Start from 26 curated places around Marietta, OH, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Levee House Bistro
The only remaining original 1826 riverfront building in Marietta houses what is also the most polished dining room in town — hand-cut steaks, fresh seafood, and housemade pastas served in a space of exposed timber and old brick that does half the work before the food arrives. The wine list is seriously considered for a restaurant of this size, and the soup program changes daily and consistently outperforms.
Boathouse BBQ
Marietta's competition barbecue anchor has accumulated over twelve regional awards for ribs, wings, and chili — all earned. The riverside deck puts you practically over the Ohio River in summer, and the whole operation runs with the comfortable chaos of a place that knows what it does well. The ribs are properly smoked, the chili is a competition-grade recipe rather than a side afterthought, and the portions are genuinely generous.
Trails & outdoors
Marietta River Trail
This 3.3-mile paved riverside path follows the Muskingum and Ohio rivers through the heart of historic downtown, connecting river parks, museum entrances, and the Harmar Bridge crossing. Flat, well-maintained, and loaded with views of active river traffic, it passes through the city's most historically significant blocks — making it as much a history walk as a fitness route. The surface is fully accessible for strollers and wheelchairs.
Broughton Orange Loop Trail
The signature trail at the 700-acre Broughton Nature Area — a 2.7-mile singletrack loop built by the local mountain bike club that works equally well as a hike through deep forest via switchbacks from valley to ridge. The 403-foot elevation gain is significant for the region, and the varied terrain includes fishing ponds, a seasonal stream with a small waterfall, and a meadow section. It's the most rewarding trail in the immediate Marietta area.
Things to do
Valley Gem Sternwheeler
A genuine working sternwheeler running narrated sightseeing cruises on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers with commentary covering everything from the town's 1788 founding to how the river's lock-and-dam system actually operates. Themed cruises — murder mystery dinners, Polar Express, lock tours — fill well in advance and represent the most distinctively Marietta experience available to visitors. Watching a river lock operate from the deck of a sternwheeler is unexpectedly absorbing.
Peoples Bank Theatre
A beautifully restored 940-seat theater from 1919 that books touring musicians, Broadway productions, comedy acts, and film events at a quality level that regularly surprises visitors expecting a small-town house. The acoustics are excellent and the sight lines from nearly every seat are unobstructed — a genuine rarity in a historic venue. The restored lobby is worth arriving early to see regardless of what's on stage.
Landmarks & sights
Campus Martius Museum
Built around the actual Rufus Putnam House — the only surviving structure from the 1788 Northwest Territory stockade — this museum is the definitive account of Ohio's founding. Exhibits trace the full arc from the Ohio Company of Associates through the steamboat age, and the preserved settler cabin inside gives an immediate sense of what those first winters actually demanded. The adjacent Ohio Company Land Office, one of the oldest frame buildings west of the Appalachians, rounds out the complex.
Mound Cemetery
Conus Mound — a 30-foot Adena burial earthwork dating to between 800 BC and AD 100 — sits at the center of this working cemetery because Marietta's founders deliberately laid the graveyard around it to prevent demolition. That act of preservation means a 2,000-year-old monument survives intact in a residential neighborhood. The cemetery also holds more Revolutionary War officer graves than any other in the country.