Brainy/cultural escapes in Utah?

December 15, 2007 6:36 PM

In the spirit of DIY-holiday gifts, we're trying to put together a handmade travel/survival guide for the 4-month sabbatical our folks/in-laws will be spending in Orem, Utah from January through April of this coming year.

They are: 60's+ NPR-listening, nonreligious anthropologists, very keen on history, road trips, art, and good eating. Not into recreational sports or anything that might be described as extended or extreme forays into nature, but love interesting museums (of just about any sort) and discovering funkiness in small towns. They have never been to Utah before and won't know many people, so we're hoping this "survival guide" will help get them off to a good start.

We've read the existing posts on Salt Lake City and it looks like that's only a 45 minute drive from Orem. What other opportunities for adventure and amusement would you recommend for our compilation (either right in Orem or those that would make a good day trip on the weekends)?

posted by shelbaroo to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Family History Library (Mormon Genealogy Archive)
posted by rhizome at 9:42 PM on December 15, 2007

NPR
KCPW (the 88.3 frequency doesn't broadcast in Orem)
KUER
Radio West Great local radio program concerning the Intermountain West

Sundance Film Festival
Screenings in Salt Lake City and Sundance Ski Resort are much closer to Orem than the main locations in Park City.

This is the Place Heritage Park

Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple In Spanish Fork. They might want to check out their festivals

Saltair

BYU
Museum of Art
Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum
Museum of Peoples and Cultures
Earth Science Museum

Music and the Spoken Word The longest running radio program in the world with free performances on Sundays.

Ballet West

University of Utah
Utah Museum of Fine Art
Utah Museum of Natural History

You might want to peruse Yelp for help finding non-chain restaurants.

Newspapers
Deseret News is owned by the LDS church.
Salt Lake Tribune is the local "liberal" newspaper. Robert Kirby is a great columnist for the Trib who gives an interesting, usually comical perspective on Utah culture.
posted by metacort at 10:41 PM on December 15, 2007

Hi there. I'm a local, and I answer Utah vacation questions when they come up every three months or so.

Sounds like religious stuff isn't so much on the menu. Here are a few of my favorite things around here:

The Prehistoric Museum in Cedar City

The Johnson Farm in St. George, one of the only places in the world you can see dinosaur tail drags.

Cedar Breaks, an amazing geologic site. Orders of magnitude prettier than Grand Canyon vistas, imho.

My favorite sushi place, at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake, the Happy Sumo.

Or, if you're looking for sushi in Park City, the Flying Sumo.

The Clark Planetarium, also at Gateway Mall. Not as cool as the old Hansen Planetarium, but still pretty darned good. It also has IMAX screens.

The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. This also used to be at the Gateway, but then they got too big to stay there. Pretty neato if you like fish.

Nine Mile Canyon. It's THE destination if you're into Petroglyphs. You've probably seen this image before. It's at Nine Mile.

Salt Lake City has one of the coolest modern libraries anywhere.

Abravanel Hall is world-renowned for its acoustics, and Keith Lockhart, who also conducts the Boston Pops, calls it his second home.

Utah has lots of Ghost Towns, if you're willing to go looking for them.

And if they're geo buffs, there are lots of rock hounding opportunities out here.

None of the above are self links; it's just my home, and I really, really like it here. Have fun!
posted by SlyBevel at 11:01 PM on December 15, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Whoops, that first museum link is in Price, not Cedar City. My mistake! Sorry.
posted by SlyBevel at 11:11 PM on December 15, 2007

These are great -- thank you so much! We're going to have a blast putting this together for them now that we've got the material. Yay hivemind!
posted by shelbaroo at 3:44 PM on December 16, 2007