The Parks Cincinnati is blessed with numerous amazing parks. You can walk along the riverfront and enjoy the view before a night on the town at Smale Riverfront Park. Eden Park is home to a theater and world-class art museum, not to mention Mirror Lake. Cincinnati Parks are also home to plenty of walking and hiking trails, play areas for kids and other gathering spaces. We’re also surrounded by Hamilton County’s Great Parks, some of which have fantastic bike trails, lakes for kayaking and boating and programming where you can learn new hobbies and skills, like archery. Photo: Hailey Bollinger

Cincinnati is one of the nation’s top cities for parks and outdoor recreation, thanks to spaces like Smale Riverfront Park. Photo: Hailey Bollinger


Go take a walk, Cincinnati — after all, this apparently is one of the best cities for it.

CommercialCafe, a commercial real estate blog, ranks the Queen City as No. 10 in the United States for walkability and outdoor leisure potential. Cincinnati also is No. 8 for natural and improved walking trails and No. 9 for park spending.

According to CommercialCafe’s data, Cincinnati has 22.33 acres of park land per 1,000 residents, and public parks are 14.17% of the total city area. Park spending is $188.88 per resident.

Cincinnatians — and those who carry the Queen City in their hearts while living in other areas — certainly know all about the grand parks, trails, playgrounds and other outdoor spaces that the city offers. Earlier this year, readers of USA Today’s “10 Best” travel information hub ranked Smale Riverfront Park as the No. 5 river walk in the nation.

To determine its rankings, CommercialCafe looked at walkability data from the Center for City Park Excellence Trust for Public Land for U.S. cities with a population of at least 300,000.

Read CommercialCafe’s full study.

This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2021.