DH & I just returned from a 4-day trip to Omaha. We mainly went there for a wedding, so we didn't have time to do too much of sightseeing. I'll post the few things we did/ate.

Transportation
Omaha airport is small; and a breeze to use. It has 2 terminals connected via a main building. Major car rental companies are located in the parking garage across the street from the main building. I believe Budget & National are located off-site.

The airport is located just NE of the city. Driving to/from the city takes 15 minutes tops.

We rented a car from Hertz. Both pick-up and drop-off was very efficient. I found a discount code for our rental: our 3-day weekend rate for a compact (Mazda 6) was $65.

Driving in Omaha is relatively easy. N-S running streets were numbered. We never hit any traffic going anywhere.

Sights
Omaha zoo
We went one morning; arriving around 10:30am. Our weekend visit coincided with the College World Series which took place at the Rosenblatt Stadium right next door. The parking lot was crowded. We had to pay for our zoo admission as we parked our car. Even with that, there were people tailgating at the same parking lot. Perhaps they paid for the zoo admission just to park there.

The zoo is pretty nice; relatively compact and walkable (unlike the National Zoo in DC). Some sections are a bit old, such as the Cat Complex. Our favorite was the Desert Zone. My personal favorite animal was the cassowary.

We (DH & I, and my in-laws) went on a relatively hot/humid day. My in-laws were pretty tired after 3 hours, so we left at that point. We skipped quite a bit, so I figured one can easily spend another 2 hours there.

Old Market
This couple of blocks of shops & restaurants reminded me of Galveston. Nice restored brick buildings. We also walked along the Gene Lahey Mall just north of the Old Market.

Heartland of America Park
A beautiful park and lake, and an impressive fountain. There are boat rides available but we didn't take it. Again, it was very hot that day so we didn't walk around the entire lake. We did walk up a small hill towards the Missouri River and saw the river; as well as the new Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge which is still under construction.

Joslyn Art Museum
We went on Saturday morning which was free admission between 10-12. I love the pink marble which is a lovely color. The building is typical of art deco design.

Its western painting collection is very small (Early Renaissance through Impressionsim fit within 4 galleries). We enjoyed the galleries of the America West & Native America; something that we don't see much at all (we're from the E coast).

The contemporary art galleries showcase works by local artists.

A huge Chihuly glass installation can be seen along the glass window at the cafe.

Food
Spaghetti Works at Old Market
We wanted to eat somewhere else at Old Market but every place was crowded. Spaghetti Works has an outdoor patio so we picked it. The food was okay - really nothing memorable to write home about.

Mark's Bistro in Dundee
This place is a gem. We reserved a room, which is located in the old house behind the main dining room area. Our dining room is cozy, as if we were dining at someone's house. The menu offers gluten-free options which mattered to our group as one of our guest cannot tolerate gluten.

2 of us ordered the local grass-fed lamb which was really lovely. I had soup of the day which was a chilled cucumber soup with mint. That was wonderful as well.
http://www.marksindundee.com/

Cafe Durham at Joslyn Art Museum
Since we didn't have to pay admission, we ate there for lunch as our support for the museum. The food wasn't that good at all; compared to many other museum cafes I have eaten before. The cold sandwiches were all premade and wrapped in cling. My special of the day sandwich was grilled chicken, bacon, swiss cheese sandwich. It looked like something from a highschool cafeteria, served on a piece of wonder bread. The home fries were all precooked and soggy. Huge disappointment overall.

Overall Impression
The area around Old Market & the Riverfront seems lively and fun. Lots of new construction is going on near Qwest Center. But it still is a very small city, and I think I would get bored living there.

thanks for your trip report. I can't imagine ever visiting omaha so i thought i may just "experience" omaha from a traveller there. Thanks again!

We visited Omaha this spring for the first time. I was much more impresssed than I thought I would be. Loved the Old Market area, and found the entire area very easy to navigate. Did you stay at a hotel?

We are headed back in August, so thanks for the details on various places. We have two sets of friends that lives there. One loves it and the other hates it, lol!

We stayed with a family friend, who lives in the Dundee neighborhood. It is a very convenient location for us to get around. Since the wedding coincided with the College World Series, hotel rates were very high during our visit; so we were very thankful we could stay for free.

True! Lucky for you When we were there in April it was cheap, but the August rates were quite a bit more. Where is the Dundee area?

The Dundee neighborhood is around 50th St and Underwood. It's one of the older neighborhoods in Omaha. Warren Buffett lives there too (alas, no sighting for me).

You picked just about the worst restaurant you could in the Old Market and one of the worst places for lunch in the art museum. And we also apparently have different definitions of city sizes .

Unfortunately I wasn't in the position to plan this trip (since I was going with DH & his parents), I didn't do any research on restaurants. I think my in-laws wanted to eat at M's Pub at Old Market, but it was crowded w/a long wait.

I have had good experiences eating at museums' cafes in many cities, so I was surprised how poor quality the food was at Joslyn. But we were in a hurry to eat before we went to the wedding ceremony, so we didn't have time to investigate other options.

And we also apparently have different definitions of city sizes

Just wondering how you would characterize the size of Omaha (yes, I have been there, and I can't imagine calling it anything other than a small city, or maybe a "larger small city" 43rd on the InfoPlease list by population as of 2005).

Then again, San Antonio comes in at No. 7 and San Francisco at No. 14, and I'd consider San Antonio a small city and San Francisco a big city, so I guess population is the be-all/end-all!!

According to the free tourist guide I received from the Visitors Bureau, the population in Omaha is between 400-500k. Having lived in big cities all my life, Omaha to me is a small city (at least I'm not calling it a town).

yk, I completely agree with you, Omaha just has a small-city feel.

Instead of population of the city, it makes a lot more sense to look at the population of a metropolitan area.

According to the US Census, in July 2007, the Omaha metro (includes Council Bluff in IA) is #61 with about 830,000.

San Francisco-Oakland-Freemont (not including San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara) is #12 with 4.2m, while San Antonio is #28 with about 2m. [And of course San Francisco is the main center of the Northern California Bay Area that has about 7.2m.]

The Food Network had a crew in town last week and hit 6 or 7 local family operated restaurants but didn't give an air date yet.