A weekend to Cleveland from Columbus, Ohio
Looking for a weekend trip from Columbus? We’ve got you covered with all things Cleveland! Being under 3 hours from Columbus, its great for a quick weekend away. And I know what you might be thinking, isn’t Cleveland just another city like the one I’m trying to get away from? And to that I would say no! Cleveland sits on Lake Erie and can provide lakeside laidback vibes that Columbus could never offer!
Why visit Cleveland?
For a quick weekend away, an easy drive is almost always on the list of must haves when choosing a location. Cleveland is just over 2 hours from Columbus and to be honest, the drive is quite easy, so it ticks the easy drive requirement for me! You pretty much just hop on 71 North and drive for a couple hours! Unless you are leaving Columbus or arriving in Cleveland around rush hour, you shouldn’t run in to too much traffic.
As someone who loves the beach or just being water adjacent, Cleveland is an easy way to scratch that itch without having to drive 13 hours to Hilton Head. Being able to have a margarita on a patio over looking the lake in less than 3 hours? Yes, please! But if the waterfront isn’t your vibe or you don’t care about that, don’t worry, Cleveland can still be a great place to visit! They are rich in museums and cultural attractions you can explore and they have 3 professional sports teams, so no matter what season you visit, there will be a game you can catch! So no matter, what you’re in to, Cleveland has an adventure for you!
When Is the Best Time to Visit Cleveland?
As with most things, this is totally going to be dependent on what you are looking for! We went in the summer because our biggest must do was a guardians game and we are actually heading back this weekend (in October) to watch the Guardians play again! If you are looking to do water sports on the lake, than you are definitely going to want to go during the summer, late spring, or early fall (most of those things are going to be open Memorial Day to Labor Day). Spring will also be a great time to catch any gardens or spring blooms (the Cleveland Botanical Gardens would be a great thing to visit in the spring!).
If milder temperatures are your biggest must, you’ll want to visit in spring or fall! The temperatures will be cool enough that you can explore without sweating through your clothes in half a second. Fall is also football season, so catch a Browns game while you’re in town!
Being on the lake, the city can get lake effect snow, so make sure you are watching the weather if you plan to go in the winter. If you do go during winter, it’s a great time to explore all the museums around the city to get out of the brutal cold that can sweep through the city. It’s also most likely going to be holiday season (my favorite time of year), so make sure to get out and look at the little holiday lights and markets the city might have to offer.
As mentioned, we visited in summer and loved it! We thought that the city was great fun when we went and would definitely recommend it if you aren’t sure what you want out of the city or when to go. In the summer, you can get a little bit of everything from water sports to museums.
Best Place to Stay in Cleveland?
As with everything travel related, this is going to be based on personal experience and what you are looking for! If you are looking for the city to be a bit more walkable and get to experience the city nightlife, staying downtown will probably be your best bet! Staying downtown, you’ll be close to the city nightlife, all the sports venues, and lots of restaurants.
If you mostly want to visit for the museums or the botanical gardens, University Circle will be the place for you! University Circle is about 15 minutes from downtown, but you will find places such as Cleveland Museum of Art, Natural History Museum, or the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. So, definitely stay here if you aren’t looking for the downtown vibe, but want a chill weekend museum hopping.
If you are looking for a neighborhood vibe with great food, than check out Ohio City. It’s about a 5 minute drive to downtown, so great if you want a mix of small neighborhood and big city. Ohio City also has West Side Market and some other great restaurants if you are looking to try great places without straying too far from you hotel.
We stayed in Ohio City and will stay there again when we go back! It felt quiet but also was a quick drive in to downtown for us to see the guardians and catch our boat tour. It’s also quiet enough for us to feel like we’re away from the city and we even were able to walk to breakfast one morning! We stayed at a townhome through Airbnb. If you are looking for luxury, this is not the place for you! We booked it because it was relatively cheap and was pretty close to everything we wanted to do. It was overall decent, but not the best place we’ve ever stayed. It had a nice patio that we didn’t have a chance to use as well as a hot tub. The hot tub was another reason we booked it, but didn’t realize it was a shared hot tub with the downstairs, so we didn’t end up using it! If you’re someone who doesn’t care too much about where you stay, this place will work for you!
Our Recommendations on Things to Do
We have a 3 day Itinerary for Cleveland, so I won’t belabor the point too much here, but I will share some of our favorite things we did while we were there to give you inspiration on your trip!
As I’ve mentioned here and probably a million other times, we are beach lovers, so of course one of our favorite things we did was by the water! We did a historical boat tour that meandered along the Cuyuhoga and Old rivers and shared the history of the city and how being on the lake shaped the city itself. We found it quite interesting, but if you aren’t in to history, they have lots of different kind of cruises you can take! Its at the top of our recommendations for things to do, so make sure to book yourself a little cruise! And if you do book a Goodtime cruise, may we also suggest stopping in at Nuevo for some chips & queso and a margarita. I’m still thinking about that margarita. If you want to explore the water, but not by boat, you can also head to Edgewater Park!
Next thing we’re going to recommend is catching a sports game. I don’t think you have to be a fan of one of the teams to enjoy a game. There’s always something fun and intoxicating about joining in on a large crowd to root for their home team. And if that doesn’t convince you, the food at stadiums can actually be pretty good! I got a Slider Dog at Progressive field that I still talk about and that I made the “Hot Dog of the Day” at my house warming party! We are partial to the Guardians, so we recommend going to a baseball game, but the Browns and Cavaliers also have great game day experiences!
I am a lover of botanical gardens, so you know that I’m going to recommend the Cleveland Botanical Gardens! This was the first thing we did on the trip and I feel like it was a great way to kick off our weekend. If you have kids, it’s also a great place to take them! They have lots of open space outdoors for kids to explore and even a dedicated kids space! The garden is divided up in to sub-gardens, such as the Madagascar Glasshouse, a Japanese garden, rose garden, and they even have a little waterfall section, which makes exploring even more fun as the foliage/flowers change up before you can get board.
Obviously, we recommend everything on our itinerary, but these are our favorites that we would prioritize if we were making a new itinerary all over again!
Our Tips for Doing a Weekend in Cleveland
I think my biggest tip is going to be to plan around your interests! Don’t think because you saw it on a “hidden gem” or “must-see” list on TikTok that you have to visit! Don’t like flowers? Don’t add it to your itinerary! Just because we’ve gone on and on about how we liked it doesn’t mean you have to put it on your itinerary. Its your trip, make it about you!
The next tip would be to group your itinerary by neighborhood! So, if you have multiple things in Ohio City that you want to do, do them all in succession/on the same day so you can park your car and walk to them all or at least so you aren’r driving across the city a million times to see everything. We always find that this helps lower stress while you’re actually there and also lets you fit more in to your schedule since you have less drive time to factor in to your planning.
In a similar vain, make sure to book timed events first and fit everything else around it! For example, we bought tickets to the Guardians game first because that had a set schedule that we had to be there for and then planned around that! If there’s something you must do and that has certain time slots, make sure to book that first thing!
Next thing we’ll recommend is to check attraction hours, especially if you are going in a shoulder season or off-peak season. Some places will shorten hours since there are less guests. Keep that in mind when building your schedule. Always check open/closing hours and make sure it’s on your schedule for a time when it will be open. That might seem like a silly tip, but only until you pull up someplace and realize its closed.
Conclusion
Cleveland is a fun and easy weekend getaway from Columbus. With a mix of sports, lake life, and museums, it’s got something for everyone. Don’t want to plan your own itinerary? Steal ours!