Ohio (Cincinnati)
Trip Summary
Cincinnati is a place I have been to several times now–once when my flight had to make an emergency landing at the Cincinnati airport and there weren’t any flights out until the next day, and then twice afterwards for stops while on a summer road trip. It is a day’s drive from where I live, so it is a good stopping point when traveling. And what a stopping point! A world famous zoo! Museums! Baseball! This city has it all and definitely deserves a visit (or at least a stopover)!
One of the best places my husband and I stayed while there is actually on the north side of the city. Rates are cheaper in areas away from downtown, hotels are nicer, and there is still plenty to do nearby. So on one of our trips, we decided to stay at the Hyatt Place Cincinnati/Sharonville Convention Center. The rooms were clean and spacious, the staff was friendly, and the hotel not only included a free breakfast, but it also had an eatery inside where you could get drinks and food during the stay if you didn’t want to leave the hotel.
While we did explore the city, we spent an evening in this little eatery inside the hotel and actually met some cool people there who were also enjoying the bar/eatery. The hotel will also make meals that you can take up to your room, and we ended up getting a pizza to go, and that was enjoyable.
So for its clean and modern rooms, excellent service, and convenient bar/eatery inside, this place gets excellent marks!
Hyatt Place Cincinnati/Sharonville Convention Center: A
But Cincinnati is so much more than a place to stay! In a city this size, there is a lot to do and eat! When researching places to eat, I kept coming across one of Cincinnati’s staples–Skyline Chili. It seemed to have a massive following, and everyone who had gone to Cincinnati said that I had to try it! So my husband and I did. There are a lot of locations around the city, so after plugging in the address to the closest one, we drove to what would be our Skyline Chili experience.
The restaurant is a small eatery where you order from the front desk, and they bring out your food to you. So after ordering a three-way (their signature dish–spaghetti with chili topped with cheddar cheese) for me, a turkey sandwich for my husband, and a side of mozzarella sticks to share, we chose a booth and waited for our food.
Now here is where things started to go downhill. Even though we were the only customers in the entire restaurant, it took a long time to get our food, and when it finally came out, it was cold. When the waitress brought out the mozzarella sticks, she said they didn’t have any marinara, so that was a disappointment. Then when the rest of the food came out, it was as equally a let down. The famous three-way had potential and was a unique dish. The “chili” is just ground beef–no beans–but is sweet. It seems like cinnamon or something is used with the spices used to season the dish, and it was interesting. Not bad, but kind of a surprise. It would have been better if it weren’t so cold and watery, though. My husband’s sandwich wasn’t much better, and I think he took a total of two bites out of it.
I don’t know–maybe the other locations are better, and we just came at a bad time–but the experience was very underwhelming. Since the food took so long with us being the only people in the restaurant, we were surprised at the cold and unappetizing food, so unfortunately, this place doesn’t get my recommendation. I don’t want to give it a D or an F, because it could have certainly been worse, and I know some people are die-hard fans of this place, so I will just give it a low passing grade.
Skyline Chili: C
So enough about let downs. Let’s talk about the highlight of Cincinnati! The zoo! I’ve wanted to visit this zoo for so long, especially since hearing about the famous Fiona–the baby hippo who was born premature and survived against all odds to become the cutest attraction at this zoo!
The zoo is also on the north side of Cincinnati and is one of the main attractions of the city, so you will see lots of signs for it. There is also plentiful parking, and you can buy parking with your ticket beforehand (which is what we did), so that makes for a quicker process. We were lucky enough to find a spot pretty close to the entrance, so after locking up the car, we set off for a day at this famous zoo!
As expected, the zoo is enormous, but luckily, they have signs and directions everywhere, so you don’t get lost. They have all kinds of animals there, and observation points in each area where you can see the animals up close and take pictures.
Some areas have feeding times, too, and allow you to feed the animals (such as the giraffes). The giraffes were a lot of fun to see, and there was even a baby giraffe that enjoyed frolicking around the pen to its audience’s delight.
There were actually a number of baby animals–the most adorable one probably being the rhino–because it was exceptionally frisky and liked to run and jump and roll around. I have a video on my phone of it playing, and every once in a while, I’ll watch it and smile, because it was just so cute!
The Hippo Cove is where Fiona and her mother are kept, but they were actually asleep when we went by the first time. Apparently, they don’t become active until later in the day, so we made a note to come back later in the day when we had seen all the other exhibits, and when we came back, there she was! All awake and ready to play! She is cute, and she and her mother swim through the water so you can see them through the glass. They have quite a following, because when they started to move and swim, everyone started to push and shove to get close to the glass, and it got quite chaotic, so that is why I don’t have a lot of good pictures of her. All you could do was snap as many pictures as you could before you were pushed out of the way! But we still got to see the famous hippo, and that was the main reason we went, so that was nice to actually see her up close.
There are a lot of other bonus exhibits, and we spent the day looking at orangutans, elephants, lions, cheetahs, and all sorts of other animals.
The zoo has several houses that hold snakes and an assortment of critters, so we went to explore that as well (though, those houses are exceptionally hot and can be uncomfortable after a while–so just know that before you go in).
So for its spacious exhibits, plentiful animals, ease of buying tickets, and cleanliness, this zoo lives up to the hype! The only drawback is that a lot of the observation points are on the smaller side, so that can cause crowding and make it more difficult to see the animals, but all in all, it’s a great place to visit.
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden: A
Even so, there is so much more to see here! The Cincinnati Museum Center! The Cincinnati Reds baseball team! The Irwin M. Krohn Conservatory! I am always here for only a night here and there, so I plan to see more every time I return. I even have an unused hotel credit for a place in town, so I know I at least have one more visit in my future. So I will see more spots and let you know which ones to visit!
Favorite Experiences
Obviously, the zoo is very much on top of the list! However, surprisingly enough, I think my favorite animal was not the famous Fiona, but actually the baby rhino! Granted, it was fun finally seeing the young hippo up close, but the crowds really detracted from the experience as everyone was so pushy to get a look at the hippo as it swam past. The overlook to see the rhinos was a lot more spacious and people were much more respectful as they took pictures and videos of the rhinos eating and playing. The baby rhino is also energetic and rambunctious at all hours of the day rather than just late afternoon like the hippo, so you can enjoy the experience no matter what time you see them!
What I Wish I Knew
I wish I knew that some famous eateries just don’t live up to the hype, hence the low rating for Skyline Chili. My husband even deemed it the worst meal of the entire vacation (and we drove through nine states on that trip!). While I wish we went somewhere else to eat, I had to at least try it to get the full Cincinnati experience.
Also, Cincinnati was a bit rougher than I expected. It may have been the areas we were in, but I remember being worried about our car whenever we parked it just because the areas seemed unsafe. We have an unused hotel credit there that we still have to use sometime, so we’ll have to find some other things to see while we are there again, but unfortunately, it’s not high on the list. So if you go, be watchful of your surroundings, walk purposefully, and be extra careful at night.
I do know that next time we go to use that hotel credit, we will for sure do the Queen City Underground Tour. It’s a tour in which you explore some of the tunnels underneath the city and was highly recommended in some of the travel groups I am in on social media. The tours were either not operational or sold out each time we’ve passed through, so when we go back, I’ll do this tour and give you all a full report!
Even so, there is a ton to do in Cincinnati that I have not mentioned here, so I recommend checking out the forums here. Of course, if any of you have recommendations for things to include on the blog on my next visit, feel free to drop me a line!
I also post reels and TikToks regularly of all the places I’ve reviewed on here, so if you want to see some videos of what to expect, check out my social media here:
TikTok: @touristyteacher
Instagram: @touristyteacher
Facebook: @touristyteacher
Happy travels!
