight every Friday of the year, so you can try a board game adventure there.
Walk around the “live-work-play” neighborhood of Eddy Street Commons, which is just south of campus.
You can eat a traditional Polish meal with your whole family at a Catholic parish hall or a Polish fraternal hall in your area.
On Saturday, take your time to visit the antique shops, art galleries, bistros, and bars along Michigan’s Red Arrow Highway in Harbor Country.
“First Friday” is an evening of art, music, and activities that takes place every month in downtown South Bend.
Follow the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail in southwestern Michigan to see some of the 15 wineries in the area and try some of their wines.
The Sunburst Races are a half-marathon, a 10K, and a 5K that take place on the city streets. This year the races raise money for Beacon Children’s Hospital.
At Rocco’s Restaurant at 537 North St. Louis Boulevard, you can enjoy the pizza and friendly atmosphere.
At St. Patrick’s County Park, you can cross-country ski through pine trees that, when seen from above, spell out “ST. PATRICKS.”
The Chocolate Museum and factory of the South Bend Chocolate Company at 3300 West Sample Street is a great family-friendly place to visit.
Pay a short but informative visit to the Civil Rights Heritage Center on West Washington Street. It was once the city’s segregated swimming pool, but it has been turned into a place where you can learn about past and present civil rights struggles.
You can get lost in the stacks and fall in love with a rare find at Erasmus Books, a classic, cottage-style used bookstore at 1027 East Wayne Street that is strong in almost every genre.
At Fiddler’s Hearth downtown, you can listen to real Irish music and raise a pint.
On an inner tube, you can fly down the steep, snowy hills of Mishawaka’s George Wilson Park, and when your hands and feet get cold, you can warm up by the fireplace inside.
Step back in time to Indiana’s farmland days with a hearty breakfast at Lakeville’s Hilltop Restaurant and a hike through nearby Potato Creek State Park.
At Fire Arts Inc., on the east bank of the St. Joseph River, you can learn to make sculptures, pottery, or jewelry.
The Indiana Michigan River Valley Trail is a 17-mile path along the St. Joe that goes from Niles, Michigan, to downtown Mishawaka. You can walk or ride a bike along the trail.
The beaches on Lake Michigan are 45 minutes away by car.
You can buy quilts and hand-made furniture in Amish country, which is to the east. On Wednesdays, Shipshewana has auctions for antiques and livestock. But watch out for the buggies pulled by horses.
At the Fischoff, the country’s largest and longest-running chamber music competition, you can hear some of the best musicians of the future. About 125 groups from about two dozen countries usually compete.
Check out Art Beat, a festival of visual, performing, and culinary artists that takes place downtown for a full day in the middle of August and draws more than 15,000 people.
At the St. Joseph County 4-H Fair, you can look at animal barns, eat elephant ears and fried butter, and ride a roller coaster.
Grab your binoculars to get a better look at the two peregrine falcons that live in South Bend as they fly over the city. You can watch them raise their new chicks online in the spring and early summer.
At the Chicory Café downtown, you can play a trivia game and get a snack, coffee, or alcoholic drink.
Stop by the Leeper Park Rose Garden to smell the roses, lilies, and daffodils. It was recently fixed up by volunteers after years of neglect, and it was fixed up again after the historic flooding in February 2018. Then, go across Michigan Street and turn around the new Lavender Labyrinth.
From July to the middle of August, you can go to Mishawaka’s Blueberry Ranch and pick a bushel of your favorite big, organic kind.
On a hayride through Bendix Woods County Park on Halloween, you can jostle, bump, and settle into the straw.
Head down Western Avenue to Taqueria Chicago for real Mexican food, and then cross the street to Paleteria y Neveria La Rosita for Mexican ice cream with chamoy and Tajin for dessert.
Come to Idea Week, a new festival in the area put on by Notre Dame’s Idea Center. Each April, it brings nationally known musicians, comedians, and speakers to the area.
Shop at the Purple Porch Food Co-Café op’s and eat there to support local farmers and enjoy the farm-to-table experience of the area.
Take a look at the murals by Chris Stackowicz ’99 along Ernie’s Alley, the back door to LaSalle Kitchen & Tavern, and the Morris Performing Arts Center off West Colfax Avenue. You can test yourself on South Bend’s history and the movie stars who are on them.
On Dyngus Day, a Polish holiday the day after Easter, you can have a party with the locals. There will be polka music, beer and sausages, and politicians will be there trying to get votes in Indiana’s primary election.
And finish your late-night day at Nick’s Patio, a popular place to stop.
