"Will it play in Peoria?" For decades, New York theatre people asked this question before every tour: if an act pleased Peoria, it would please all of America. The phrase made this Illinois city the symbol of the heartland, and that is exactly what passengers discover on the riverboats that tie up at the foot of its downtown, on the west bank of the Illinois River.

A riverfront on a human scale

The landing opens directly onto the riverfront, a linear park where residents walk dogs and push strollers among sculptures and pavilions, while interpretive panels recount the great moments of local river navigation. The entire downtown can be explored on foot: the streets climb gently from the riverbank, lined with brick buildings inherited from the industrial golden age, when distilleries and factories made it one of the most prosperous cities in the Midwest. The renovated façades of the Warehouse District now house microbreweries, restaurants and artists' studios.

The museum by the water

Steps from the quay, the Riverfront Museum brings together art, science, regional history and a planetarium under one roof. The collections range from American landscape painters to interactive exhibits on the Illinois River, its ecosystem and its founding peoples, including the Peoria, who gave the city its name. The giant-screen theatre completes the complex: allow an hour or two, more if the planetarium holds your attention. Right across the way, the Caterpillar Visitors Center is a reminder that the maker of the big yellow machines was born here and long had its headquarters here: you can climb into the bed of a mining truck more than three storeys high, photo included.

The last real paddlewheeler

The city maintains a special bond with river navigation. The Spirit of Peoria, a paddlewheeler whose stern wheel really does propel the hull, departs from the same area for outings on the river. Spotting its red and white silhouette from the deck of your own ship adds a period touch to the scene, as if Mark Twain had never quite left these waters.

Grandview Drive, the valley's balcony

To get a view from above, an excursion leads to Grandview Drive, a scenic road laid out in 1903 along the wooded bluffs north of downtown. Theodore Roosevelt, passing through in 1910, is said to have called it the world's most beautiful drive, and residents still quote the line with undiminished pleasure. Beneath century-old oaks, lookouts open onto the Illinois Valley, its meanders and its flocks of migratory birds. In autumn, the maples set the whole hillside ablaze.

Midwest flavours

The local table plays the comfort card: smoked ribs, sweet corn from nearby farms, cheeses from neighbouring Wisconsin and homemade pies. The craft breweries of the Warehouse District serve their amber ales in former warehouses with exposed beams, and several cafés roast their own coffee. A few spots also keep alive the pork tenderloin sandwich, a breaded cutlet hanging well beyond the bun, an unapologetic Midwest classic. You eat heartily, pay reasonably and leave with the servers' smiles as a bonus.

The answer to the question

As the lines are cast off, the city slowly recedes behind its steel bridges, neither spectacular nor anonymous, exactly itself. The old vaudeville question finds its answer here: yes, Peoria is worth a stop, precisely because it plays no role. It offers travellers what big cities rarely promise, the feeling of having been welcomed into someone's home.