7 Whimsical Towns to Visit in Iowa
Iowa’s whimsical small towns offer a delightful mix of cultural traditions, stunning landscapes, and lively festivals and invite visitors to experience the unique charm of the Midwest, with influences from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Scandinavia shaping the identity of towns like Orange City, Pella, Spillville, and Decorah. Curious travelers will love discovering Iowa's diverse cultural landscape, while outdoor enthusiasts and fans of all-American pursuits will adore exploring Madrid, Dyersville, and LeClaire.
Orange City
Founded in 1870, Orange City is a Dutch-inspired town celebrating its heritage with bright, colorful buildings, windmills, and an annual Tulip Festival held on the third weekend in May since 1936. The internationally recognized festival features music and dancing, authentic Dutch costumes, Dutch delicacies, and, of course, thousands of tulips. Orange City will host its 84th Tulip Festival in 2025. It’s no wonder the town’s motto is “Vibrant Life.”
Wander through Orange City and be transported to a charming European village with a stroll through Windmill Park, which features six replica windmills, a Dutch bridge, and Dutch architecture. The nearby Stadscentrum showcases wooden shoe carving demonstrations with the sound of Dutch street organ music playing in the background. Stop by Brad’s Bistro for a café latté and a Bakewell tart before visiting a replica of a Holland mill that used wind power to grind paint pigment—the Old Mill-Vogel Windmill. Cap off a relaxing afternoon in Orange City with a Dutch American Heritage Museum tour, which preserves the story of Iowa’s Dutch immigrant history and culture.
Spillville
Spillville may be a small town with fewer than 400 residents, but has a big heritage. In the 1850s, with growing dissatisfaction among the Czech people under the Austrian Empire and Emperor Franz Joseph, Czechs immigrated to the United States, attracted to both Cedar Rapids and Spillville by the availability of inexpensive farmland. The Czech connection doesn’t stop there, as world-famous Czech composer Antonín Dvořák spent the summer of 1893 in Spillville in a home that later became the Bily Clocks Museum.
Today, horologists and music lovers from around the world spend a few hours at the Bily Clocks Museum, which showcases the hand-carved clockwork of the Bily brothers on the first floor and an exhibit devoted to the music of Antonín Dvořák on the second floor. Spillville is also home to the oldest Czech Catholic church in the US, which dates back to 1860. Take a culture and history break with a walk through Riverside Park along the Turkey River, which hosts the Turkey River Music Festival & Spillville Summer Concert Series every summer.
Madrid
Twenty-five miles northwest of the state capital of Des Moines, travelers will be pleasantly surprised to discover Madrid, a small town with so many big things to do. The crown jewel in Madrid is its 1913 High Trestle Trail Bridge, a stunning pedestrian bridge over the Des Moines River. Blue lights illuminate the bridge at night, giving the bridge and the valley below a magical aura. Originally a rail trail or decommissioned railroad line, the trail is now a multi-use 25-mile trail that runs through five nearby towns, making it an ideal place for hikers and cyclists.
Madrid is home to the Iowa Arboretum & Gardens, a public community garden with over 6,000 woody and herbaceous plants—one of the largest and most diverse collections of plants that can be successfully grown in Iowa. In September 2024, the nursery opened Treehouse Village, a family-friendly outdoor area with tree houses, a suspension bridge, and access to over 160 acres of trails around the property. End the perfect outdoor day in Madrid with a visit to the tasting room at the Cellar Winery, where visitors can have a glass of their award-winning La Crescent wine over a charcuterie board.
Pella
Against the backdrop of the town’s Klokkenspel, Pella reminds locals and visitors of its Dutch heritage five times a day when eight 4-foot mechanical figures appear from the clock tower to the sound of chiming bells to tell the history of Pella’s past. In addition to daily musical interludes, the city celebrates its roots with its Pella Historical Village, complete with a log cabin, general store, Dutch costumes, and the Vermeer Mill—one of North America's tallest working grain windmills. No Dutch-inspired town would be complete without a tulip festival, and Pella is no different; in May 2025, Pella will host its 90th annual Tulip Time festival.
Rich culinary traditions are all part of the Pella experience, and visitors can spend the entire day feasting on Dutch treats at Jaarsma Bakery, the Vander Ploeg Bakery Co., or by reservation only at Maria’s Tea Room in the historic Scholte House, home of Pella’s founder. For lunch or happy hour, pop into Butcher’s Brewhuis, whose meats come from Pella’s In’t Veld’s Meat Market.
Decorah
Decorah is a popular destination for visitors wanting to explore out of doors in an area known as the Driftless Region, celebrated for natural beauty, cultural heritage, and outdoor adventure. It is also renowned for its Norwegian roots and as the hometown of the private 150-year-old Luther College, founded by Norwegian immigrants in 1861. Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, is also based in Decorah and features a collection of 33,000 artifacts and a Heritage Park of 12 historic buildings.
While much of the state is flat, Decorah’s location in the Driftless Region means it experienced little glaciation during the Ice Age, so there are several rugged hills and limestone bluffs in the area, making great hiking in places like along Ice Cave Road, Dunning’s Spring Park, Malanaphy Springs State Preserve, and in Will Baker & Pulpit Rock Park, named after the massive Pulpit Rock cliff in Norway known as Preikestolen. Finally, end the perfect day in Decorah in the taproom at the Toppling Goliath Brewing Co., whose mission is to make big beer in small batches.
Dyersville
With a magical quality usually reserved for Hollywood sets, the town of Dyersville is like visiting a movie site. In fact, it is the site of the well-known 1989 film “Field of Dreams,” with Kevin Costner and the late James Earl Jones. For baseball fans and visitors, spend a few hours immersing yourself in movie magic with a visit to the original cornfield-turned-baseball-diamond, take a 30-minute guided tour of the Kinsella’s family home, and for the very serious baseball fanatic, spend the night in the three-bedroom farmhouse and enjoy the “Kinsella Experience.”
Baseball fans don’t despair; there are also other toys to play with in this pretty town known as the ”Farm Toy Capital of the World,” with two of Dyersville’s five museums devoted to toys: the National Farm Toy Museum and the Dyer-Botsford Historical House and Doll Museum featuring over 2,000 dolls, doll furniture, clothes, toys, and other vintage items.
LeClaire
Located along the Mississippi River, LeClaire is the birthplace of Buffalo Bill—one of America’s most storied frontiersmen of all time. So it’s only fitting that the town built a museum in his honor: The Buffalo Bill Museum. The 9-block Cody Road Historic District also pays tribute to the iconic William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, with over 60 buildings housing the town’s eateries, museums, one-of-a-kind shops, and historical sites such as the historic pilot homes, named after the river pilots who navigated their boats down the Mississippi, like the 1851 Dawley House, the 1851 Mill House, and the 1870 McCaffrey House.
Another American icon celebrated by LeClaire is the national symbol of the US, the American bald eagle. Every winter, these birds of prey make the town their winter home, and visitors can catch a glimpse of these magnificent birds in the 3rd Annual LeClaire Eagle Festival in January 2025. Finish up a packed trip to LeClaire back on historic Cody Road on Libations Lane, where imbibers can explore the taproom at Green Tree Brewery, the Mississippi River Distilling Company, and Wide River Winery’s tasting room.
Visitors to Iowa may be pleasantly surprised to discover that the Hawkeye State is not all flat fields of corn, farmland, and rural landscapes. Instead, it’s a cultural melting pot where people have come together to create unique communities where the strength lies in differences, not similarities. In these seven vibrant towns full of charm, whimsy, and authenticity, visitors can almost hear the echo: “If you build it, they will come.”
