Start from 18 curated places around Huntington, WV, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Jim's Steak & Spaghetti House
A James Beard Foundation America's Classics Award winner and a Huntington institution since 1938 — the first restaurant in West Virginia to receive a James Beard award, and still operating from its original 5th Avenue location with the same combination of steaks and house-made spaghetti that has fed multiple generations of locals, celebrities, and presidents. The walls are covered in photographs of the famous who have eaten here, and the booth seating and no-frills dining room are unchanged.
Backyard Pizza and Raw Bar
An independently owned restaurant on 3rd Avenue that built its reputation on wood-fired pizza but has expanded into a serious raw bar — fresh oysters, clams, shrimp alongside the brick-oven pies and an impressively curated craft beer list. Ranked consistently among Huntington's top tables despite the casual setting, and busy enough that reservations on weekends are well worth making.
Trails & outdoors
Ritter Park Trail Loop
A network of short trails through the wooded ravines and open meadows within Ritter Park, covering easy terrain that locals use for daily walks, runs, and family outings. The wooded sections feel surprisingly secluded for an urban park this size, and the connection to the rose garden makes for a pleasant circuit of varied landscape in a single outing.
Lost Trail at Beech Fork State Park
A 3.1-mile loop through the 3,144-acre Beech Fork State Park in the hills south of Huntington — the most interesting of the park's eight trails, winding through hardwood forest with modest elevation change and the kind of quiet woodland atmosphere that's worth the 12-mile drive from downtown. The park also has a lake for fishing and boating, disc golf, and camping if you want to make a full day of it.
Things to do
Marshall University Campus
Marshall University's compact campus sits just east of downtown Huntington and is the cultural and athletic heart of the city — home to the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, the Visual Arts Center, and the legendary Thundering Herd football program whose 1970 plane crash is memorialized at the Joan C. Edwards memorial fountain. The campus is open to public visitors and the performing arts calendar is substantial.
Heritage Farm Museum Events
Beyond the museum itself, Heritage Farm hosts a full calendar of living history events, craft demonstrations, seasonal festivals, and Appalachian music performances that bring the historic farm to life in ways the static exhibits cannot. The summer and fall event programming draws regional visitors and is the best time to visit if you want to see the site fully animated.
Landmarks & sights
Pullman Square
The revitalized entertainment and dining hub of downtown Huntington — a pedestrian-friendly urban square between 8th and 10th Streets surrounded by restaurants, a cinema, shops, and event spaces that gives the city its most walkable neighborhood. It replaced a former rail yard and has been the anchor of Huntington's downtown recovery, with the density of options making it the default gathering spot for Marshall University students and city residents alike.
Heritage Farm Museum and Village
A Smithsonian affiliate museum on the western edge of Huntington with preserved historic farm buildings, a working general store, a doll museum, and exhibits on Appalachian rural life spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. The grounds alone — 35 acres of restored farmstead with period structures — merit the drive, and the doll museum is one of the more unusual collections in West Virginia.