You're flying in for a wedding, so make a weekend of it. These are the places we actually send people — no filler, no tourist traps, and everything is within half an hour of your hotel.
World-class art, music history and grand theatres.
Downtown — North Coast Harbor
$$The pyramid on the lake, and the reason a lot of people come to Cleveland in the first place. Four floors of instruments, handwritten lyrics and stage costumes, plus the Power of Rock film in the top-floor theater. Give yourself three hours — everyone thinks two is enough and nobody is right.
Our tip
Buy tickets online for a timed entry and go right at 10am, before the tour buses land.
University Circle
FreeOne of the finest collections in the country — Caravaggio, Monet, a legendary armor court that will delight any eight-year-old — and it is completely free. The glass-roofed atrium alone is worth the drive, and the cafe is a genuinely good lunch.
Our tip
Free general admission, always. Park in the garage for $12 and walk the Fine Arts Garden afterward.
Downtown — Theater District
$$The second-largest performing arts center in the country after Lincoln Center, with five restored 1920s theaters on one block and the world's largest outdoor chandelier hanging over the intersection. Even if you don't catch a show, walk under the chandelier after dark.
Our tip
Check the schedule — there's almost always a touring show on a Friday or Saturday night.
Markets, breweries and the neighborhood tables locals love.
Ohio City
$Cleveland's cathedral of food, open since 1912: a vaulted yellow-brick hall packed with a hundred vendors selling pierogi, bratwurst, baklava, Cambodian noodles and produce. This is where Joanna and Owen met, arguing about pierogi, so consider it required reading.
Our tip
Closed Mondays and Wednesdays. Go hungry, bring cash, and get the crepes at Crepes de Luxe.
Ohio City
$$Six blocks that hold most of Cleveland's best drinking and eating: Great Lakes Brewing (the original 1988 brewpub), Platform Beer, Momocho for mole, Toast for natural wine, and Mitchell's ice cream in a restored movie theater. It's also where we're hosting Friday night, so scout it early.
Our tip
Order the Christmas Ale at Great Lakes if it's on — September is early, but they sometimes sneak it out.
Little Italy / University Circle
$$A hillside of red-sauce restaurants, espresso bars and art galleries that has barely changed since the stonecutters settled it in the 1880s. Come for cannoli at Presti's, stay for a long dinner at Trattoria on the Hill, and walk it off in Lake View Cemetery next door.
Our tip
Presti's Bakery opens at 6am and the sfogliatelle sell out by mid-morning.
Lake Erie beaches, waterfalls and towpath trails.
Detroit–Shoreway
FreeThe best free thing in the city: a real Lake Erie beach with the entire downtown skyline behind it. There's a swimming beach, a fishing pier, grills, and Edgewater Live concerts on Thursday evenings in summer. Sunset here is the photo everyone takes home.
Our tip
Go to the upper park for the skyline view, the lower park for the sand. The Beach House sells frozen drinks until dusk.
Peninsula / Sagamore Hills
FreeA full national park thirty minutes south of the hotels, and almost nobody expects it. Brandywine Falls drops 65 feet a short boardwalk from the parking lot, the Towpath Trail runs flat along the old canal for as far as you feel like walking, and the scenic railroad will carry you and a bicycle through the valley.
Our tip
Park at Boston Mill and take the free shuttle on fall weekends — the Brandywine lot fills by 10am.
University Circle
$$Ten acres of gardens plus a glasshouse holding two ecosystems — a Madagascar spiny desert and a Costa Rican cloud forest full of free-flying butterflies. Quiet, shaded and blissfully air-conditioned, which makes it the ideal Saturday morning before a long wedding night.
Our tip
Combined ticket with the Natural History Museum next door if you're making a University Circle day of it.
The landmarks and oddities you can't do anywhere else.
Tremont
$$Yes, that house, restored to look exactly as it did in the 1983 film, leg lamp glowing in the front window. You can tour the rooms, crawl under the kitchen sink like Randy, and buy a bar of Lifebuoy soap across the street. Gloriously silly, and ten minutes from Sunday brunch.
Our tip
It's two blocks from Lucky's Cafe — an easy stop after Sunday brunch before your flight.
Downtown — Public Square
$For 37 years the tallest building outside New York, and still the shape everyone draws when they draw Cleveland. The 42nd-floor observation deck opens on weekends and sees 30 miles on a clear day. Downstairs, Public Square is a proper park with a fountain the kids can run through.
Our tip
Observation deck tickets are weekends only and sell out — book the 4pm slot for golden hour over the lake.
Ask a local
Ask anything about the weekend or the city and you'll get an answer based on our own recommendations — where to eat, what to skip, how long things take.
"Nobody believes us about this city until they've stood at Edgewater at sunset. Then they get it."
— Joanna & Owen