Ohio
Cincinnati is the river city that most travellers underestimate.
Spread over hills above a long bend of the Ohio River, it pairs one of the best-preserved nineteenth-century neighborhoods in America, Over-the-Rhine, with an Art Deco railway terminal turned museum center, a zoo founded in 1875 that turns into a sea of five million lights each winter, and a riverfront where the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center tells the story of the people who crossed this river to freedom. Across the water in northern Kentucky are the Newport Aquarium, the riverboats and two of the most talked-about day trips in the Midwest, the life-size Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. This guide books the few things worth booking, from a zoo ticket and a Reds Hall of Fame visit to a tour of the lagering caverns under the old breweries and a streetcar food tour through Findlay Market, explains which days the museums and the Kentucky attractions close, and matches you with the right hotel, from a 1909 landmark on Lytle Park to an Art Deco grand hotel and a good-value base in Newport.
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
One of the oldest zoos in America and the city's best family day out, with gardens, big cats, gorillas, manatees and Fiona the hippo. From 19 November it becomes the PNC Festival of Lights, about five million LEDs, included with a regular zoo ticket.
Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
Cincinnati's Art Deco railway terminal, with a vast half-dome rotunda, now houses the city's history museum, a natural history and science museum, a children's museum and an OMNIMAX theater. From 13 November the model trains of Holiday Junction return.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
A powerful riverfront museum on the stories of people who escaped slavery across the Ohio River and those who helped them, with a real nineteenth-century slave pen at its heart. Open Wednesday to Sunday only; allow three to four hours.
Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum
The museum of baseball's oldest professional franchise, beside Great American Ball Park on the riverfront, packed with Big Red Machine memorabilia, interactive exhibits and the Reds Hall of Fame. Open Tuesday to Sunday in the offseason; kids 12 and under go free.
One of the oldest zoos in America and the city's best family day out, with gardens, big cats, gorillas, manatees and Fiona the hippo. From 19 November it becomes the PNC Festival of Lights, about five million LEDs, included with a regular zoo ticket.
Cincinnati's Art Deco railway terminal, with a vast half-dome rotunda, now houses the city's history museum, a natural history and science museum, a children's museum and an OMNIMAX theater. From 13 November the model trains of Holiday Junction return.
A powerful riverfront museum on the stories of people who escaped slavery across the Ohio River and those who helped them, with a real nineteenth-century slave pen at its heart. Open Wednesday to Sunday only; allow three to four hours.
The museum of baseball's oldest professional franchise, beside Great American Ball Park on the riverfront, packed with Big Red Machine memorabilia, interactive exhibits and the Reds Hall of Fame. Open Tuesday to Sunday in the offseason; kids 12 and under go free.
Go underground in Over-the-Rhine to the vaulted lagering cellars of the city's vanished German breweries, then finish with a beer tasting. Cincinnati's best-reviewed tour, rated 5.0 from more than two thousand reviews.
Ride the free streetcar through downtown and Over-the-Rhine to Findlay Market, eating at three restaurants and three market stalls along the way. Rated 5.0 from more than 680 reviews, it is the tastiest way to see the city on a first visit.
See the Cincinnati skyline, the stadiums and the Roebling Suspension Bridge from the deck of a riverboat on the Ohio, with live narration on the city's river history. Sailing from the Newport landing in Kentucky.
A big, family-friendly aquarium on the Kentucky riverfront, two minutes from downtown Cincinnati, with walk-through tunnels, a rope Shark Bridge over the shark tank, penguins, jellies and a new Coral Reef Tunnel. Timed entry; book ahead.
A full-size timber recreation of Noah's Ark in the Kentucky hills, about forty minutes south of Cincinnati, with three decks of exhibits, the Ararat Ridge Zoo and seasonal Christmas evenings. Closed Sundays in November and December.
The sister attraction of the Ark Encounter, near the Cincinnati airport in Petersburg, Kentucky, with dinosaur exhibits, a planetarium, botanical gardens and a small zoo. From 27 November its Christmas evenings bring a live nativity and lit-up grounds.
Hotels we would book ourselves, from splurges to good-value bases.
$$$$Downtown (Lytle Park)
Cincinnati's most polished stay, in a 1909 landmark on leafy Lytle Park at the quiet eastern edge of downtown, with Northern Italian dining at Subito, a jazz piano lobby bar and the glass-walled Vista rooftop overlooking the park and the city.
Rates on Expedia →
$$Downtown (Fountain Square)
A 1931 Art Deco grand hotel inside the Carew Tower complex, a block from Fountain Square, with soaring French Art Deco public rooms, The 1931 restaurant and lounge, and some of the best-value rooms in the heart of downtown.
Rates on Expedia →
$$$Downtown (Arts District)
A boutique hotel that doubles as a contemporary art museum, in the century-old former Metropole hotel on Walnut Street, across from the Aronoff Center, with 156 rooms, the Metropole restaurant and a famously pet-friendly attitude.
Rates on Expedia →Covington, Kentucky
A stylish boutique hotel in a former department store in Covington, Kentucky, a few blocks from the river and the Cincinnati skyline, with 114 rooms, Coppin's restaurant and bar, and apartment-style suites next door at North by Hotel Covington.
Rates on Expedia →Newport, Kentucky
The value pick, in Newport, Kentucky, just across the river from downtown Cincinnati, with free hot breakfast, an indoor pool and cheap on-site parking, close to the Newport Aquarium and the riverboat landing.
Rates on Expedia →The practical primer for a first visit: the tickets worth booking ahead, the closing days that catch people out, how the free streetcar links the riverfront with Over-the-Rhine, and a three-day plan that includes the Kentucky side of the river.
How to choose a base in Cincinnati, with the right hotel in each area: a 1909 landmark on Lytle Park, an Art Deco grand hotel by Fountain Square, an art hotel in the theatre district, a boutique stay in Covington and a value pick in Newport.
