Discover Nappanee

In Nappanee, there is plenty to discover, from a large annual town festival and a nature preserve to exhibitions and historic cultural attractions. This makes the town interesting for a variety of travel plans: you can plan your stay around the Nappanee Apple Festival, focus on wildlife observation, or explore the town’s history and art. A public golf course and a swimming pool are also among the options described.

The Apple Festival as a special reason to visit

The Nappanee Apple Festival is held annually on the third weekend of September in Nappanee, Indiana. If you like to plan your trip around a specific event, this set date gives you a clear timeframe. The festival also features a notable tradition: a seven-foot-long apple pie is baked every year. This unusual detail makes the festival a memorable topic for families, too, and offers a special opportunity for conversation and discovery. If you travel at another time, other interests in nature, culture or recreation may be the deciding factor.

Trails and wildlife watching at Borkholder Nature Center

Borkholder Nature Center & Wetlands is a seven-hectare nature preserve established in the early 1990s. It is suitable for observing wildlife, birds and butterflies. The trails lead visitors to the wetland near the intersection of Woodview Drive and Oakland Avenue. There are several observation shelters with viewing areas along the trails. This lets you focus on nature and consider whether you’d rather observe outdoors or explore exhibitions and other offerings. These trails and observation areas provide specific points of reference for a nature-focused stay.

History and art at the Nappanee Center

The Evelyn Lehman Culp Heritage Collection tells the story of Nappanee through exhibitions and changing displays at the Nappanee Center. The Doug Grant Family Gallery also houses more than 60 paintings by Emma Schrock. If you’re interested in the town’s development, the collection offers a way to explore its history; the gallery focuses specifically on the paintings. Both attractions can be included in your travel plans as distinct cultural interests, without combining them into a single program.

More experiences and leisure ideas

The Barns at Nappanee offers a tour about Amish life. Carriage rides around the ponds and through the woods are also available. These experiences give your stay a different focus from the exhibitions at the Nappanee Center or wildlife watching at Borkholder Nature Center. The public McCormick Creek Golf Course in Nappanee is a par-72 golf course. For a swim, there’s the Nappanee Swimming Pool at 754 Stauffer Park Drive; the large pool area is intended for people of all ages.

The Nappanee Theatre is also part of the town’s cultural history: it opened in Nappanee in 1926. The festival offers a specific annual date, while nature, art, history and recreational activities provide a range of reasons to stay in Nappanee. When you look for a vacation rental in Nappanee, you’re choosing the town as a base for the experiences that appeal to you most.

Discover more places

Other places featured on this page include Middlebury, Goshen, Elkhart and New Paris.

Back to the main travel overview: Elkhart.