National Corvette Museum

Every Corvette in the world has been built in Bowling Green since 1981, and the National Corvette Museum, opened in 1994 at 350 Corvette Drive, makes the case for why that matters. The collection runs from the earliest Corvettes through every generation, with prototypes, race cars, celebrity cars and the limited editions collectors chase. The Skydome, the museum's signature space, now holds the Skywall, an 8.5-foot-tall LED wall nearly 300 feet long that turns the interior into a continuous display for the exhibit An American Love Affair, which traces seventy years of the car. The museum's most famous chapter is the Corvette Cave-In. In February 2014 a sinkhole opened under the Skydome and swallowed eight cars, and the museum chose to tell the story rather than hide it. The exhibit covers the collapse, the recovery and the decision to display some cars as they came out of the ground. For visitors it is both a geology lesson and a very strange piece of car history, and it explains why Bowling Green, a karst landscape of caves and sinkholes, is an unexpected home for a car museum.

Allow two to three hours. The museum rewards a slow pace, with interactive displays, a theater and detailed exhibits on design, engineering and racing. Enthusiasts will want time in front of the specific generations they love, and casual visitors usually find the Cave-In exhibit and the Skydome the most memorable stops. The campus also includes the NCM Motorsports Park next door and a delivery program that lets buyers pick up new cars at the museum, so it is common to see new owners and their families around the building.

Hours are seasonal. From March through October the museum opens daily during the day, and in November, December and the winter months weekday hours begin later and some weekdays are shorter, so check the schedule before you go. It is closed on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The museum is just off I-65 at exit 28, which makes it the easiest major attraction to reach on arrival or departure.

Combine it with the rest of the campus. The Bowling Green Historic City Trolley Tour departs from the front entrance, the GM assembly plant tours are arranged separately on a limited basis, and the Motorsports Park offers driving experiences for people who want to do more than look. Tickets and hours are on the museum's site. If you only have a few hours in Bowling Green, this is the first stop most visitors choose, and it is genuinely worth it even for people who do not own a car they care about.