United States · Ohio
Where to Stay in Cincinnati, Ohio
The Ohio River bends past Cincinnati, a hillside city in Ohio founded in 1788 and known for the Cincinnati Art Museum and its Union Terminal.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Cincinnati
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Cincinnati depends on whether you want the river or the hills. The waterfront core gathers the big draws. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center stands on the bank of the Ohio River, with the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum beside the ballpark and the Newport Aquarium just across the water.
Base yourself here for the riverside walks. It is the low ground of the city. Up the slope lies the older downtown and the museum quarter, where the Taft Museum of Art occupies a Federal-era mansion and the Betts House survives among the streets of the early town beside the spire of Old St. Mary's Church.
The higher ground holds more. West of the centre, the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal fills its domed hall, while the Cincinnati Art Museum crowns the eastern ridge above the river. Families have more to add.
The Cincinnati Fire Museum sits downtown, and the Daniel Carter Beard Boyhood Home stands nearby, so that even the quieter hillside streets keep a landmark or two within a short walk of any base. The Ohio River and the Kentucky shore are never out of view.
About Cincinnati
Cincinnati is known for its river setting and its museums.
What is Cincinnati known for?
The hills hold the city. Rising in terraces from the north bank of the Ohio River, the old streets climb to the ridges above the water, where the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art keep the fine collections. The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal fills a great domed rail hall, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center stands on the waterfront.
Baseball and hills fill the rest of the name.
What are the main landmarks in Cincinnati?
The main landmarks of Cincinnati split between the river and the ridge. On the waterfront, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center faces the Ohio River, while the great domed hall of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal fills the West End above it in a single sweep of tile and stone. The Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art hold the collections.
Old St. Mary's Church anchors the earliest streets.
What is the history of Cincinnati?
Cincinnati was settled in 1788 on the north bank of the Ohio River, first under the name Losantiville. The town sat at the confluence with the Licking River, and its landing grew into a steamboat port and a gateway for settlers heading down the great river. Wealth came fast with the trade.
Pork-packing and river commerce raised the early fortunes, and the Betts House survives from that first generation of building. The city became a haven on the free bank of the Ohio, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center marks that role on the waterfront where escaping people crossed from Kentucky. German and Irish families filled the hillside parishes, raising Old St. Mary's Church and St. Francis Xavier Church among many others.
Art and industry rose together: the Taft family gave its mansion as the Taft Museum of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum climbed the eastern ridge, and the railroads built the grand hall that became the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. From a river landing to Ohio's third city, Cincinnati grew upward from its water.
Where is Cincinnati?
Cincinnati sits on the north bank of the Ohio River in Ohio, at the confluence with the Licking River. The land rises steeply from the water. Terraces and wooded hills climb from the riverside flats to the ridges, where the Cincinnati Art Museum crowns the eastern slope.
The Ohio River marks the state line with Kentucky across the stream.
What is the climate of Cincinnati?
Cincinnati has a temperate continental climate with four distinct seasons. Summers turn warm and humid in the river valley, and storms gather over the Ohio hills on the hottest afternoons. The Ohio Valley turns cold in winter.
Snow falls through the season, and spring and autumn bring the mild, changeable weather of the Ohio Valley between the two extremes.
How do you get to Cincinnati?
Cincinnati is reached by air, road, rail, and river. The main international airport lies across the Ohio River in Kentucky, and interstate highways bridge the water to link the city with the rest of Ohio. Trains still call at Union Terminal.
Barge traffic works the river below the hills, on the same water that carried the steamboats that built the town.
Good for
More cities in Ohio
Updated July 2026