Back to Cleveland Info Page

Activities

A wide variety of activities await you in Northeast Ohio. Whether you are looking for outdoor fun, culture, the fine arts, history, sports, shopping, clubbing and dining - Cleveland ROCKS!

Sports

Enjoy a game with the world's best sports fans. Cleveland is home to the longest span of sold out baseball games (5 consecutive seasons in the late 1990s), the largest major league baseball attendance (72,086 on 8/9/1981) and the birthplace of Monday Night Football (9/21/1970). But given its storied sports past coupled with its weathered but dedicated fan base, ESPN named Cleveland the "Most Tortured Sports City". Terms like The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, 2 More Outs will ring in the ears of Cleveland Sports Fans for generations to come. Win or lose, Clevelanders (obviously) just love sports.

 • Baseball. MLB: Cleveland Indians. Many consider Jacobs' Field ("The Jake") the gem of the American League (per Travel World International Magazine).
 • Basketball. NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers. Home to the "King of the NBA", LeBron "King" James.
 • Football. NFL: Cleveland Browns. Someone tried to take away this Football town's pride and joy. But the Browns didn't go to the birds, they're right back in BrownsTown.
 • Hockey. AHL: Cleveland Barons. The NHL has been flirting with Cleveland since the original NHL Barons were merged into the Stars. In the meantime, we've been watching exciting minor league hockey.
 • Soccer. MISL: Cleveland Force. Indoor Soccer has never experienced more success or attendance than in Cleveland. "May the Force be with you."
 • College. Horizon League: Cleveland State University.

Outdoors

 • No "mistake" about it! - Lake Erie. The shallowest and warmest Great Lake (with the most vibrant fishery) defines Cleveland's north border and provides many opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming and walks. Cleveland boasts more miles of shoreline than any other city in the world, providing enjoyment from before Memorial Day to past Labor Day for boaters, fishermen and beach bums. Sailers, boaters, waverunners and jet skiers enjoy the lake with marinas, piers and boat launches available all along America's North Coast. Fishing is popular more than three seasons of the year with healthy populations of Walleye and Perch in Lake Erie. In the late fall and early winter, anglers pursue steelhead trout in the many rivers feeding Lake Erie up through Northeast Ohio and into Pennsylvania and Western New York.

 • Historically nicknamed the "Forest City" (due to a famous description of a highly sophisticated society amid a heavily forested environment in Alexis DeTocqueville's "Democracy in America" (1831)), Cleveland is a great place for outdoor activities. If you think Cleveland is just a "rust belt" city, get out to the nearest  . The parks form an Emerald Necklace around the Cleveland metropolitan area, so no matter which direction you go from downtown, you're headed toward a park. Biking, horseback riding, jogging and rollerblading are easily accommodated by the miles of trails (paved and unpaved) encircling Cuyahoga County. In the winter, visitors can cross country ski these same trails. Sitting upon the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, Cleveland also provides downhill skiers with slopes throughout the area.

 • A river winds through it. Rowing crews, canoers and kayakers enjoy the diverse scenery along the Cuyahoga (a Mohawk Native American term, meaning "Crooked River"). The Cuyahoga provides a mosaic of the nightspots of the Flats (dockage available at restaurants and bars), downtown's towers rising up the hill, active industrial remnants of the birthplace of the petroleum and steel industries, pastoral settings and the Ohio and Erie Canal (which in the 1800s provided the connection between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, ultimately enabling shipping from the Atlantic Ocean (via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the East Coast) to the Gulf of Mexico (via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers)). The Ohio & Erie Canal has been preserved as a core element of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. In Ohio's only National Park, walk or ride the Canal Towpath, . The National Park starts 8 miles south of downtown and stretches for miles down to Akron. The Towpath extends from Lake Erie in Downtown Cleveland through the southern suburbs past Akron, Canton, New Philadelphia and into rural Bolivar and Historic Zoar.

Not amused by nature? If you prefer to step up the pace, Northeast Ohio offers world-class amusement parks including Cedar Point (1 hour drive to Sandusky), Geauga Lake (just outside of southeastern Cuyahoga County) and Memphis Kiddie Park (in Brooklyn, Ohio), a small but fun park for the little ones (toddlers to pre-teens).