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15-night Grand Ohio River Cruise

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8-night Ohio River Cruise

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Overview

Introduction

Located in the heartland of the Midwest on the Ohio River, Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Greater Cincinnati area in northern Kentucky are beautiful and serene spots for a vacation in the southwest Ohio area.

Cincinnati manages to maintain its small, old-world charm through its outgoing people and impressive variety of historic buildings. But Cincinnati is also a modern, cultured city with ethnically diverse neighborhoods and a rich array of performing-arts venues, museums and galleries, festivals, professional sports teams such as the Cincinnati Bengals and Cincinnati Reds, fine dining and shopping. The Cincinnati Zoo provides additional diversion for visitors.

As you drive into Cincinnati, Ohio, from the south, the view of the city skyline is striking, especially at night. You can see the Great American Ballpark, where the Cincinnati Reds baseball team plays home games, and the Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals football team. In addition, the art-deco-style Carew Tower is the tallest building in Cincinnati, the 100-year-old Ingalls Building is the world's first reinforced-concrete skyscraper and the impressive Procter & Gamble Twin Towers resemble a gateway into the city.

Visitors to Cincinnati will also get an eyefull of the bridges that link Ohio and Kentucky—the Brent Spence Bridge, Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, C&O Bridge, Roebling Suspension Bridge, Central Bridge, L&N Bridge and the Dan Carter Beard Bridge.

It is Cincinnati's diversity that makes it a worthy travel destination. For a medium-sized city, it maintains an impressive amount of historical, contemporary and cultural attractions—explaining why millions visit Cincinnati, Ohio, each year.

Must See or Do

Sights—Exotic plants at the Krohn Conservatory; Tyler Davidson's Genius of Water statue in Fountain Square; the colorful vendors at Findlay Market; a riverboat cruise on the Ohio; a panoramic view of Cincinnati from the Carew Tower observation deck.

Museums—National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; European and Asian art at the Cincinnati Art Museum; cutting-edge works at the Contemporary Arts Center; stargazing at the Cincinnati Observatory Center; the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, featuring the Cincinnati History Museum, Duke Energy Children's Museum, Museum of Natural History and Science, and The Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX Theater.

Memorable Meals—Five-way chili at any local chili parlor; pizza at LaRosa's; "magic dust" steaks at El Coyote; French bistro cuisine at Jeanro; ice cream at Graeter's.

Late Night—A drink on the patio at Arnold's Bar & Grill; mellow jazz at Havana Martini Club; viewing the city lights from the Pavilion atop Mount Adams.

Walks—A stroll in Yeatman's Cove Park and along the Serpentine Wall; a walk through the dense woods of Eden Park; a hike in Sharon Woods; sauntering around the wetlands, meadows and forest at Voice of America Park.

Especially for Kids—Interactive adventures at Duke Energy Children's Museum at the Cincinnati Museum Center; white Bengal tigers at the Cincinnati Zoo; water rides at Coney Island or the Beach Waterpark; roller coasters at Paramount's Kings Island.

Geography

Rome. Istanbul. Cincinnati? Like those ancient centers of civilization, Cincinnati is built on seven sloping hills, giving this city in southwestern Ohio a certain rolling charm. The Ohio River forms the city's southern boundary and separates the state of Ohio from neighboring Kentucky and Indiana. The city is relatively easy to navigate, so long as you understand that some streets go over the hills and some go around them. The exceptions are the interstates—I-75, I-74 and I-71—that bisect the city. Circling Cincinnati is I-275, which links parts of Ohio, Indiana and northern Kentucky.

Areas of town are known by their neighborhood names—Mount Adams is east of the city along the Ohio River; Price Hill is west along the Ohio. To the north are Over-the-Rhine, Clifton and Mount Auburn. Northeast are Mount Lookout and Hyde Park. Even farther north are the suburbs of Indian Hill, Wyoming and Kenwood. Across the river in Kentucky are a slew of small towns—the best known is Newport. In recent years, Newport has grown into an entertainment hub for Greater Cincinnati, offering a wide array of activities in what is now called Newport on the Levee.

History

That the Ohio River always has taken center stage is only proper: The Queen City (as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Cincinnati) owes its existence and fortunes to the river. The city was founded in 1788 as Losantiville and was rechristened Cincinnati two years later. But it was the creation of the Miami-Erie canals that fully established the city's importance in the shipping of regional farm products (particularly pork) to northeastern cities. An influx of German, Italian and Irish immigrants in the mid-1800s brought the city a new ethnic mix and provided the labor to build its port operations and other industries.

Its strategic location on the Mason-Dixon Line made Cincinnati a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves seeking freedom before the Civil War. By the end of the 19th century, railroads began replacing barges as the primary transporters of grain and meat products. The city's central location and good transportation led to its growth as an industrial center and as the headquarters of large companies such as Procter & Gamble.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city was one of the first in the country to begin cleaning up its riverfront, choosing to build its new baseball and football stadiums there. The city's urban renewal efforts spread north to the old German immigrant neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, where stately, redbrick buildings were refurbished for shops and nightclubs.

The city has become diversified: Many major corporations call Cincinnati home. Among them are Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Federated Department Stores, GE Aircraft Engines, The Andrew Jergens Company, Chiquita Brands International, US Playing Card Company and Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America (in Erlanger, Kentucky).

Potpourri

The Cincinnati Museum Center is housed in what was built as the Union Terminal railroad station. At the time of its completion in 1933, it was the first half-dome construction in the Western Hemisphere and the largest in the world with a cross width of 180 ft/56 m and a clear height of 106 ft/33 m. Because of the domed construction, whispered conversations can be shared between visitors standing on opposite sides of the huge rotunda.

Cincinnati lays claim to some other interesting firsts, including the first airmail delivery, which was done using hot-air balloons. It also had the first-ever concrete skyscraper and outdoor telephone booth. In addition, the Cincinnati Redlegs (Reds) were the first professional baseball team and the Cincinnati Observatory Center in Mount Lookout houses the oldest operational telescope in the country, first used in 1873.

One of the nation's largest privately funded fireworks displays marks the end of the summer each year in Cincinnati. WEBN Radio has been putting on the spectacular sky show since 1977. After a day of festival food and live entertainment, the display, which draws half a million people to the river each year, begins at 9:05 pm the Sunday before Labor Day. The fireworks, shot from two barges on the river as well as fixed points along two bridges, are created by the world-famous Rozzi family. The aerial displays are synchronized to a musical soundtrack heard over 102.7 WEBN-FM. Except for a US$1 cleanup fee charged in some areas, the event is free to the public.

The city has a subway that has never been used. In fact, it has the nation's largest abandoned subway tunnel. Through many starts, stops and political quagmires, the system was neglected and never used, although much of the tunneling was completed. Construction attempts ended in the 1920s, before tracks were ever added. Tours can be arranged through the Cincinnati Historical Society.

Though not quite Hollywood, the Cincinnati area is a popular choice for filmmakers. Eight Men Out, Rain Man, Milk Money, An Innocent Man, Fresh Horses and Traffic are among the dozens of movies and made-for-television projects filmed (or partially filmed) in the Cincinnati area.

On Good Friday, the faithful gather at the base of the Mount Adams stairs, reciting the rosary on each of the ascending 85 steps that lead to Holy Cross-Immaculata Church. The climb officially begins at midnight, usually with a few hundred people participating, but as many as 10,000 believers make the climb on their own throughout the day. The ascent, undertaken since the church was built in 1860, is performed in honor of Christ's climb to Calvary.

The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge was named after the Greater Cincinnatian who co-founded the Boy Scouts of America, but the bridge also has a unique nickname: The Big Mac Bridge. In the 1980s, MacDonald's Corporation attempted to open a floating restaurant under the bridge, but the plan was never completed. Locals still refer to the double-arched, yellow bridge as The Big Mac. The L&N Bridge is known as the Purple People Bridge, because of its unusual color and because it's designated as a pedestrian-only bridge. For a time, visitors could actually trek over the bridge as well as across it, but a lack of interest ended the climbs.

Goetta is one of the area's favorite foods. It's similar to the more familiar Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple. It is made of pinhead or cut steel oats (not cornmeal) with ground meat (usually pork or a combination of pork and beef) and secret seasonings. It is so popular locally that there are two annual northern Kentucky festivals held in its honor, one in MainStrasse Village in Covington and the other at Newport Festival Park.

Location

Cincinnati is the original home of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, and it has a long history with river cruising, a beautiful riverfront park and great shopping in the downtown area (that is also close to the river).

Fountain Square, the symbolic center of Cincinnati, is usually occupied by crowds enjoying music, food and local celebrations. There are excellent museums in the historic Mount Adams and the adjacent Eden Park, along with interesting dining options that include floating restaurants on both the Ohio and Kentucky sides of the Ohio River.