Peoria (Illinois) do · Peoria (Illinois) activities: What to do in Peoria (Illinois)
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Peoria (Illinois) activities: What to do in Peoria (Illinois)
Peoria (Illinois) activities: What to do in Peoria (Illinois)
Glen Oak Park , one of Peoria's oldest city parks, makes a nice all-day or half-day destination. In addition to traditional park activities (grassy and tree-shaded areas, picnic tables, playing fields, tennis courts), Glen Oak Park has an ampitheater used for outdoor concerts and is home to the Glen Oak Zoo and Luthy Botanical Gardens. In late 2009, the Peoria PlayHouse Children's Museum will open in the Pavilion in Glen Oak Park.
Wildlife Prairie State Park , just west of Peoria, offers a spectacular natural prairie park with massive wildlife enclosures. The park houses buffalo, elk, wolves, a bear, and many smaller prairie animals. It has an interpretive center for the wildlife park, a small zoo-like building featuring snakes and amphibians, an old-fashioned general store-type gift shop, hiking, fishing, overnight lodging in cabins or decommissioned cabooses, an extremely popular train that tours the park, and a frontier farmstead with animals, gardens, a cabin, and a one-room schoolhouse. Interpreters are available throughout the park. Admission is $5.50 per adult, $3.50 for children 4-12 (free for 3 and under), which is steep for Peoria but the park is definitely worth it. Visiting on $2 Tuesday cuts the cost quite a bit.
Further natural beauty can be found at the Forest Park Nature Center , a native river bluff forest with hiking and an interpretive center (and shop). Admission is free. Be forewarned, this is the hilliest hiking you'll find in the Peoria area; the trails are not flat! The shorter trails are very popular with families. It's also an excellent place to spot butterflies and native birds, including bald eagles, which winter along the Illinois River.
Cruise the Illinois River on the Spirit of Peoria paddlewheel riverboat, which offers local sightseeing trips on Wednesdays and weekends and overnight trips to Starved Rock State Park on Monday/Tuesday. Operates May to October.
The Par-a-dice Casino, 1-800-PAR-A-DICE, . Riverboat gambling just across the river in East Peoria. It is open from 9AM to 6AM daily; admission is free.
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Peoria (Illinois) Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
