Start from 30 curated places around Athens, OH, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Jackie O's Pub & Brewery
Athens's flagship craft brewery and pub pours a portfolio that leans hard into barrel-aged ales, wild fermentation, and wood-aged sours that have earned national recognition. The food holds up well: the southern Ohio poutine with Appervation Imperial Stout gravy and the portobello mushroom sandwich are what regulars steer visitors toward.
Casa Nueva
A worker-owned cooperative on Court Street serving Latin American-influenced food with a menu that has anchored the Athens dining scene for decades. The bar carries a strong selection of tequilas and mezcals that most college-town spots don't bother with, and weekend brunch is a local institution.
Trails & outdoors
Wildcat Hollow Trail
The flagship backpacking trail of the Wayne National Forest's Athens Ranger District, offering a 17.2-mile loop with a shorter 5-mile day-hike option through pine forests, open meadows, rocky outcroppings, and creek hollows. Elevation changes are moderate — no single climb exceeds 250 feet — making the length the challenge rather than the grade.
Hockhocking Adena Bikeway
A 22-mile paved multi-use trail following the Hocking River from Athens southwest through the valley, passing through two state nature preserves and crossing multiple river bridges. The name reflects both the Shawnee word for the river and the Adena people who inhabited the valley over 2,000 years ago.
Things to do
Jackie O's Pub (Public House)
The original Court Street location of Jackie O's operates as a brewpub with live music, rotating taps, and a crowd that spans students, faculty, and longtime Athens residents in roughly equal proportion. Its role as the anchor of the Athens craft-beer scene is established enough that it functions as a de facto community venue.
The Union
A live music venue on Union Street that bills itself as one of the oldest bars in Ohio, with a narrow room, a well-worn stage, and a booking philosophy that favors local and regional acts across metal, punk, folk, and experimental genres. Metal Mondays have become enough of an institution that the student paper covers them as cultural events.
Landmarks & sights
The Ridges (Kennedy Museum of Art)
The former Athens Lunatic Asylum — a 700-acre Kirkbride-plan complex operating from 1874 to 1993 — now houses Ohio University's Kennedy Museum of Art alongside labs, studios, and three on-site cemeteries containing nearly 2,000 burials. The main building's ornate Victorian architecture and hillside setting above the Hocking River make the campus walk compelling on its own.
College Green (Ohio University)
The historic core of Ohio University — one of the oldest universities in the Northwest Territory — anchored by Federal-style Cutler Hall and the grand Alumni Memorial Auditorium. The tree-canopied lawn runs the length of the academic quad and functions as a community gathering space as much as a campus landmark.