Visiting Cleveland With Kids
When families are planing their vacations Cleveland isn't usually at the top of the list, but it's time for that to change. With a wealth of area attractions that range from cool museums to cool waterfalls the opportunities for adventures with your kids are limitless. Enjoy scrolling through our insider suggestions and begin planning a fantastic trip!
Cleveland Museum of Art
FREE ADMISSION! The Cleveland Museum of Art offers dynamic experiences that illuminate the power and enduring relevance of art in today’s global society. The museum builds, preserves, studies, and shares its outstanding collections of art from all periods and parts of the world, generating new scholarship and understanding, while serving as a social and intellectual hub for its community. The Cleveland Museum of Art creates transformative experiences through art, “for the benefit of all the people forever.”
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, we believe that discovery starts with you. Explore our exhibits, meet our wild animals, take a hike, join a class—all while creating meaningful memories. We make science relatable by cultivating your curiosity. When you visit the Museum, you’ll have the opportunity to delve deep into the past in our dinosaur hall, discover the outer reaches of the Universe in the Shafran Planetarium, and experience natural wonders in outdoor galleries. Children can experience hands-on learning in Smead Discovery Center, where the motto is "please touch!" Traveling exhibits bring the world to Cleveland with an ever-changing variety of new subjects to explore.
Children's Museum of Cleveland
We offer an open-ended learning environment giving children the opportunity to imagine, experiment, problem-solve and communicate – building skills for a 21st-century learner. We are an advocate for self-directed play as one of the best ways for a young child to learn. We are a museum for all children – of all abilities, backgrounds, and ages. In our beautiful, historic new home, we respect not only childhood but also the parent and caregiver as the child’s first teacher. The entire family is welcome and will feel comfortable in the new CMC. It’s a place for families to play, connect and learn together in an environment designed to excite, enrich and inspire.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Visit animals from around the world and learn about conservation efforts around the world. Your family will make tons of memories through cool experiences like feeding a giraffe out of your hand! The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is a 183-acre zoo divided into several exhibit areas including Australian Adventure, African Savanna, Northern Wilderness Trek, The Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building, Waterfowl Lake, The RainForest, and the newly added Asian Highlands. It has one of the largest collections of primates in North America, The zoo is home to more than 3,000 animals representing more than 600 different species!
Greater Cleveland Aquarium
The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is filled with intriguing aquatic life from the Great Lakes and colorful sea creatures from around the globe. From weedy seadragons to a giant Pacific octopus, you can see more than 2,700 animals representing 320 species. Many of the exhibits in our 8 galleries offer unique views–including an 11,000-gallon touch pool inhabited by cownose, southern and Atlantic stingrays and an 175-foot seatube that takes you to the ocean floor where barracuda, pufferfish, angelfish and 3 species of shark swim beside and above you. Although we love a good selfie in the shark exhibit, we encourage guests to unplug and reconnect with the marine world and each other. Interactive opportunities abound and knowledgeable guest experience associates are stationed at every turn, answering questions your smartphone cannot, like “How old is that frog?”, or “Don’t you think that fish looks a lot like my grandpa?” So, whether it’s going nose-to-nose with a blue tongued skink, getting a ticklish mini-manicure from a cleaner shrimp or talking to a SCUBA diver about the massive green moray eel that just whooshed by her in our 230,000-gallon shark exhibit, we invite you to spend some quality time with us because nature is a curious thing.
Memphis Kiddie Park
Memphis Kiddie Park has been putting smiles on children's faces since 1952. We offer 10 amusement rides for children, a concession stand, arcade, and miniature golf course. We are truly a landmark of the Greater Cleveland area serving generations of children. Most rides are restricted by the State of Ohio to children less than 50 inches tall as measured at the park while wearing shoes. Taller guests, including adults, are welcome to ride the Big Creek & Memphis Railway, Merry-Go-Round and Little Dipper. PS: Our regularly priced ride tickets NEVER expire. We often have mothers come with their children using tickets left over from when mom was a little girl!
Great Lakes Science Center
GLSC encourages curiosity through hundreds of hands-on exhibits, the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, DOME Theater and more. Our mission is simple: to make science, technology, engineering and math come alive.
Steamship William G. Mather Museum
Tour this restored 618-foot historic ship and see what life was like on board a working Great Lakes freighter. Explore the 1925-built Mather from stem to stern and see its huge cargo holds, brass and oak pilot house, elegant guest quarters and four-story engine room. Walk the decks and marvel at the “engineering firsts” that helped transform Northeast Ohio into a great industrial center. Experience the golden era of steamships on one of the best. In town for the 4th of July or Airshow? Get great seats aboard the Mather! **Photo by Kay from Goal of Losing
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Music is a universal language that has the power to inspire people to act and be part of something bigger than themselves. Whether it’s through our exhibits, programming, or special events featuring artists and Inductees, we are proud to serve as a touchpoint for people to find inspiration through rock & roll music. Walking through our exhibition halls, you're up close and personal with an artist's history, and your own. The real value of the rock & roll artifacts we preserve and care for is measured in the impactful connections they make with fans from around the world.
Cleveland Cultural Gardens
The Cultural Gardens are a symbol that nations and people can share the same space in peace. We strive to live our mission of “peace through mutual understanding.” The Cleveland Cultural Gardens are one of Northeast Ohio’s oldest and most beautiful treasures. Some 33 dedicated gardens, designed and cultivated by distinct cultural or nationality groups, adorn the drive along Martin Luther King Boulevard and East Boulevard in Rockefeller Park. Founded in 1916, the Cultural Gardens are unique to the world. They represent the diversity and multiculturalism that is Cleveland, and bring to life the Gardens’ mission, “peace through mutual understanding.” They also tell the story of our region’s immigrants. Depicted in the gardens are the poets, philosophers, peacemakers, composers, scientists and others who have contributed to world culture. The Gardens are home to Goethe (German Garden); Yeats (Irish Garden); Chopin (Polish Garden); Dante (Italian Garden); Nikola Tesla (Serbian Garden); Nizar Qabbani (Syrian Garden); Mark Twain (American Garden); Gandhi (Indian Garden) and many others. (Click on our “statues and monuments” tab to see who’s in the Gardens!). Also featured in the gardens are symbolic sculptures and replicas of or tributes to sacred monuments in other lands.