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As a gay destination, Columbus has increasingly earned cred as one of the coolest and most welcoming cities in the Midwest. Progressive and prosperous, it’s home to several outstanding art galleries, a handful hip and historic neighborhoods with visible LGBT populations, and one of the largest institutions of higher learning in the country, Ohio State University. More recently, it’s become a hot culinary destination, with a seemingly endless parade of young, creative chefs and restaurateurs - and even some artisan brewers and distillers - generating plenty of buzz.
Columbus (experiencecolumbus.com/glbt.cfm for tourism information) lies within a day’s drive of two-thirds of the U.S. population and has a major airport minutes from downtown. The metro region covers a large area, most of it encircled by I-270. But most key points of interest fall within a rectangle that extends from just south of downtown, where you’ll find charming German Village, to several miles north of downtown, past the trendy and quite gay Short North neighborhood to the campus of Ohio State University. The most prominent exception is the world-famous Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, about a 20-minute drive north of the city center, and well-worth the detour - it’s a pretty incredible place.
Downtown is home to the handsome Ohio Statehouse, which is surrounded by a burgeoning theater district. From Capitol Square, Broad Street leads west to Ohio’s Center of Science & Industry, which overlooks the Scioto River, a picturesque waterway fringed by attractively landscaped parks. Head east on Broad to reach the superb Columbus Museum, known for its modern American and German expressionism collections, and beyond that the gentrified neighborhood of Bexley, where you can explore one of the most impressive botanical gardens in the country, the Franklin Park Conservatory. ...
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