diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index aa4aadb1..5c35d14f 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,14 @@
 # SCDB (development version)
 
+## Minor Improvements and Fixes
+
+* Improved checks on `get_connection()`:
+  - If given, `host` does not need to look like an IP address (e.g. "localhost" is not unrealistic).
+  - A `character` input for `port` is allowed if it is a string of digits.
+  - Now checks if `timezone` and `timezone_out` is an IANA time zone.
+
+* `get_connection()` now checks the value of any `timezone` and `timezone_out` arguments.
+
 # SCDB 0.3
 
 * Added support for Microsoft SQL Server using ODBC (#77).
diff --git a/R/connection.R b/R/connection.R
index e51476d0..5df6fe28 100644
--- a/R/connection.R
+++ b/R/connection.R
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 #' @param host
 #'   Character string giving the ip of the host to connect to
 #' @param port
-#'   Host port to connect to (numeric)
+#'   Host port to connect to. Must be a number or a numeric string.
 #' @param dbname
 #'   Name of the database located at the host
 #' @param user
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@
 #' @param password
 #'   Password to login with
 #' @param timezone
-#'   Sets the timezone of DBI::dbConnect()
+#'   Sets the timezone of DBI::dbConnect(). Must be in [OlsonNames()].
 #' @param timezone_out
-#'   Sets the timezone_out of DBI::dbConnect()
+#'   Sets the timezone_out of DBI::dbConnect(). Must be in [OlsonNames()].
 #' @param ...
 #'  Additional parameters sent to DBI::dbConnect()
 #' @inheritParams RPostgres::dbConnect_PqDriver
@@ -47,13 +47,17 @@ get_connection <- function(drv = RPostgres::Postgres(),
                            check_interrupts = TRUE) {
 
   # Check arguments
-  checkmate::assert_character(host, pattern = r"{^\d{1,3}.\d{1,3}.\d{1,3}.\d{1,3}$}", null.ok = TRUE)
+  checkmate::assert_character(host, null.ok = TRUE)
+  if (is.character(port)) {
+    checkmate::assert_character(port, pattern = "^[:digit:]*$")
+    port <- as.numeric(port) # nocov
+  }
   checkmate::assert_numeric(port, null.ok = TRUE)
   checkmate::assert_character(dbname,   null.ok = TRUE)
   checkmate::assert_character(user,     null.ok = TRUE)
   checkmate::assert_character(password, null.ok = TRUE)
-  checkmate::assert_character(timezone, null.ok = TRUE)
-  checkmate::assert_character(timezone_out, null.ok = TRUE)
+  checkmate::assert_choice(timezone, OlsonNames(), null.ok = TRUE)
+  checkmate::assert_choice(timezone_out, OlsonNames(), null.ok = TRUE)
 
   # Set PostgreSQL-specific options
   if (inherits(drv, "PqDriver")) {
diff --git a/man/get_connection.Rd b/man/get_connection.Rd
index 72e427e8..d8cda298 100644
--- a/man/get_connection.Rd
+++ b/man/get_connection.Rd
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ get_connection(
 
 \item{host}{Character string giving the ip of the host to connect to}
 
-\item{port}{Host port to connect to (numeric)}
+\item{port}{Host port to connect to. Must be a number or a numeric string.}
 
 \item{dbname}{Name of the database located at the host}
 
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ get_connection(
 
 \item{password}{Password to login with}
 
-\item{timezone}{Sets the timezone of DBI::dbConnect()}
+\item{timezone}{Sets the timezone of DBI::dbConnect(). Must be in \code{\link[=OlsonNames]{OlsonNames()}}.}
 
-\item{timezone_out}{Sets the timezone_out of DBI::dbConnect()}
+\item{timezone_out}{Sets the timezone_out of DBI::dbConnect(). Must be in \code{\link[=OlsonNames]{OlsonNames()}}.}
 
 \item{...}{Additional parameters sent to DBI::dbConnect()}