Hilton Garden Inn Columbus Polaris
Hilton Garden Inn Columbus Polaris is a 3-star hotel in Downtown Columbus, Upper Arlington, a sensible choice for sightseeing around central Downtown Columbus without overspending.
Guests typically choose Downtown Columbus for its balance of location and price; Hilton Garden Inn Columbus Polaris is a good fit if you want to be near the action in Upper Arlington.
Key facts
Around Downtown Columbus
Getting around Upper Arlington, and from the airport
You need a car. There is no rail of any kind in Columbus — no Amtrak station, no light rail, no commuter line — and Upper Arlington's grid of Tremont Road, Fishinger Road, Reed Road and Northwest Boulevard is built for driving, not connecting. From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) it is about 13 miles and 20-25 minutes via I-670 and SR-315; rideshare typically runs $35-50, and the airport rental desks are the more sensible option for a multi-day stay. SR-315 forms the eastern edge of the city and gets you downtown in about 12 minutes off-peak; I-270 loops the whole metro and puts Dublin, Worthington and Hilliard within 15 minutes of Kingsdale. Parking in Upper Arlington is free everywhere, at Tremont Center, Kingsdale and every park lot, which is not true once you cross into the Short North or Downtown Columbus.
COTA buses do run — the Line 2 corridor on High Street links Clintonville, the Short North and Worthington, and routes cross Upper Arlington on West Fifth Avenue and Kenny Road — but frequencies of 30-60 minutes make them a supplement, not a plan. Distances between the areas you will actually use are short: Tremont Center to the Lane Avenue shops is about 2 miles, to Grandview Avenue 3 miles, to Old Worthington 8 miles, and to the Columbus Zoo in Powell about 11 miles. Cycling works better than the bus: the Olentangy Trail runs roughly 13.6 miles from Worthington down to downtown along the river, and Griggs Reservoir Park on Riverside Drive gives you flat riverside miles on the west side. If you are basing in the OSU District without a car, plan on walking to Lane Avenue and rideshare for everything else.
How many nights in Upper Arlington, and a first-timer's plan
Three nights is the sweet spot: two is enough for the parks and Old Arlington but leaves no room for Columbus itself, and four or more only pays off if you are adding Delaware, Powell or a tournament. Day one, walk Old Arlington from the Mallway on Arlington Avenue through the Cambridge Boulevard streets — the district was laid out from 1913 and the city incorporated in 1918, so the housing stock reads as one continuous 1920s piece — then finish at Northam Park and Tremont Center. Day two, go west and outdoors: Griggs Reservoir Park along Riverside Drive for the water, Sunny 95 Park and the Amelita Mirolo Barn, and Smith Nature Park or Fancyburg Park for the woodland loops. Add the Jack Nicklaus Museum at 2355 Olentangy River Road, about 2 miles from Kingsdale, if the golf history is what brought you.
Day three belongs to Columbus proper: the Short North along High Street, German Village for the Book Loft and Schmidt's, and the Scioto Mile downtown, all within 6 miles. With a fourth night, pick one direction — north to Highbanks Metro Park and Old Worthington's Saturday farmers' market, west to Dublin for Indian Run Falls and Scioto Park, or further north to Alum Creek State Park and Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware. Families usually swap one of those for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Powell, a 20-minute drive that easily eats a full day. If you are here for a football Saturday, count that day as gone: kickoff traffic on Lane Avenue and Olentangy River Road starts four hours early.
What hotels actually cost in and around Upper Arlington
Budget in this market means $85-125 a night, and it buys a chain room on the I-270 ring in Hilliard, Worthington or off Henderson Road — clean, free parking, breakfast, and a 10-20 minute drive to Tremont Road. Mid-range is $130-200 and covers most of what people book: the OSU District along Olentangy River Road, Grandview Heights near Grandview Avenue, and Dublin's newer stock near Bridge Park. The top end here is $210-330, concentrated in the Short North, Victorian Village and Downtown Columbus, where you also start paying $15-30 a night for parking that costs nothing in Upper Arlington. Franklin County lodging taxes add roughly 15-17% on top of the quoted rate, which is worth doing the maths on before comparing two options across the county line.
Rates spike on a predictable calendar rather than a general "high season". Ohio State home Saturdays from September to late November take mid-range rooms to $300-500 with two-night minimums, and the Michigan weekend in even-numbered years goes higher still. Memorial Tournament week at Muirfield Village in late May or early June does the same thing to Dublin and the western side of Upper Arlington, typically $250-400. The Arnold Sports Festival in early March hits downtown hardest, and Ohio State move-in in the third week of August clears out the campus-adjacent cheap rooms for several days. Outside those dates, January, February and early December are the genuinely soft weeks, and booking three to four weeks ahead is plenty.
