Cincinnati Family Fun Weekend: A guide to great food and fun

If you are looking for a family fun weekend getaway – this is your guide to Cincinnati, Ohio.

On our 4 day trip we enjoyed seeing the city of Cincinnati, visiting the creation museum, spending a day at the ark encounter, and exploring the zoo and aquarium! I want to tell you a little bit about each place and tips we learned from our trip. Hope this helps you plan yours!

CREATION MUSEUM

We began our weekend here and it was a hit for all ages. Such a great, fun, and educational museum. It’s a very safe environment for the older boys to go ahead on their own if they wanted. There was a big variety of exhibits. We had heard it was tons of reading and it was- but honestly that didn’t bother us a bit. You can read more or read less and still enjoy it. The garden area of animals with Adam and Eve was excellent, Beck especially loved that!
The planetarium show ‘Creation and Cosmos’ was over the top fascinating! It is an extra cost but well worth it. We would also recommend ‘6 days: Creation to Wonder’. It’s a 4D experience that comes with your admission ticket. 

Be sure to leave enough time to walk the botanical gardens outside. They were gorgeous and so peaceful. The kids playground was fun for our kids also! There is a larger zip line available but it has a minimum weight requirement so check before buying tickets.  Everything is stroller friendly also!

Total time we spent:

6 hours for everything inside and outdoors. We spent 2 hours in the museum part, then did the shows and outdoor stuff. 

Tips:

+Buy tickets online and you walk right in. Enjoy the gardens and floating bridge on your way to the museum entrance. 
+We bought 2 refillable cups (good at both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter). Filled them over and over with water and fountain drinks. 
+We did lunch at 12:30 and it was packed. Even more packed when we left the cafeteria. We’d suggest going even earlier. Food was great-plan to eat there. Tim and the boys did the ice cream-it was very yummy, especially the peach flavor. 

ARK ENCOUNTER

We came here on a Friday and it was definitely busy so I imagine weekends are extra packed. The parking lot is easy and you load onto buses that take you to the Ark. Strollers can be loaded onto the buses easily. There are great spots to grab pictures of your family with the Ark in the background- I suggest doing that right when you get there. We chose to head to the left (everyone goes right to the ark) and do the little zoo behind the Ark first and were glad we did because it was almost empty! But by the time we got into the actual Ark it was crowded. Much of the time you literally just walked the pace of the crowd. It was easy to navigate and the exhibits were awesome! Animal exhibits on 2nd level were so interesting and well done! They even had sloths which you know was a highlight for me.

The 2 shows took about 20 minutes each but were honestly very good! There is one on the second deck then part 2 on deck 3. Jude (9 years old) was especially captivated with them. 

We did the all-you-can-eat buffet in the restaurant for lunch- super glad we did. The food was delicious and there was a lot of variety. It was comfortable to sit for a break. The price was great also. 
We were all really looking forward to the camel rides: $10 for 10 minutes but that was closed due to rain. So we fed the camel leaves instead. $3 for 3 leaves. Totally fun and totally worth it- you got to pet the camels nose also while he ate your leaf.

The gift shop under the end of the Ark was much better than the one right at the shuttle bus drop off. We actually shopped in the gift shop before entering the Ark and got each of the boys a stuffed animal. They had so much fun carrying their animals through the Ark. (well actually…3 days home and Beck is still carrying his elephant everywhere-haha). 
Just before we left the Ark we did the Virtual Reality. It’s an added cost but Crew (age 4) and on up totally enjoyed it! Hudson said it was the highlight to him. The playground at the front of the Ark area was very fun for all our boys also. 

Total time spent

6 1/2 hours. 

Tips

+Buy your tickets online. Makes entering much, much faster.
+Eat a snack and grab a drink before entering ark. You really want to get the whole inside the Ark done all at once because to leave and come back in is a lot of extra walking and extra navigating through crowds. 
+Eat early and at the restaurant-the all-you-can-eat buffet.
+Go to the little Zoo behind the Ark first. Beat the crowds. Make sure to do the Kangaroo walkabout. 

CINCINNATI ZOO & BOTANICAL GARDENS

Beautiful zoo, so much greenery and gorgeous landscaping. The botanical gardens are all throughout the Zoo and so lush! The animals were unique and so easy to see. Every area was well done and delightful. Highly recommend going. We heard it’s the 2nd oldest zoo in the USA.

Total time spent

4 1/2 hours 

Tips

+Again, buy your tickets ahead online. We didn’t and the lines for tickets and then another line to get into the Zoo were very very long. We did go on a Saturday morning and it seemed like at least half of Cincinnati was also there. 
+Buy the combo ticket to include carousel and train. Especially if you have kids ages 10 and under. We rode the train once (long line) and the carousel over and over. So it was worth it.
+Eat before noon or lines are very long and slow. We ate in The Grove area. A couple restaurants and a bunch of food trucks all clumped together. It was also close to a bathroom with great seating.

NEWPORT AQUARIUM

From the zoo we headed straight to the Newport Aquarium which made for a really big and long day. Not ideal with younger kids but we had limited time here and wanted to see both the zoo and aquarium.  
Entrance here is timed, so when you buy your tickets you receive a time to return and line up to enter. 
We ate a snack here but it was mediocre and pretty expensive so I’d recommend eating before you go in. 
It was super kid-friendly but we still kept our boys in our sights at all times. The Coral Reef Tunnel was exceptional. There were a lot of other exhibits that our boys could reach into waters and touch and handle various sea animals. They really enjoyed that. 
I highly recommend going here! 

Total time spent

2 hours (I don’t feel like you would need any more time)

Tips

+Buy tickets ahead online. We actually would stand outside each attraction (zoo & aquarium) and buy our tickets on our phone which was much quicker than standing in line. 

FINDLAY MARKET

We went here Sunday morning before flying home in the evening. 
We walked inside the central market- lots of meat markets and deli foods and specialty foods. Outdoors is much the same. On one side of the market is fresh produce, fun kiosks, and shops of vendors. 
We ate a cinnamon roll, savory pastry, Vietnamese chicken & rice bowl, fruit cream puff, specialty chocolate (well, some of us ate chocolate-haha), fresh juices, fruit popsicles, smoked BBQ ribs and oyster shooters. All the food is healthy and organic and super tasty! 

Total time spent

Less than 2 hours. 

Tips

+hold your kids hands tightly-there are a lot of happenings and people!!

FOOD ON OUR TRIP

We headed straight from the airport to our first dinner at Incline Public House,
We would highly recommend:: amazing view/great outdoor seating/easy and yummy menu choices/food was reasonably priced(I had looked for $$ restaurants). My Mom and I shared the Fig and Proscuitto Pizza. Super delicious. 

Taste of Belgium was our 2nd night’s dinner-
If you love waffles and crepes – be sure to go here. We also saw their cafe at Findlay Market. 

We tried to walk in to several restaurants in the downtown area on a Friday evening and couldn’t get a table for 9. I’d suggest calling ahead and making a reservation at any downtown restaurant. 

Simply Rolled Ice Cream (just down the street from Taste of Belgium) was a great pick for a fun dessert! Watching them make the ice cream and roll it on the frozen table was fascinating for all of us. Plus we all thought the dishes of ice cream were so good. Plenty in 1 bowl to split for 2 people. 

Graeters Ice Cream: this one was recommended by all of you and it was fun. The staff were so friendly and helpful, and their ice cream was good!! Our boys liked getting the MLB sundae which was served in a little baseball cap!

All in all it was such a fun family weekend in Cincinnati!! Worth the time it takes to fly. You just can’t beat seeing the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter! They were our 2 must-see’s and they didn’t disappoint one bit. 

If you get to do any of these please let me know what you thought! I’d love to hear about your trip and any tips you have as well! Leave them in the comments so others can benefit.

xo, Sarah