Things to do in Cincinnati

Neighborhood · Immediately north of downtown

One of the largest surviving districts of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the United States, built by German immigrants, largely abandoned for decades and now substantially restored — with Ohio's oldest continuously operating public market at its centre.

Local tip: Findlay Market on a Saturday morning is the single best introduction to this city, and it is genuinely used by locals rather than curated for visitors. Walk north to Findlay rather than driving; the parking is worse than the walk and the streets are the point.

Nature · The hillside immediately east of downtown

A near-vertical neighbourhood of narrow streets and stacked houses climbing a bluff over the river, opening into Eden Park with the art museum, the conservatory and an overlook across the Ohio into Kentucky.

Local tip: Park at the bottom and walk up if you can manage it. The Twin Lakes overlook in Eden Park at sunset is the standard Cincinnati view, and the Krohn Conservatory is free to walk past and worth the small charge in February.

Landmark · The riverfront, downtown to Covington

John A. Roebling's 1866 suspension bridge — the prototype for his Brooklyn Bridge, and briefly the longest in the world — crossing from the rebuilt Banks district into Kentucky.

Local tip: Walk it at dusk, from Cincinnati to Covington and back. The Kentucky side gives the postcard skyline view, the deck hums under traffic, and it is the quickest way to understand that this is one metro with a river through it rather than two cities.

Nature · Avondale, north of downtown

The second-oldest zoo in the United States, opened in 1875, with a national reputation for conservation breeding and a botanical garden layered through it.

Local tip: The Festival of Lights between late November and early January is a genuine local ritual rather than a tourist event. Membership pays for itself quickly and is the standard purchase for a family here.

Culture · Over-the-Rhine, facing the park

An 1878 Venetian Gothic concert hall — home to one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the country and a May Festival choral tradition running since 1873 — restored and facing a rebuilt public park.

Local tip: Washington Park's free summer programming is how most people first go inside the Music Hall district. If you go to a concert, the cheap upper seats have better acoustics than the price suggests.

Nightlife · North-west of downtown along Hamilton Avenue

A small, scrappy independent strip of music venues, bars and thrift shops in a working-class neighbourhood that never got polished — the place the city's actual music scene lives rather than where it is marketed from.

Local tip: The Fourth of July parade here is a genuinely eccentric neighbourhood institution and the fastest way to meet people. On an ordinary night, the Hamilton Avenue strip is walkable end to end in ten minutes, which is more than most of Cincinnati manages.