3-Days of Movie Magic

Day 1 You'll See:

Day 2 You'll See:

Day 3 You’ll See:

Its lights, camera, action for your group as you tour Cleveland, Ohio! From cultural education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to a movie set tour at the Christmas Story House, this tour will teach you everything you need to know about Cleveland and it’s ties to the entertainment world! Take in the popular tourist destinations of the sprawling West Side Market or Metroparks Zoo, or unleash your sports side with a trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame or Cleveland Indians game!  This trip is made just for you and your group and has plenty of opportunities for fun, all you have to do is decide when you’re coming!

 

Day
1

 

Greater Cleveland Aquarium - Get ready to start your Cleveland adventure with an educational and exciting visit to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. With a purpose to "energize curiosity by passionate aquatic education," this aquarium is committed to teaching locals and visitors alike the importance of aquatic life and preservation. Home to eight full galleries and over 50 interactive exhibits, this 70,000 square foot institution is the only one of its kind in all of Ohio. Sitting on the Cuyahoga River, parts of this aquarium focus on native Ohio rivers and lakes such as Lake Erie in which you can find catfish, shiners, bass, and an environment containing local birds, owls, and forest mosses. Other parts of the aquarium focus on worldwide aquatic education including locations such as Australia, South America, Africa, the Indo-Pacific, the Red Sea, Indonesia, Fiji, and Hawaii. You can check out the effects of pollution in the Discovery Zone, visit the moon jellyfish display to see the glow in the dark polyps, or head over to the 175 foot Shark Seatube Gallery. Whatever you decide to do in the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, you won’t be disappointed!

Hard Rock Cafe Cleveland - Welcome to Cleveland’s own legendary Hard Rock Cafe where you and your group can get a classic American meal while enjoying the rich rock and roll culture display! This particular Hard Rock Cafe was created in 1998 and is located in Tower City near the heart of downtown Cleveland. Hard Rock Cleveland is especially rich in musical culture because it is only a mile away from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and holds some of the same artifacts and memorabilia. Most of the time you can find a live performance at the Hard Rock, as well as local rock artifacts depending on the city. Cleveland’s Hard Rock Cafe is actually home to a fan favorite, Madonna’s Dolce and Gabbana shoes! Overall the Hard Rock business is found in 198 locations across 63 countries, bringing the history and culture of rock and roll to the world! Enjoy the many legendary burgers or hand crafted cocktails, designer salads, famous onion rings, or craft beers! Once you’ve had your fill of food and rock, head over to the Shop the Rock Shop and pick up your iconic Hard Rock Cafe apparel and souvenirs! This is the perfect way to rock out in Cleveland!

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum - Rock out like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles at your next stop in Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. This 55,000 square foot museum, store, and cafe opened in 1995 and has since seen 8.5 million visitors walk through its iconic glass doors. Considered a local landmark, this museum sits on the shore of Lake Erie near downtown Cleveland and houses seven floors of varying media exhibits that work to preserve and interpret the impact rock has made on the world thus far. The building itself is an architectural feat, a series of dramatic geometric forms and dynamic cantilevered spaces that are anchored by a 162 foot tower leading into the large triangular glass tent that will leave a lasting impression in your mind for sure. While you’re here be sure to check out the Beatles exhibit or the Cities and Sounds display, mapping out the history and impact of different rock gods and goddesses throughout the world. Explore all seven floors of the exhibits, archives, and educational programs archiving the history of the best known artists, producers, and engineers before heading over to the cafe for an Elvis themed peanut butter and banana sandwich, the perfect way to end this rock and roll experience!

Great Lakes Science Center - End your day with an exciting hands-on, minds-on experience at the Great Lakes Science Center! Within this large learning facility your group will have the chance to see and touch hundreds of hands-on exhibits, see live science shows, science demos, and visit the OmnImax theater, cafe, and Science Store. The amount of activities to do inside seems endless, so why not start with a visit to the NASA Glenn Visitor Center to view the Apollo Command Center. You can also see the Great Lakes Freighter William G Mather, the 618 foot 1925 steamboat, visit the Polymer Funhouse, learn about genomics and infectious diseases in the BioMed Tech Gallery, or just relax in the 6-story Cleveland Clinic OmnImax Theater. Explore the science of light, magnetism, solar energy, DNA, or go touch the Indoor Tornado! After your group has had their fill of science be sure to grab a book or game from the Science Store or sit down for a delicious burger or salad at the on-site Science Cafe.

Playhouse Square - End your day at the country’s largest performing arts center outside of New York, the Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland! This 93 year old non-profit performance center hosts over 1,000 annual events and sees more than 1 million guests per year! The Square is actually home to nine different performance venues: Connor Palace, State, Ohio, Allen, Hanna, 14th Street, Kennedy’s Cabaret, Star Plaza, and Westfield Insurance Stage. The performance schedule here at Playhouse Square is second to none, hosting Broadway, concerts, dances, comedy, plays, opera, guest speakers, and family shows regularly. Having Playhouse Square in this community is a major economic stimulator, as well as a cultural vitality promoter in this region. Playhouse Square is nationally recognized for their part in school programs and education outreach, offering a wide selection of daily events, workshops, classes, and public outreach! If you want to know more about Playhouse and its astounding history in performing arts, watch the PBS special “Staging Success: The Playhouse Square Story,” or buy a copy on your way out at the gift shop!

Day
2

West Side Market - What better way to start your day off in Cleveland than at a truly historical and iconic Ohio landmark, the famous West Side Market. Opened in 1840, West Side Market is Cleveland’s oldest publicly owned market designed by Hubbell and Benes, the same men who helped design the Cleveland Museum of Art. Inside the market your group will find over 100 vendors from every ethnic diversity imaginable. Within the market you can find fine meat, fresh vegetables, even fresher seafood, cheeses, baked goods, flowers, herbs, candies, and nuts, as well as many other niche market items you won’t find anywhere else. Make sure you bring your camera and notice the 137-foot clock tower that has been working since 1912! Spending a morning, or even a whole day, at Cleveland’s West Side Market is a historical tradition, and it’s pretty fun as well! If you aren’t in the mood for shopping you can take a half hour tour of the facility for only $5 or hit up all the sample stands for local Ohio delicacies! Join the over 1 million annual guests who flock to this location, perhaps to experience Cleveland and Ohio in the fullest, or perhaps because of the many Travel Channel and Food Network specials boasting the best fresh food shopping in the nation here!

A Christmas Story House and Museum - Don’t miss a chance to stop at this local Cleveland gem, the A Christmas Story House and Museum. This movie-madness inspired home has been fully restored to its same exact movie splendor from the 1983 classic holiday film and hosts regular tours and guests visits. A super fan of the movie, Brian Jones decided to buy this 19th century Victorian home for $150,000 and remodel it fully for another $240,000. The funds he used to complete the project were from his ‘Red Rider Leg Lamp’ Company, a venture still fully in business today at the gift shop across the street! Any fans of entertainment or holiday fun will love this stop, with a chance to see authentic props, costumes, and behind the scenes memorabilia in the museum across the street from the house. Guests can see toys from the Higbee window, Randy’s snowsuit, Randy’s bunny suit, the classroom chalkboard, and the family car from the film. And don’t worry, you can actually touch everything in this museum, they actually encourage it! Over 5,000 guests came to the opening weekend of this cinematic neighborhood venture, including the cast of the movie themselves. Keep your eyes open for more celebrity visits and famous leg lamp gifts, "and for God Sake’s Ralphie don’t shoot your eye out!"

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo - The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is a 183 acre area that is the second most popular year-round travel destination in Cleveland, second only to a Cleveland Indians game. This zoo, opened in 1882, is home of one of the largest collections of primates in North America, a group of mostly colobus monkeys who live free-range and full of bananas on the concrete Monkey Island in the center of the zoo. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo brings in around 1.2 million visitors per year, which is easy to understand once you see all that it has to offer. Take a tour of the Australian Adventure, African Savanna, Northern Trek, Cat and Aquatics Buildings, Waterfowl lake, and one of the most impressive areas, the Rainforest. The Rainforest is a two story, two acre indoor structure housing 10,000 plants and 600 animals you would find in the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It is actually one of the largest and most impressive indoor tropical oasis in the world! You can also check out the lions, cheetahs, rhinos, giraffes, or bonog of the African Savanna, or go play with a wallaroo, kangaroo, or wallbie in the Australian Adventure section. Whatever you decide to do at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, you are guaranteed to learn something new and feel like a kid again while you discover the fauna and flora of the world!

Day
3

Pro Football Hall of Fame - Get ready for some serious sports fun today, starting with a trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. This NFL/AFL dedicated museum was founded in 1963, 43 years after the NFL was founded in Canton (1920). Not only was the NFL founded in Canton, but the first few years of the NFL saw a rising star team in the Canton Bulldogs, a short-lived but exciting reason to put the Hall of Fame in this city. This 82,500 square foot museum features many fun and exciting artifacts, memorabilia, galleries, theaters, gift shops, a research library, and the famous Gameday Stadium. The various stations and exhibits feature every super bowl since inception plus the greatest plays and players involved. You can visit a theater that highlights the latest Super Bowl on the big screen or head over to the Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery to see a larger scale of artifacts and videos. The Pro Football Today Gallery shows milestones from the past year, currently it displays Bronco’s member Peyton Manning’s 509th touchdown, just surpassing the great Brett Favre. After you’ve caught up on your favorite players and plays be sure to stop at the Hall of Fame gift shop for some of the best football memorabilia and souvenirs - foam fingers and jerseys galore!

Cleveland Indians Game - Welcome to the Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians. Within this stadium you will find Heritage Park and the Indians Hall of Fame Museum, a baseball Mecca not quite on the scale of your last Hall of Fame visit. The Indians Hall of Fame Museum holds two levels of baseball history, the first floor dedicated to Indian players that made an impact, the second floor on baseball in general. After the museum, your group can take a tour of the field and see the batting cage, fan cave, club lounge, and party suite. Heritage Park itself honors the rich history of the Indians and your group will enjoy the passion in the tour guides and field workers. Stop by the gift shop on your way out to pick up your favorite players baseball card, hat, or bobblehead!