Powell
Twelve miles north of Upper Arlington: the Columbus Zoo, a compact old crossroads village and a car-dependent family base.
The historic four-corners crossroads in downtown Powell, Ohio with restored storefronts and a roundabout
Why people stay in Powell
Powell is its own city, about twelve miles north of Upper Arlington in Delaware County, and it is on this site for one overwhelming reason: the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium sits on its western edge at 4850 Powell Road, and it is the single biggest family attraction within an hour of Upper Arlington. Drive up Riverside Drive along the Scioto and you are there in twenty-two minutes from Tremont Center, past horse fields and river bluffs the whole way. It is a pleasant drive and a genuinely different landscape from the inner suburbs.
The old part of Powell is a four-corner crossroads at Olentangy Street and Liberty Street, now circled by a roundabout that locals still complain about and that unquestionably works better than the four-way stop it replaced. Around it sits a short run of 19th-century storefronts holding a brewery taproom on Depot Street, a couple of restaurants with patios, an ice cream window and a village green. You can see the whole historic core in fifteen minutes. Everything else in Powell is post-1995 subdivisions, cul-de-sacs and shopping plazas, and they are pleasant and completely interchangeable.
At 9pm on a Saturday, downtown Powell has maybe three lit patios and a queue at the ice cream counter, and it is families and neighbours rather than a night out. Last call at the brewery is well before the bars downtown have found their stride. If you want anything resembling nightlife you drive fifteen minutes to Dublin's Bridge Park or twenty-five to the Short North. That trade is the whole point of Powell: you get quiet, safe streets, decent parking and the zoo gates ten minutes from your bed.
Who this suits: families doing two zoo days plus Zoombezi Bay in summer, and anyone visiting Ohio State from the north who wants a cheaper room than the campus corridor at $92 to $130. Who should skip it: anyone without a car, because there is effectively no useful public transit here, and anyone whose trip is about Upper Arlington's parks and the Kingsdale and Tremont shops, which are twenty-five minutes back south in traffic. Sleeping in Worthington or Dublin splits the difference better.
Powell proper has only a handful of places to sleep, so most visitors book the hotel cluster around the Polaris interchange at I-71 exit 121, about ten minutes east, or the Sawmill Road and Dublin corridors ten to fifteen minutes southwest. Expect $92 to $130 for a chain room with breakfast and free parking, rising to $150 or more in June and July when Zoombezi Bay is running and every family in central Ohio wants a zoo weekend. Ask for a room away from the interstate side at Polaris. Nothing here is walkable to the zoo, so a car is compulsory. Avoid booking anything on Sawmill Road expecting a five-minute run to the zoo: that stretch backs up badly at weekends and the crawl from Route 161 north can add twenty minutes each way.
Things to do in Powell
4850 West Powell Road at Riverside Drive. Roughly $25 to $30 for adults with parking extra, and consistently rated one of the best zoos in the country. Arrive at opening; the Heart of Africa and polar bear areas are busiest after 11am. Allow six hours if you have children, and pack lunch to dodge $14 burgers.
Attached to the zoo on Powell Road, open roughly Memorial Day to Labor Day. Combo tickets with zoo admission are the only sensible purchase. Lockers and a cabana push the day price up fast, so bring your own towels and eat before you go in. Weekday mornings in June are noticeably calmer than any Saturday.
Olentangy Street at Liberty Street, around the roundabout. A twenty-minute wander past restored storefronts, the old village hall and the green, with an ice cream stop. Combine it with a taproom pint at Nocterra Brewing on Depot Street, a short walk from the corner, where the patio fills by 6pm in summer.
9466 Columbus Pike on US-23, about eight minutes east of the Powell crossroads. Free entry, open dawn to dusk, with shale bluffs a hundred feet above the Olentangy River, Adena burial mounds and a good boardwalk overlook. The Overlook Trail loop takes about ninety minutes at a slow pace.
1779 Home Road, roughly ten minutes northwest of the crossroads. A small, family-run limestone cave with guided tours for about $20; seasonal, generally closed through the winter, so check before you drive out. It takes an hour, and it pairs neatly with a Highbanks walk in the same afternoon.
Held at the Village Green near Olentangy and Liberty on summer Saturday mornings, generally 9am to noon. Local produce, bread and prepared food; small, friendly and over by lunchtime. Park in the municipal lot behind the storefronts rather than on Liberty Street, which fills within twenty minutes of opening.
What to see
Hotels near Powell
No hotels are listed in Powell yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Getting around Powell
There is no meaningful transit here: COTA does not run useful service to Powell, so you need a car or a rideshare, and rideshares this far north can take ten minutes to arrive. From John Glenn Columbus International Airport it is about thirty-five minutes and $45 to $55 by car via I-270 west and US-23 north, or Riverside Drive if you prefer scenery to speed. From Upper Arlington, the pretty route is Riverside Drive north for twenty-two minutes; the fast route is Route 315 to I-270 to Sawmill Road, similar timing and duller. Inside Powell everything except the historic crossroads is drive-only, and the zoo car park is a five-minute shuttle-free walk from the gates.
Questions about Powell
About twelve miles, or twenty-two minutes on a clear day, driving north on Riverside Drive along the Scioto River. Weekend mornings in summer add ten to fifteen minutes at the zoo entrance itself. Parking at the zoo is charged separately from admission, so factor that in, and arrive within thirty minutes of opening to get a close row.
If your plan is the zoo, Zoombezi Bay and Highbanks, stay north around Powell or Polaris: rooms run $92 to $130 with free parking and breakfast, and you save an hour of daily driving. If you also want museums, the Statehouse and restaurants you can walk to, stay downtown and drive up for one zoo day instead.
Practically, no. Public transit does not serve Powell in any useful way, and a rideshare from downtown Columbus runs roughly $35 to $45 each way with waits at the far end. Visitors without a car generally book a rental for the zoo day, or take a taxi out in the morning and pre-book the return.
For half an hour, yes. The restored crossroads at Olentangy and Liberty has a handful of good patios, a brewery taproom on Depot Street and a summer farmers market, and it is a pleasant break either side of a zoo day. It is not a destination in itself; do not plan a whole evening around it.
