Named for the man who led European expeditions to America, Columbus hosts a bevy of historical landmarks, plus a first-rate symphony, and the most spirited college football fans in the Midwest. Book your last minute vacation to Columbus and save!

History lesson: Walk through the halls of the Ohio Capitol Square Complex, built by prison inmates, and see the actual chair in the actual building in which Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he learned he was to become president.

Local Secret: The Book Loft is a Victorian-era house, which takes up a full city block with its overwhelming abundance of books. To enhance the ambience, this shop has themed rooms and music playing throughout.

Chill-out spot: The Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens is 28 acres of dreamy, well-maintained gardens complete with English rose gardens and glass-enclosed conservatories.

Best excuse for packing a coat and a tie: The Columbus Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alessandro Siciliani, is regarded as one of the best symphonies in the country.

Place we love, even if it’s touristy: The biggest show in town takes place on the campus of Ohio State University where over 80,000 fans cheer the red and grey Buckeyes for five or six Saturdays each fall.

Local flavor: Columbus is definitely a beer and sausage kind of town. Head out to the Brewery District and gulp a handcrafted Columbus 1859 Porter from the Columbus Brewing Company. Then quell your hunger in the German Village where hearty sausages at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus go perfectly with a pint of microbrew.

Break the bank dinner: After you have sampled German cuisine, head to the upscale L’Antibes for a taste of the French Riviera. L’Antibes’ signature dish is the loin of lamb, and locals say the creme caramel will make you say “c’est bon.”

More Information and Booking Options

Recommendations & Suggestions

Columbus Brewing Company
525 Short Street
Phone: 614.464.2739

The Columbus Brewing Company is all about quality, handcrafted beers. Tucked away in the Brewery District, this upscale converted warehouse also features wood-fired pizzas, steaks, chops, fresh seafood, sandwiches, and salads. The Caesar Salad has been named one of the Columbus Dispatch’s Grumpy Gourmet’s favorite dishes and the best house salad by Columbus Monthly, which also calls the Columbus Brewing Company a “beer drinker’s paradise.”

Columbus Santa Maria
90 West Broad Street
Phone: 614.645.8760

To mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage to the New World, the King of Spain sent over the plans of the original Santa Maria so that the world’s most authentic replica of the flagship of that historic expedition could be built. It is now moored in the Scioto River in downtown Columbus and can be toured (April-October, Sat-Sun 12pm-5pm) and admired from afar the rest of the year.

Handke’s Cuisine
520 South Front Street
Phone: 614.621.2500

This AAA four-diamond restaurant’s award-winning Chef Hartmut Handke is one of only 68 chefs certified by the American Culinary Federation as a Certified Master Chef. After holding one of the most prestigious positions in the culinary profession as Executive Chef of the Five Star-Five Diamond Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia, he returned to Columbus to open Handke’s Cuisine in 1991.

Handke’s is the recipient of a 28 food rating from Zagat’s (which recommends the barbequed oysters and calls the crme brulee the best in the country) and prides itself on providing impeccable service and extraordinary global cuisine. Dine in one of three Old World dining rooms, complete with the vaulted ceilings; one very intimate dining room is flanked on one end by an exquisite wine cellar.

Ohio Historical Center
1982 Velma Avenue (I-71 & 17th Ave)
Phone: 614.297.2300

Costumed employees of the Ohio Historical Center re-create period customs and crafts in the setting of an 1860s village. Step back in time to the Civil War, pre-historic and pre-European Ohio through dioramas and an extensive archeological collection.

Ohio Statehouse
Broad and High Streets
Phone: 614.752.9777

The Ohio Statehouse offers free 45-minute guided tours which inform about its history (mostly consisting of stories of Ohio inmates and a couple of notable Abe Lincoln visits), its architecture (executed in a Greek-revival style highly influenced by artist Thomas Cole and designed to look like the Greek Parthenon), and Ohio’s legislative process. All tours begin at the Third Street entrance to the Statehouse Complex at the information desk.