48 Hours in Cincinnati

Perched on a great bend in the Ohio River, Cincinnati is a place where the North meets the South, where the ethnic heritage of its residents is still celebrated, and where yesterday’s grand architecture enhances a thriving 21st century city. Its riverfront pays homage to yesteryear when paddle wheelers and steamboats made frequent stops here, and its flourishing sports and arts scene—from stadiums to museums to bold street murals—add quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Stay in the heart of downtown at the historic AAA Four Diamond Cincinnatian Hotel, which dates to 1882. It’s just a block away from Fountain Square, sometimes called “the living room of Cincinnati,” since it has long been a gathering place for festivals and community events.

Day one

Start your day enjoying the “wispy thin” pancakes served at the 1950s-style Sugar n’ Spice Diner in the city’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Once home to a large German community, the area retains a 19th-century streetscape with three- and four-story Italianate buildings sporting colorful murals and housing chic boutiques.

Drive to the Cincinnati Museum Center just outside downtown. Housed in a former Art Deco train station, it’s distinguished by a monumental semi-circular facade and a soaring lobby with mosaics depicting historic figures from the city’s past. Take your pick of visiting the Museum of Natural History & Science with rare dinosaur skeletons and a simulated limestone cave, or the Cincinnati History Museum with a re-created riverfront scene complete with a full-scale replica of a side-wheel steamboat. The Children’s Museum and an Omnimax theater are also part of the mix.

You can’t visit Cincinnati without sampling its signature dish of Cincinnati chili: spice-laden chili sauce ladled atop spaghetti noodles along with beans, onions and shredded cheese. It’s available at many establishments, but one of the best, Camp Washington Chili, is just a 2.5-mile-drive from the Museum Center. Consider the version that also contains goetta, a German-American sausage made with pork, beef and oats that’s another beloved local dish.

Then it’s on to the recently expanded American Sign Museum, just a few blocks from your lunch stop, to see such treasures as an early McDonald’s sign with the 15¢ burger price prominently displayed, a towering 3-D fiberglass boy holding a burger from the Big Boy restaurant chain, and a sign shaped like a metallic orb with huge protruding spikes, built to resemble the Russian Sputnik satellite.

Return to Over-the-Rhine to enjoy its celebrated nightlife. Have dinner at Wildweed, where chef David Jackman, a 2025 James Beard nominee, focuses on hyperlocal and foraged ingredients with a special emphasis on innovative pastas. Try the red-striped, chicken-stuffed tortelli with a mild kick. For dessert, stop at Graeter’s Ice Cream, a Cincinnati institution famous for the chocolate chunks—not chips—embedded in many of its flavors. Grab a cocktail at Ghost Baby, a swanky space with opulent banquettes and red-fringed lamps located four stories underground where a local brewery once stored its beers.

Day two

Today, head for the riverfront, making a stop for chicken and waffles at Taste of Belgium, a local breakfast and brunch chain.

Your focus this morning is the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, with its floor-to-ceiling windows facing the former slave state of Kentucky on the river’s opposite bank, a poignant reminder that reaching Cincinnati was once a major accomplishment for enslaved people seeking freedom in Canada. One of the center’s many sobering displays is a “slave pen,” a log structure relocated from a farm in Kentucky where enslaved people were shackled while they awaited transport to slave markets farther south. The film Brothers of the Borderland imagines a thrilling historical flight to freedom using multi-sensory experiences like the sound of bullets whizzing and fog rising from the floor.

Smale Riverfront Park is just outside the Freedom Center’s main entry, a handy corridor to explore other nearby points of interest such as the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame, which pays homage to local and national artists with ties to the city. They include “Godfather of Soul” James Brown, who recorded extensively with the city’s now-closed King Records. Using augmented reality technology at four kiosks, insert yourself into a musical act as a dancer, or at a separate one, virtually get up on stage alongside the musicians.

For lunch, walk to the park’s other end to Cincinnati Lager House, a microbrewery with menus reminiscent of Cincinnati’s 19th-century beer gardens. A short walk from there, the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame offers a comprehensive overview of the nation’s first professional baseball team. A wall adorned with 4,192 baseballs represents Pete Rose’s record career hits while other exhibits focus on highlights like the team’s five World Series wins. During baseball season, you can tour the adjoining Great American Ball Park, where the Reds play.

Drive or grab a rideshare 10 minutes to Newport on the Ohio River’s Kentucky side to embark on a two-hour cruise on one of BB Riverboats’ stern-wheeler paddleboats. The ride features fabulous views of Cincinnati’s skyline as well as the high hills and bluffs lining the river. A live commentator alternates between strumming a banjo and offering historical tidbits. You’ll pass right under the Roebling Suspension Bridge, built as a prototype of the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened 17 years later.

Get a sense of how South meets North in these Kentucky suburbs by dining at Libby’s Southern Comfort in adjoining Covington, where the menu choices include fried green tomatoes, hush puppies and oyster po’ boys. Then return to downtown Cincinnati, this time passing over the Roebling Suspension Bridge, satisfied that you’ve experienced a broad spectrum of the city’s history, culture and cuisine.