On a quick escape road trip to commemorate the end of Summer 2025 (may it R.I.P.), we had one day to spend in downtown Cleveland. The weather was sunny and warm. The Friday we were there, people in business suits were scampering across streets to meetings, and festivals with food trucks were being set up on big, grassy lawns.
We didn’t get much off the beaten path here. In fact, nothing we did in Cleveland is surprising or revelatory. We didn’t exactly reinvent this agenda. But we didn’t need to because it works.
This reminded me of our trip to Baltimore. Cleveland definitely had a reputation that preceded it for us. We saw this video and this video years ago, and referenced them while planning this trip.
The 1960s hit Cleveland HARD. This was a time when suburban living became the rage and manufacturing declined. As jobs and the middle class began to leave, Cleveland saw its river catch fire due to pollution (read more about that here) and multiple bomb explosions due to rival gang wars. By the end of the 1970s, the city itself was in financial tatters and was the first city to go into default on federal loans. By the time the recession hit in the early 1980s, Cleveland saw a rate of unemployment 13% higher than the rest of the country due to the steel industry shutting down. Things were pretty awful for Cleveland – which is the reputation that was affixed in our Gen X minds as my husband and I thought about this trip.
For decades, Cleveland has been working hard to make a recovery. And it’s working.
They have diversified the economy and invested in industries like arts, healthcare, and professional sports. They dumped oodles of money into construction and development in the 1980s (including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and since 2010, the population has been increasing.
Cleveland is a clear example of how American cities suffered mightily. But it is also an example of how American cities can invest in, and think creatively about, their reinvention.
But, again, like our time in Baltimore, despite our pre-conceived notions, we found our day in Cleveland to be lovely!
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To be blunt, there aren’t a million things to do in Cleveland. There aren’t many boroughs with different vibes like in Chicago, or hidden nooks and crannies like in New York City, or endless hours of entertainment available like in Las Vegas. Cleveland is still fairly tame and small (relatively speaking). But we loved being on the Great Lakes, enjoying rock and roll, and walking in an old public library that spoke to the city’s Gilded Age.
Tips for Visiting Cleveland and Where to Stay
We had a car (we drove from Virginia), and stayed south of the city in a suburb called Parma. We chose to stay there as the next day our destination was Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
I wouldn’t say that Parma is the top place to stay. It is very affordable and safe. It is also always fun to see living places and spaces in the country that feel so different from where we are. But Parma in and of itself isn’t a destination.
If you want more nightlife or more of what Cleveland can offer, I’d stay in Ohio City area (although this will be further from Cuyahoga Valley National Park).
We drove into downtown Cleveland and found parking easily. There are paid covered garages in the areas closest to the Hall of Fame that had lots of spaces and allowed for easy walking to other sites.
How to Spend One Day in Cleveland, Ohio
Table of Contents
Visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
This was absolutely the reason I was excited to get to downtown Cleveland. I love music. I have been impacted by music my entire life. CDs by Tori Amos, Courtney Love, and Sarah McLachlan got me through my angry, angsty teens. Today, heading to see live music is one of my favorite ways to get out of the house and live a little.
So, going to the place that celebrates this genre of music and how it has changed people and society was exciting to me.
The museum did not disappoint.
Did our kids totally grasp everything they were seeing? Of course not. But they were entranced and thoroughly entertained. They said they learned a lot, and I think it was good for them to see old videos of Elvis and experience how revolutionary music videos were in the mid-80s.
We arrived before the doors opened on a summer Friday, and the line to get in the Hall of Fame was already long. But once the doors opened, it moved quickly.
All ticket sales are online via a mobile app or the Hall of Fame website. We purchased ours on the way to the museum. If you don’t have tickets in advance, you will use the website/app at the door to purchase entry and receive a QR code.
The museum is a pyramid (designed by the famous architect I.M.Pei, who also designed the famous Louvre pyramid and went through a pretty heavy pyramid/glass phase). Because of this, the largest exhibits, where most of the stuff is, are on the bottom level. We spent most of our time there.
We spent over two hours in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and could have stayed longer (but were hungry). We were lucky in that the museum was fairly uncrowded the day we went.
There are interactive exhibits throughout the museum and taking in all the old film footage of the famous performers was fun.
- The official website for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is rockhall.com. (Which is such a great URL – totally rockstar feels.)
Walk Through the Arcade
After seeing the Galleria in Milan, walking through Cleveland’s version of this was high on our list. Tidbit: I later learned that a scene from the new Superman was filmed here (the original Superman comic character was created by two Cleveland natives).
Today, the Cleveland Arcade is part of the Hyatt Regency hotel. This has its pros and cons. The pro is that it has been saved and is well-maintained. The con is that it isn’t a place bustling with shops and cafes. It’s pretty quiet. Yet the architecture is beautiful.
- See the Arcade’s website at www.theclevelandarcade.com.
Eat & Drink at East 4th Street
East 4th Street downtown is a pedestrian-only area with cafe-style seating and a handful of restaurants and bars. It looks like there is a vibrant nightlife here, too, from what we could tell, being there for lunch. We tried Mabel’s BBQ.
Mabel’s BBQ opened in 2016 and is one of the creations of Chef Michael Symon. Symon is a Cleveland native and a Food Network regular. I didn’t know this when we went (I had to Google Chef Symon to write this). Usually, I avoid celebrity chef restaurants, yet, as I learned in Chicago, sometimes they are good!
This restaurant, though, had a fun blend of Midwest style mixed with the Polish influence Cleveland is known for. It was yummy!
- For more on East 4th Street, visit www.east4thstreet.com.
- For more on Mabel’s BBQ, visit this link.
Go Into the Library
The Cleveland library opened in 1925 (at this location) and was revolutionary for its day. The downtown library, which has been renovated and added to throughout the years, is now the third-largest (public) research library in the U.S. This library was the first to allow patrons to pick their own books off the shelves, and in the early 1930s, more than 12,000 people came through the door each day.
I love books (my end-of-year reading round-up is something I look forward to compiling every year). Going into this library when we were there was a no-brainer for me. We stayed in the main area, where there were even some art installations to enjoy.
- Learn more here: cpl.org/location/main-library
Swim in Lake Erie at Edgewater Beach
We were in Cleveland in August and decided to hit the beach. Edgewater Beach is very close to downtown Cleveland, with a huge parking lot and lots of space. There was no fee to enter or to swim. There were changing rooms, restrooms, hoses to get the sand off, and even a bar with a view.
We loved being able to swim in Lake Erie. It was chilly, but not bad (we’ve dunked in colder water). It was a very refreshing, memorable stop for us.
- For more on Edgewater Beach, visit www.clevelandmetroparks.com
- There is a Cleveland script sign in Edgewater Park. It’s a bit of an uphill hike from the beach, so we drove to it. It was easy to park there and an absolutely gorgeous view.
Go to a Brewery
A stat I read says that Ohio produces the “fifth most beer” in the U.S. Great Lakes Brewing Company is the largest, and one we had heard of in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We were more than happy to try it after a long, hot day of exploring.
Bonus: it was in the Ohio City area, which we really liked.
Strangely, even though it was a nice summer Friday night, it was not at all crowded when we went in for happy hour.
- For more on Great Lakes Brewing, visit www.greatlakesbrewing.com.
- For a list of other local breweries to try, I like this link.
Take a Photo with a Cleveland "Script" Sign
There are six of these script signs around the city and while it may be easy to snub your nose at this for being too “touristy,” I have to say I love the photos we got here. The script sign we went to (which we found on Google Maps, as we had done ZERO prior research on these) was in a beautiful location and offered a tremendous view. It turns out, all of the script signs are in iconic locations.
- If you are interested in tracking them all down, I recommend this blog post. It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt!
With More Time
- See Cuyahoga Valley National Park. See our recommendations and thoughts on this park, located a quick 30-40 minute drive outside of Cleveland, here.
- Cleveland Zoo.
- Museum of Illusions. (My kids were really rooting for this, but we didn’t have time.)
- A football or baseball game.
- The food market: West Side Market.
- A Christmas Story house. We are huge fans of the movie, and we weren’t far from the house, but we’d done a lot of pop culture iconography and paraphernalia with the Hall of Fame, so we didn’t feel too motivated to drive by.
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