Burnet Woods
Rating
Price
Free
Duration
1 to 3 hours depending on how much of the park you take on. An hour covers the lake loop, feeding the ducks and a stop at the playground. Two to three hours is the fuller version where you add the trails, the bandstand lawn and a look inside the Trailside Nature Center. A round of disc golf with older kids is its own hour on top of that.
Best Ages
Genuinely works from babies through teenagers, but you will use a different part of the park at each stage. Infants and toddlers do best on the paved loop near the lake and the flat picnic areas by the bandstand, where a stroller rolls and there is water to point at. Kids 3 to 8 are the sweet spot: the playground near the Millionaires Shelter, the old concrete slide built into the hillside, and a lake full of ducks will absorb them for a couple of hours without you doing much. Big kids 8 to 12 are the ones who get the most out of the wooded trails and the boardwalk sections that run out toward the marshy ground, and they are old enough to actually fish. Teens come here for the disc golf course and because the park sits right against the University of Cincinnati campus, which makes it an easy meet-up spot rather than a family outing.
About
Burnet Woods is the 90 acre park wedged between Clifton and the University of Cincinnati, and it is one of the better free half-days in the city because it does four different things well instead of one thing perfectly.
The lake is what kids notice first. It is a real fishing lake, stocked with catfish and bass, with a paved path running around it and enough ducks to keep a three year old occupied indefinitely. Ohio's rules for fishing urban park lakes are more permissive than most parents expect, so it is worth checking the current requirement with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources before you buy a license for one afternoon of bluegill.
Nothing is sold in the park, so bring your own rods and bait.
The playground sits near the Millionaires Shelter, and it is solid without being a destination. The thing kids actually remember is the old concrete slide built into the hillside, which is unlike anything at a modern neighborhood playground and gets talked about long after you leave.
Then there are the woods, which are the reason to bring older kids. Trails drop off through wooded terrain, with boardwalk sections running out toward marshy ground where the frogs and turtles are. It does not feel like a park surrounded on all sides by a university, which is a strange and good trick.
Bring bug spray from June onward, because those boardwalk sections are the buggiest part of the property.
The Trailside Nature Center sits next to the lake and holds a nature library, exhibits, a crafts room and the Wolff Planetarium, the oldest planetarium west of the Alleghenies. That is a great rainy-hour backup with a 7 to 11 year old, with one catch: the hours are limited and are not clearly published anywhere. Call Cincinnati Parks at (513) 357-2604 before you build a plan around it.
Round it out with a historic bandstand, picnic shelters, a disc golf course that teens will actually play, and a dog park that opened relatively recently.
Parking is the one real friction point. The lot off Brookline Ave is modest and the surrounding Clifton streets fill with university traffic on weekdays during the school year. Weekday mornings and weekend mornings are the easy windows. Fall is when the park looks best.
It is free, with no admission and no parking fee, so a cooler and a couple of hours cost you nothing.
Age Suitability
Parent Logistics
Stroller-Friendly
Limited
Nursing / Changing
Unknown
Kid Meals
N/A
Setting
Indoor & Outdoor
Rainy Day
Not ideal
Plan Your Visit
Best Time to Visit
Weekday mornings in spring and fall are the quietest and the easiest for parking, since the University of Cincinnati is next door and street parking around Clifton tightens up badly during the school day and on game days. Fall is the best-looking version of this park because the woods actually turn. Summer weekday afternoons are fine but the trails get buggy near the marshy sections, so bring repellent. If the Trailside Nature Center or the Wolff Planetarium is the reason you are going, call Cincinnati Parks at (513) 357-2604 first, because those hours are limited and are not reliably posted online.
Wait Times
No admission and no lines anywhere in the park. Parking is the only real friction. The lot off Brookline Ave is small and the surrounding Clifton streets fill with university traffic on weekdays, so give yourself a few extra minutes midday during the academic year. Weekend mornings you will usually park on the first pass.
Nearby Food
Nothing to buy inside the park, so plan around it. Ludlow Avenue in Clifton Gaslight is the obvious answer and it is a short drive or a walkable distance depending on which side of the park you started from, with casual restaurants, coffee shops and ice cream that will not blink at a stroller. The nearest restaurant in our data is Sacred Beast Diner in Over-the-Rhine, which is a real drive rather than a walk, so treat it as a destination and not a convenience stop. Short Vine near the university campus is closer and leans toward quick, cheap and casual. The easiest and cheapest version is simply packing a cooler and using a picnic table.
Why Kids Love It
The lake is the hook. Kids come around the bend, see open water with ducks on it and a real fishing dock, and the whole visit organizes itself around that. Then there is the old concrete slide built right into the hillside, which is the kind of thing kids talk about for weeks afterward because it is nothing like the plastic slide at their neighborhood playground.
The wooded trails feel like an actual forest even though the University of Cincinnati is a two minute walk away, and that contrast is a big part of the appeal for the 7 to 11 crowd.
Pro Tips from Parents
- Call Cincinnati Parks at (513) 357-2604 before you go if the Trailside Nature Center is the draw. It houses the Wolff Planetarium, which is the oldest planetarium west of the Alleghenies, but the building keeps limited hours that are not clearly published, and showing up to a locked door with a disappointed 8 year old is a bad afternoon.
- Park in the lot off Brookline Ave rather than circling the Clifton side streets. The park sits directly against the University of Cincinnati and student parking swallows the neighborhood on weekdays during the academic year.
- The lake is stocked with catfish and bass, and Ohio's license rules for urban park lakes are more forgiving than most people expect. Confirm the current requirement with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources before you buy anything, and bring your own bait since nothing is sold in the park.
- Bring bug spray if you plan to walk the boardwalk sections toward the marshy ground. That part of the park is the most interesting for kids who like frogs and turtles and also the buggiest from June through September.
- Restroom availability at Cincinnati parks is often seasonal and hours are not posted reliably. Use the restroom before you arrive if you have a newly potty-trained kid, or plan a stop on Ludlow Avenue as a backup.
What to Bring
- Bug spray, especially for the boardwalk and marsh sections in summer
- A picnic blanket and cooler, since there is no food service inside the park
- Fishing gear and bait if the lake is part of the plan, because nothing is sold on site
- A carrier instead of a stroller if you want to take the wooded hillside trails
- Refillable water bottles, since park drinking fountains are commonly shut off outside the warm season
- A disc golf set for older kids who want to play the course
Cost Info
Free Admission
Estimated Cost (Family of 4)
$0 for the park itself.
Burnet Woods is a free Cincinnati public park with no admission and no parking meter in the park lot, so a packed lunch makes this a zero dollar afternoon.
If you add lunch in Clifton's Ludlow Avenue business district afterward, budget roughly $50 to $70 for a casual sit-down meal for four, or about $15 to $25 for ice cream and drinks.
Shelter reservations for parties carry a fee, so call Cincinnati Parks at (513) 357-2604 for current rental rates rather than assuming a number.
Any programs or planetarium shows at the Trailside Nature Center may have their own cost, so confirm before you go.
Tips to Save
- There is nothing to buy inside the park, which is the whole point.
- Pack a cooler, use one of the picnic areas, and the day costs nothing.
- The fishing lake is stocked, and Ohio has an exemption that makes some urban park lakes license-free, so verify the current rule with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources or Cincinnati Parks before you buy a license just for an afternoon of bluegill.
- Borrow a disc golf set rather than buying one for a first try.
- If you want a birthday party here, price a shelter reservation through Cincinnati Parks against a commercial party venue, because a covered shelter plus your own food is dramatically cheaper for a group of kids.
