Travel Diary: Weekend Getaway in Hamilton, Ohio
Happy Friday, everyone! I’m excited to be sharing all the details of my second travel collaboration, this time with Butler County in Hamilton, Ohio. If you’re in the midwest looking to plan a fun weekend trip, here’s everything I recommend doing in the area + our favorite parts of our stay!
Follow along with everything we did on our trip via #AbbySaylorTravel + my Travel story highlight on Instagram!
HOTEL
We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Hamilton located right on the river. It was a great location and is a convenient spot for walking around downtown. There’s also a restaurant located within the hotel, which is a nice option if you’re not wanting to venture too far to grab a bite to eat.
DONUT TRAIL
One of the big drawls to Butler County is their infamous Donut Trail. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a trail that started back in January 2016 highlighting 12 locally-owned “mom & pop” donut shops. It’s actually the first donut-centered trail in the country, which is pretty cool! I did an entire blog post on this post and my experience, which you can read here.
JUNGLE JIM’S INTERNATIONAL MARKET
I actually lived about an hour from Jungle Jim’s growing up, so I’ve been there a few times and it’s always fun! It’s a 200,000 sq ft grocery store featuring over 180,000 foods and drinks from all around the world — so if you’ve ever want to try some unique and rare stuff, this is the place to go! It’s seriously massive. You could honestly spend the entire day there walking around and you still might not see everything. This is a must-stop for every foodie!
LUNCH AT JOLLY’S DRIVE-IN
We stopped at Jolly’s Drive-In for a late lunch of burgers and fries. I love anything that has retro vibes and features cold root beer, so this was right up my alley! They had skinny fries, which is a big YES for me. It’s such a fun experience if you’ve never been to a drive-in! The prices were affordable as well, so it’s great choice if you’re in a budget as must of us are when traveling.
SARA’S HOUSE BOUTIQUE
To be completely honest with you, I’m not typically a boutique shopper. I have a couple of larger retail stores I stick to and that’s about it. Coming from a family of small business owners and running my blog and freelance shop, I do want to start supporting small businesses more (outside of the ones I already do on Etsy). I LOVED Sara’s House! I always have this thought that boutique’s items are going to be severely marked up and price and not worth what you pay for them, but that was not the case here whatsoever.
One of my favorite little parts about traveling is finding a piece to bring home with me to commemorate the trip. I feel in love with so many pieces there and came home with this flower wall hanging that I snagged for only $40. It’s adds so much character to the room and is totally me.
PYRAMID HILL SCULPTURE PARK & MUSEUM
This was our FAVORITE thing we did on our trip! The Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum essentially an outdoor sculpture park where you can drive around “art carts” throughout the property. We’d never done anything like this before, so this is a unique experience I recommend everyone do during their trip if you’re ever in the area. If you or someone you’re with isn’t physically able to walk around, this allows them to be able to see everything without having to be on their feet. Even if it’s a hot day like it was when we were there, driving around on the cart creates a nice breeze that doesn’t leave you sweating. A portion of the park is wooded as well, so that helps you stay out of the sun too. I can’t say enough good things about it!
DINNER AT TAQUERIA GUANAJUATO
Justin and I love some good Mexican food! Taqueria Guanajuato was delicious and it was the prefect meal to refuel after our day out and about. I feel like you can always judge how good Mexican restaurants (or at least we do!) based on their salsa, and we liked theirs. I’d recommend it!
HOLIDAY AUTO THEATRE DRIVE-IN
My friends and I went to the drive-in a lot in high school and it’s one of my favorite memories. The Holiday Auto Theatre has a wide variety of snack options and plenty of room for cars. We watched the newest Mission Impossible movie (I hadn’t seen any of the others ones, so I was a little confused) and left before the second one because we got pretty tired when midnight rolled around.
BREAKFAST AT NORTHSTAR CAFE
We had breakfast at The Northstar Cafe on our last morning there was so yummy that I definitely need to go back one day! I had their Cloud 9 pancakes and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice and loved it so much! Justin had biscuits and gravy + a smoothie, which he liked as well. You need to go there if you’re ever in the Liberty Township area! It’s in the middle of the cutest shopping center, so there’s plenty more to do while you’re there.
ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT
Something I really love about the area is that there are so many cool walls to take pictures in front of. As a blogger, this is such a perk when creating content, or just wanting to get cool shots to document your trip like anyone else would. I loved the teal classic car one shown at the top of this post!
__________
That’s all for our trip to Butler County! We had the best time and are so grateful that they invited us out. If you’re from the midwest and looking to book a weekend getaway, definitely consider Butler County and all they have to offer in the Hamilton area!
Thanks so much for reading & have a great weekend! We’re planning to get lots of work done on the house like FINALLY finishing our unpacking, complete the flooring in the kitchen and living room if we can + get some cabinet painting, all while binging the Crime Junkie podcast that I cannot stop listening to. 🙌🏻
*This trip/post is sponsored by Butler County. All opinions are my own.