By Carolyn Pione
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tulu Bayar (left) and Tolga Sakman of Lewisburg, Pa., take a stroll past the shops at Newport on the Levee Tuesday afternoon. Newport on the Levee was named the top shopping attraction by the Zagat Survey and Parenting magazine. The Cincinnati Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

Newport on the Levee tops a national list of malls and shopping centers in a new travel guide for families released Tuesday by Zagat Survey.

And the Cincinnati Art Museum tied with four others, including the Metropolitan in New York and the Art Institute in Chicago, for best art museum.

They weren't the only local attractions listed when Zagat and Parenting magazine teamed up to create the first U.S. Family Travel Guide. The guide, promoted as providing "everything a parent needs to plan a U.S. vacation," includes family-oriented ratings and reviews for more than 1,000 sites and attractions. It costs $14.95.

Other local sites in the newly released guide include:

• The Newport Aquarium, which also is located at the Levee. It tied for second-best aquarium with two others. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens tied for second with four other zoos. The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California ranked first in its category, as did the St. Louis Zoo among its peers.

LOCAL LEADERS

Scores (in parenthesis) on a 30-point scale. Top shopping attractions 1. (tie) Newport on the Levee; Toys R Us, New York City (22) 2. (tie) Prudential Center/Skywalk, Boston; Faneuil Hall/ Quincy Market, Boston (21) 3. (tie) Pike Place Market, Seattle; Arundel Mills, suburban Baltimore (20) Top art museums 1. (tie) Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cincinnati Art Museum; Kimbrell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Art Institute of Chicago (24) 2. Getty Center, Los Angeles (23) Source: Zagat Survey's U.S. Family Travel Guide

ONLINE POLL

• Paramount's Kings Island amusement park in Mason, which ranked fourth in the category "top-rated by child appeal." First in that category was Magic House in St. Louis, followed by Disneyland in Los Angeles and Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla. Kings Island was ranked the second-best amusement park.

• Great American Ball Park tied with three others for second. SBC Park in San Francisco and Safeco Field in Seattle ranked first among ballparks.

The travel guide includes family-oriented ratings and reviews for more than 1,000 sites and attractions.

Newport on the Levee, which opened in 2001, includes an AMC 20-screen theater, a Funny Bone comedy club and other live entertainment, 10 restaurants and 21 shops, plus the Newport Aquarium.

The combination of outdoor and enclosed space looking across the Ohio River to downtown Cincinnati has helped transform the city of Newport into a hip entertainment destination.

"This honor is a reflection of the vision of many people in the community, the hard work of the staff of Newport on the Levee and our outstanding tenants," said Joanne Maly, the Levee's marketing director.

The art museum won kudos from Zagat's for charging no admission and having a great children's menu at its cafe.

Zagat Survey and Parenting surveyed more than 11,000 travelers to rate family-oriented attractions across the United States using Zagat's 30-point scale.

The only other Ohio attraction listed among the nation's top places to visit was Cedar Point in Sandusky, named the top-rated amusement park and sixth among top-rated attractions overall.

E-mail cpione@enquirer.com.