Ames is a university city with a population just over 50,000. Home to Iowa State University, the city is located in the central section of the state just north of Des Moines. . The Iowa State Center is the area's main entertainment venue. Here the Hilton Coliseum, Stephens Auditorium, Scheman Building, and Fisher Theater host the university's athletic teams and performance arts programs, as well as national musical acts, ice skating events, and Broadway shows.

Cedar Rapids is Iowa's second largest city and the industrial capital of the state. A variety of events, nightclubs, museums, and attractions are accessible via skywalks. Main entertainment venues downtown include the Paramount Theatre which hosts Broadway shows and the area's symphony orchestra, and the U.S. Cellular Center, which presents many of the area's biggest concerts and sporting events. State, city and county parks offer unlimited recreational activities including golfing, camping, and access to the Cedar River for boating, swimming, and fishing. Facilities for BMX biking, ice skating, snowmobiling, disc golf, sledding, skateboarding, and in-line skating round out an excellent mix of outdoor venues.

Clear Lake is a glacier-created, spring-fed, lake of 3,684 acres. Prior to pioneer settlement in the 1850s, Clear Lake was a popular hunting and fishing territory for Native Americans. Spring through fall the lake is a fishing and water sports venue. Clear Lake, a small resort town of 8,000 provides amenities to visitors. Downtown Clear Lake has a vintage feel with popular boutique and antique shops housed along brick sidewalks.

Dubuque, population 57,546, is an industrial Mississippi River port in eastern Iowa near the Wisconsin and Illinois border. Sightseeing and dining tours of the Mississippi are available by riverboats, paddle wheelers, and yachts. Dubuque is also the setting for many outdoor activities. Bird watching is popular because a variety of birds, including bald eagles, make the river valley their home.

Fort Dodge is a Des Moines River town with a gypsum mining, industry, and agricultural economy. Fort Dodge Historical Foundation and Fort Dodge Museum and Frontier Village preserve original and replicated structures from the fort's early pioneer days. Visitors can explore a trading post, log home, one-room school, jail, blacksmith shop, and general store.