Small Towns in Ohio Worth the Detour

The best small towns in Ohio sit close to an interstate but feel a long way from one: Yellow Springs, Marietta, Peninsula, Granville, Marblehead, and Millersburg. Each is worth an hour or a night, and none of them requires much planning beyond the willingness to get off the highway.

Ohio gets driven through more than it gets driven around. That's a routing problem, not an Ohio problem. If you're crossing the state on I-70, I-71, or I-77, here's where to exit.

Yellow Springs

Yellow Springs sits on US-68 between Dayton and Springfield, and it does not look like the towns around it. Xenia Avenue, the main street, runs maybe four blocks and packs in record shops, a comic store, an old single-screen theater, and more tie-dye than the rest of the county combined. It's a college town — Antioch is here — and it wears that loosely.

The reason to come is Glen Helen, the nature preserve on the edge of town. A short walk in gets you to the actual yellow spring, where iron in the water stains the rock orange. The Little Miami Scenic Trail runs right through town, so cyclists roll in all day, order coffee, and roll out. On your way north, Young's Jersey Dairy is on US-68 and the ice cream line moves faster than it looks.

Marietta

Marietta sits where the Muskingum River meets the Ohio, down in the southeast corner of the state, and it might be the best river town in Ohio. Brick streets, a working sternwheeler docked on the Muskingum, and the Lafayette Hotel anchoring the corner where the two rivers meet. Walk the levee, cross the old rail bridge into Harmar Village, and you've seen the layout of the whole town from the water side.

Two stops most people miss:

• Mound Cemetery, where an ancient earthen mound rises out of the middle of the headstones. You can climb the steps to the top.
• The Ohio River Museum, small and unhurried, right on the Muskingum bank.

It's a half hour off I-77 and it feels like a different century in a way that's earned, not staged.

Peninsula

Peninsula is the town inside Cuyahoga Valley National Park, roughly halfway between Cleveland and Akron on OH-303. It's a handful of buildings — a bike shop, a couple of restaurants, an old church — and it functions as the front porch of the park.

The Towpath Trail runs along the old canal route through the valley, flat and shaded, and Peninsula is the natural place to get on it. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad stops in town, and riders can flag it with a bike and ride the train one way. In winter, the ski hills just up the road put actual lift lines in northeast Ohio, which surprises people who've never looked at a topo map of the valley. Go on a weekday morning in October and the drive on Riverview Road alone justifies the detour.

Granville

Granville looks like it was airlifted out of New England, because in a sense it was — its early settlers came from Massachusetts and built what they knew. Broad main street, white church steeples, the Buxton Inn, and Denison University stacked up the hill above it all. It's about half an hour east of Columbus, off OH-16 past Newark.

The Newark Earthworks are close by, including the Great Circle — ancient, enormous, and free to walk. Pair that with lunch on Broadway in Granville and you've got a better afternoon than most cities offer. On a fall Saturday, this close to Columbus, half the town is in scarlet by ten in the morning. If you yell O-H on Broadway you will get an I-O back, guaranteed. The O-H Tee exists for exactly that call-and-response.

Marblehead

Marblehead sits at the tip of the peninsula that pokes into Lake Erie east of Port Clinton, out along OH-163. The lighthouse is the draw — white tower, limestone point, water that looks Caribbean on the right July day and furious in November. It's one of the most photographed spots in the state and it deserves it.

The town itself is a strip of ice cream stands, dive bars, and places selling perch sandwiches, which is the correct food here. Fried Lake Erie perch or walleye, on a bun, eaten near the water. The Kelleys Island ferry leaves from Marblehead, so if you've got half a day, take a bike over and ride the island's loop. Summer weekends get crowded; a weekday in September is the move.

Millersburg and Holmes County

Millersburg is the county seat of Holmes County, the heart of Ohio's Amish country. The courthouse square is handsome, but the real attraction is the countryside around it — OH-39 east toward Berlin and the back roads toward Charm, where you share the pavement with buggies and the hills roll harder than anyone expects from Ohio.

What to actually do:

• Ride or walk the Holmes County Trail, a paved rail-trail built wide enough for buggies. You will pass some.
• Buy cheese and trail bologna from the source instead of a gift shop.
• Drive the smallest roads on the map an hour before sunset.

Most businesses close Sundays out here. Plan around it rather than being annoyed by it.

All six of these towns share a trait: people from them will tell you where they're from without being asked. That kind of place is why the Ohio collection exists at all — and why something plain and declarative like the Ohio State Pride Tee gets nods in all six of them.

Common questions

Can you visit more than one of these towns in a single trip?

Yes, if you pair by region. Peninsula and Millersburg work together off I-77, Yellow Springs and Granville bracket Columbus, and Marietta stands alone but rewards the drive. Trying to hit all six in a weekend means seeing none of them properly.

What's the best time of year to go?

Late September through mid-October is the safest answer, especially for Peninsula, Millersburg, and Marietta, where the hills do the work. Marblehead is the exception — it's a summer town, best from June through early September when the ferries run full schedules.

Do these towns take a full day each?

Most are a solid half day: lunch, a walk, one real attraction. Marietta and the Millersburg back roads are the two that justify an overnight, mostly because evenings on the rivers and in the hills are the best part.