Cleveland and Cincinnati
 

What areas in Cleveland and Cincinnati do you recommend to stay in? Also, any 5 star hotels in the area. We are traveling with 2 boys ages 10 and 14 and our main focus is the baseball stadiums and also sightseeing. What are some of the must see sights? And is Canton (football hall of fame) within close distance to either city?

I hope to visit each of these cities and to gather info I have "copied" pieces of posts from this site.
I will pass them on to you in hope s this is not breaking some Fordor rule..If it is , I am sure I will be told. One interesting fact --Cleveland has the best medical resources in middle America.

Cinncinatti, Cleveland and Columbus

Date: 09/13/2006, 05:59 pm

My wife and I are taking a road/business trip and making over nights in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinatti and are looking for interesting hotels to stay at. I'm sure I find somethingson the internet but thought I would ask the locals where would good neighborhood hotels and restaurant suggestions.

Date: 09/14/2006, 01:18 pm

What area of Columbus are you going to stay in?

I'll have to think about the interesting hotels, but I can make a couple of suggestions for food.

Try the German Village area. My favorite restaurants there are Schmidts and Katzinger's Deli, but there are a ton of other good restaurant there.

Here's a link with a bunch of suggestions:
http://germanvillage.com/shopsrestaurants.php

German Village also has the Book Loft. A whole city block of books!

Here's a link to the general tourist info site for Columbus:
http://www.experiencecolumbus.com/
Date: 09/14/2006, 01:21 pm

For Columbus try the Great Southern Hotel (I believe it is now a Westin property) & right across the bridge from German Village. For Cincy, try the Netherland Plaza.

I'm not a local but we recently stayed at The Columbus (yes, in Columbus) downtown and were really impressed. It's recently renovated and somewhat retro, but extremely well done. It's part of the Renaissance chain. We had gotten a $99 weekend special and when we checked in, we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite - very, very nice and definitely not your usual hotel experience.

No suggestions for interesting hotels but in Columbus be sure to check out The Short North area for folks milling about in the evenings- bars, shops, restaurants... Also, the German Village area. If you are a shopper Easton Town Center is a great outdoor walking mall with several hotels adjacent to the mall.
goiod luck

gapper,

In Cleveland, I'd suggest the Ritz Carlton or Renaissance in dowtown. Both an easy walk to the baseball stadium.

Canton is a little over an hour south of Cleveland. Not directly en route to Cincinnati, but if you're interested in the HOF, certainly a doable side trip.

If you like to visit stadiums, there's a nice minor league park in Akron which is about 45 minutes south of Cleveland, called Canal Park. It's the park of the Akron Aeros which is a AA team of the Cleveland Indians.

Sounds like a fun trip!

The Cleveland Ritz is next to the stadium but is a very minor Ritz. Really a Marriott with Ritz logos. The mall that is attached was overrun with unruly young people and the police were enforcing no more than a "group of 2" while I was staying there for a wedding. I can not recommend anywhere else however, and perhaps the mall problem has been overcome.

Cleveland Downtown Hotels are the best option for stay. Downtown Cleveland is well connected by GCRTA Bus if you are interested in visiting Progressive Field or other sightseeing places like “Children’s Museum, Metroparks Zoo, Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, Rock & Roll hall of fame museum, etc. My recommendations are
• Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center (216) 696-9200
• Embassy Suites Hotel Cleveland-Downtown (216) 523-8000
Other trip planning sites like http://Publicroutes.com can provide detailed Bus directions, Maps and Cleveland City Guide information

For Cincy stay right downtown so you can walk to the stadium. The Hyatt, Hilton or Westin are all fine. Across the river is Newport on the Levee, a great place for before game eats & such.

There is an Intercontinental Hotel at the Cleveland Clinic, but I would not stay here if my focus was the stadium and downtown. Your boys might als oenjoy the science museum and submarine in the North Coast Harbor. Canton is about 1 hr south of Cleveland, an easy day trip from Cleveland.