Iowa CityThe Hawkeyes' college town and UNESCO City of Literature — Kinnick Stadium, the Old Capitol, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the downtown Pedestrian Mall

Iowa City sits on the Iowa River 220 miles west of Chicago, built around the University of Iowa campus and the four-block downtown Pedestrian Mall (the Ped Mall) — a car-free corridor of independent restaurants, performing-arts venues, and the kind of bookstores Iowa City was made for. The Old Capitol Museum at the heart of the Pentacrest was Iowa's first state capitol from 1846 to 1857; today it anchors a National Historic Landmark district that runs three blocks down Clinton Street to the Iowa Writers' Workshop offices on Dey House. Kinnick Stadium — built in 1929, expanded to 69,250 — fills seven home Saturdays a fall and is the largest single-event gathering in the state.

Our Iowa City rentals concentrate in two pockets. Modern Hawkeye-themed townhomes near the Pentacrest put guests within walking distance of Kinnick Stadium, the Old Capitol, and the entire Ped Mall dining grid. Manville Heights cottages — the leafy 1920s residential neighborhood west of the river — offer a quieter Tudor-and-bungalow alternative one mile from downtown, two miles from the Coralville-side restaurant corridor on the Iowa River Landing. Most rentals walk to either downtown or the Hawkeye football stadium and include full kitchens for tailgating prep.