Visiting Cincinnati for a 4-Day Recon - Recommendations Welcome (Columbus: rentals, house)

[KelliZee]

My husband and I are considering a move to Cincinnati so we are coming out to do a long weekend recon of the city next week. I was in Cincinnati last October and saw the OTR area and downtown. We would like to spend a little more time getting a feel for the city and what it has to offer in terms of walkable neighborhoods, culture, infrastructure, and the usual "hipster" things we enjoy such as breweries, bars, restraurants and shops.

We will be staying in the OTR for our visit, so that area of town is covered. We are interested in looking at the CUF, Hyde Park, and Mt. Adams neighborhoods, as well as Covington and Newport, KY. Can anyone recommend any other neighborhoods that offer walkability to shops, bars and restaurants, housing in the $200-300K range, and are in Cincinnati proper?

For background, I am a technical writer and he is a maintenance technician on large equipment used to build pre-fab homes and office buildings. We are attracted to the Cincinnati area mainly for the cost of living, four seasons (we are in Phoenix, after all), proximity to family on the East Coast, and solid job market. We're in our late 40s-early 50s and child free. We're fans of craft brews, art house movies, culture, and good restaurants.

I've read many threads on people relocating to the area and looking for advice, but not much on doing a quick "get to know the city" trip (4 days). Any advice and input is welcome. Thank you in advance!

[cincydave8]

CUF is basically 100% college students. Lots of college oriented bars, shops and restaurants along Calhoun and McMillan. Hyde Park has a nice little square with some great places to eat like Arthur's, The Echo, Cork & Cap and Tellers. Since you appear to be into beer and want to visit Hyde Park, I'd think about checking out the bottle shop Dutch's in Hyde Park East, basically the corner of Marburg and Erie, they should still have Burger Madness on Thursdays nights. Mt Adams is nice and is changing from college/party scene to more laid back neighborhood. Still lots of cool places like The Blind Lemon.

As far as neighborhoods in 200-300 range that meet your budget: Oakley, Pleasant Ridge, Northside, College Hill, East Walnut Hills and Madisonville all fit the bill. Maybe Mt Lookout and Hyde Park but it depends on the size of house you want.

If you like art-house I'd go see a movie at the Esquire on Ludlow and then enjoy some beer before or after at Arlins and Fries. Arlins is basically across the street and serves of the neighborhood bar. Fries is up the road and is a textbook dive with great beer selection and an awesome backyard. Cincinnati has tons of great breweries. If you're in OTR you'll have to check out the big ones Rhinegiest and Moerlien. Sam Adams also just opened a tap room. Tafts is a great brewpub plus there's also Platform and 3 Points Brewery. I'd also do the Underground Brewery Tour. 2 companies run them. One is the shorter tour run by the non-profit Cincy Brewery District Brewing Heritage Trail | Tours or the bigger/longer one ran by Queen City Underground https://www.americanlegacytours.com/...ty-underground. Mad Tree in Oakley is basically tied with Rhinegiest for most popular brewery in the city. Here's A Complete List of Cincinnati Breweries - Cincy Weekend. If you have specific type of brewery or beers you like let me know. There are some stand out smaller breweries.

Other must do's that I can think of off the top of my head would be checking out Smale Riverfront Park, Cincy Museum Center, Eden Park, Findlay Market and Spring Grove Cemetery.

[DaveGl]

Great recommendations. For some fun and something different, I'd spend a little time on the Covington and Newport, KY side, too. If you enjoy live music, Southgate House Revival is a cool place, all in a repurposed old church. Newport on the Levee is going through some changes, with a new owner, so hopefully it'll bounce back. Still not a bad place to catch a movie at the AMC and it's a cheap place to park, with a cute local art store, for some Cincy art. Oh, and a great place to enjoy the lovely Cincinnati skyline.

If you enjoy great steaks and food, albeit a little upscale, but a place I enjoy, checkout Ruby's Steakhouse on Walnut. A fun place to "people watch," with piano music, and Jeff Ruby's a local personality, so to speak.

For a local place, I like The Taste of Belgium, such as for breakfast. They have several locations, including OTR but I prefer their newer place at The Banks. It's usually less crowded at peak times and I've always gotten friendly, good service when I set at the bar. Speaking of OTR, one little place which I enjoy for a drink and to unwind is Sundry and Vice. A quaint little place less than a block off the main Vine drag on OTR.

For Hyde Park, I'd add the Unwind Wine bar. A modern, nicely done place that has beer and mixed drinks, too. Also, a very nice outdoor patio, for when the weather is nice. I like Teller's, too. They used to have a Monday's whole lobster special I'd check out, sometimes.

I highly recommend the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, a beautiful art deco structure, one of the best in the world. They used to offer free guided tours on Sundays which were wonderful.

Cincinnati is truly an underappreciated gem. Enjoy!

[KelliZee]

Wow, what great suggestions! I really appreciate you both taking the time to give us such great advice. Your replies are sure to make our planning significantly easier. We are definitely interested in checking out the KY side of the river as well.
The neighborhood suggestions are great and will help us narrow our focus down to where we want to explore.
Thank you for all of the ideas!

[DaveGl]

You're welcome! I enjoy both Covington and Newport but everybody's different. They both have some "quaint" older areas but can look a little ragged, too. I'm pretty quirky. One of my favorite places for Cincinnati chili is the Skyline in Covington, on W. 3rd street. An older chili parlor but the service is good, with some older, longtime servers and a somewhat funky atmosphere. For some reason, my four-ways seem to taste better there. I've been known to enjoy a long walk from there, enjoying the train traffic on the overhead trestle, as I walk past the older residences of Covington, over the Licking River bridge to the Newport on the Levee area, alongside the banks of the Licking and Ohio rivers.

[Coseau]

I also like Covington and Newport. The neighborhoods in these cities have their own walkable areas. Due to the close proximity of of Covington's and Newport urban neighborhoods to Cincinnati's DT and OTR , you can walk, bike or catch the South bank shuttle to a wider arrange of breweries, bars, restaurants and shops.

[DaveGl]

Originally Posted by Coseau

I also like Covington and Newport. The neighborhoods in these cities have their own walkable areas. Due to the close proximity of of Covington's and Newport urban neighborhoods to Cincinnati's DT and OTR , you can walk, bike or catch the South bank shuttle to a wider arrange of breweries, bars, restaurants and shops.

Yes, that's exactly what I've done. The South Bank shuttle is cheap at a buck to, say, get from Newport on The Levee to Fountain Square. On nice days, I've enjoyed myself by walking certain areas of the KY side of the Ohio River, then catching the South Bank shuttle to have some fun and exercise around The Banks, downtown, and the OTR. The Purple Peoples Bridge is also good to walk or bike (such as the Red Bike rentals) to get to either side of the river, since it's completely dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles.

[KelliZee]

It's great to hear some love for the KY side of the river. It seems to have its own share of fun offerings and interesting neighborhoods. We will surely look into the South Bank Shuttle. I am hoping the weather is such that we can do a lot of walking while we are in town.

The proximity of Cincinnati to a number of other cities (Louisville, Columbus, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh) is another thing that makes it attractive to us. We like the fact that the city is on a river, and that another state is just across the water, adding a little something else to the mix.

Having only seen the outside of the Cincinnati Museum, I'm anxious to visit the inside as it comes so highly recommended. I love the fact that Cincinnati has kept so much of its original architecture and re-purposed the buildings, rather than torn them down to make way for metal/glass giants. The few tall buildings in the downtown area are not offensive and work well with the surrounding area.

Thanks again for the excellent recommendations. We are very excited to get to the city!

[DaveGl]

KZ, it sounds like you should enjoy your Cincy visit. I just hope the weather cooperates for you, since this isn't exactly an ideal time of the year. For me, though, the Fall in Cincinnati usually more than makes up for when the the weather isn't the best. Oktoberfest is wonderful and this year, Blink is back which is spectacular.

Ah, yes, I'm glad Cincinnati has such history and architecture. The Terminal is especially beautiful. Beautiful parks, too, such as Eden Park, with it's lovely gazebo, hills and proximity to Mount Adams. As mentioned previously, the Blind Lemon is a wonderful, secluded little place there, too.

Enjoy!

[joyeaux]

Keep the Cincinnati Art Museum on your list in Eden Park in Mount Adams. https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/ . Even if you're not big art buffs, since its free, you can still enjoy a delightful landmark.
Andy's Mediterranean Grill a few blocks out of Eden Park has the best chicken kabobs & rice: https://www.andyskaboboh.com

Enjoy!