Cincinnati to Knoxville drive: Distance, time & best stops
The best road trip stops on the Cincinnati to Knoxville drive are Ark Encounter, Lexington KY and the Museum of Appalachia. The distance from Cincinnati to Knoxville by car is 251 miles, with a 3h51m driving time.
Planning a Cincinnati to Knoxville road trip itinerary
The Cincinnati to Knoxville drive takes you from southern Ohio to the cusp of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.
Top Cincinnati activities include underground tours – some with beer tasting – and food tours by streetcar. You can also try baseball history tours, indoor skydiving and guided ghost walks.
Highlights of Knoxville include World’s Fair Park, which hosted the 1982 World’s Fair. The often-dazzling Sunsphere is the major landmark, here. You can also visit the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and Knoxville Museum of Art.
Other Knoxville experiences include ghost tours and downtown walking tours that pick out local secret spots, while serving up coffee and ice cream.
Top Knoxville accommodation options include the handily-located Graduate Knoxville, the affordable Hampton Inn and Suites Knoxville Downtown and the character-packed Oliver Hotel. To compare prices, search here.
Cincinnati to Knoxville distance and driving time
By car, the distance from Cincinnati to Knoxville is 251 miles. That makes for a driving time of around three hours and 51 minutes. The quickest route heads along the I-75
The best stops to add to a Cincinnati to Knoxville road trip itinerary are Ark Encounter, Lexington KY and the Museum of Appalachia.
Cincinnati to Knoxville road trip attractions: Ark Encounter
Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, is an attempted life-size recreation of Noah’s Ark. It has been turned into a three deck attraction, full of models of Noah’s family and animals. There’s a heavy push on spreading the word of the Bible here, so it won’t be for everyone. But the enormous ship is indisputably impressive.
There’s also a small zoo and a zipline course on site.
Best stops between Cincinnati and Knoxville: Lexington KY
Lexington, Kentucky, is renowned as a hub for the world of horse-breeding. However, there is much more to the city than studs.
Interesting Lexington experiences include downtown food tours, guided art walks, zipline tours through the Kentucky River Palisades. You can also try bluegrass cocktail tours, visiting a thoroughbred horse farm and visiting Mary Todd Lincoln House.
Cincinnati to Knoxville drive: Museum of Appalachia
The Museum of Appalachia in Clinton, Tennessee, offers an evocative feel for life in a mountain village. More than 250,000 exhibits are stored throughout the site, including musical instruments, quilts and folk arts.
But it’s the whole, rather than the individual, that counts here. The farm and village scene is brought to life with dozens of olde time log buildings.
More Cincinnati road trips
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More Knoxville road trips
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