Ann Arbor - Backgroud - Overview

Frequent Greyhound services to both Detroit and Chicago stop at 116 W Huron St; Amtrak is on the north edge of downtown at 325 Depot St. The visitor center is at 120 W Huron St (MonFri 9am5pm; tel 734/995-7281, www.annarbor.org ).

Restaurants worth trying include the good-value Indian Raja Rani , 400 S Division St (tel 734/995-1545), and the wholefood Seva , 314 E Liberty Ave (tel 734/662-1111). Jerusalem Garden , 307 S Fifth Ave (tel 734/995-5060), serves the best falafel in town, while Zingerman's , 422 Detroit St (tel 734/663-DELI), is an excellent if expensive deli. A pair of popular brewpubs the Arbor Brewing Co , 114 E Washington St (tel 734/213-1393), and the Grizzly Peak Brewing Co , 120 W Washington St (tel 734/741-7325) are within a couple of blocks of each other.

Ann Arbor's live music scene has enjoyed a nationwide reputation ever since the Stooges, MC5 and Bob Seger made their names here. Unlike many college towns, the place doesn't go to sleep during the summer. For news of gigs, grab a copy of Current , a free monthly. Likely venues include the jazzy Bird of Paradise , 312 S Main St (tel 734/662-8310), and the often-crowded Del Rio , 122 W Washington Ave (tel 734/761-2530), which serves good Mexican food and hosts free Sunday jazz sessions. The Blind Pig , 208 S First St (tel 734/996-8555), is the best place to watch live rock, alternative and blues while The Ark , 316 S Main St (tel 734/761-1451), is a nationally significant venue for folk, acoustic and roots music. From time to time there are also live bands at the beautiful Art Deco Michigan Theater , 603 E Liberty St (tel 734/668-8480), otherwise a great place to watch movies on the cheap.

Festivals are a key part of Ann Arbor life. The orchestral May Festival kicks off activities, followed by the Frog Island Festival in Ypsilanti, which focuses on jazz and world music in mid-June. July sees the hectic Street Art Fair with hundreds of stalls, while early September brings the recently revived Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.

Although its population just tops 100,000, ANN ARBOR , 45 minutes' drive west of Detroit along I-94, offers a greater choice of restaurants, live music venues and cultural activities than most towns ten times its size. The University of Michigan has shaped the economy and character of the town ever since it was moved here from Detroit in 1837, providing the city with a very conspicuous radical edge.

Much the best thing to do in Ann Arbor is to stroll round downtown and the campus, which meet at South State and Liberty streets. Downtown's twelve blocks of brightly painted shops and sidewalk cafs offer all you would expect from a college town, with forty bookshops and more than a dozen record stores. Don't miss the huge flagship store of Border's Books at 612 E Liberty St or Encore Recordings, 417 E Liberty St (tel 313/994-8031).

Though the huge university campus doesn't look particularly appealing, it does emanate a sense of excitement, especially around the central meeting place of the Diag . Worth a look are the Museum of Natural History , 1109 Geddes Ave (MonSat 9am5pm, Sun noon5pm; free), packed with huge dinosaur skeletons, rare Native American artifacts and a planetarium, and the small but eclectic Museum of Art , 525 S State St (TuesSat 10am4pm, Thurs until 9pm, Sun noon5pm; free).