It's an exciting time to visit Cleveland. The past year has added a vibrant chapter to the Cleveland story and the rest of the world is taking notice as Cleveland has been listed as one of only 12 US destinations in Travel + Leisure's "Best Places to Travel in 2015."
The article cites recent and future developments including new hotels, restaurants and the city's ability to attract millennials, the return of LeBron James and the 2016 Republican National Convention. When compiling the list, editors looked for places that they felt were "changing the travel map." Below is the full list of Cleveland travel hotspots mentioned by Travel + Leisure. Have something to add? Share it using #ThisisCLE and #BestPlaces2015.
Highlighted Cleveland hotspots:
Hotels
The Westin Cleveland Downtown
- The Westin Cleveland Downtown's $64 million renovation, completed in May 2014, resulted in a contemporary 484-room hotel featuring a state-of-the-art fitness center, business center and in-house Starbucks. The attached farm-to-table restaurant, Urban Farmer, serves local and organically sourced food from the region.
The Metropolitan at The 9
- Classing up Cleveland's East 9th Street is an Autograph Collection Marriott hotel called The Metropolitan at the 9. This swanky hotel features 156 well-appointed rooms complete with bold interior design and glasswork, relaxingly open spaces, lavish beds and linens, and unique facilities including an indoor dog park and movie theatre.
Aloft Cleveland Downtown
- The Aloft Hotel, managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, includes contemporary rooms with tech-forward sensibility and a vibrant, social atmosphere. The $20 million development includes 150 rooms and 3,000 square feet of meeting space in the bustling Flats East Bank development.
Neighborhoods
Ohio City
- Across the Cuyahoga River, west of Downtown, this Cleveland neighborhood is home to Cleveland's culinary mecca, the West Side Market, and is a craft beer and culinary hotspot with many local artisan boutiques.
Uptown
Dining
Flying Fig
- As one of the area's pioneers of the locally-grown food movement, Flying Fig, a charming Ohio City restaurant, offers dishes that utilize farm-fresh ingredients to create seasonally inspired menus.
Mitchell's Ice Cream
- Mitchell's Ice Cream offers handcrafted, small batch flavors that utilize local, grass-fed dairy and fresh seasonal ingredients. With its ninth location now open in Ohio City, Downtown visitors now have easy access to decadent, seasonally inspired ice cream deliciousness.
The West Side Market
- The West Side Market, Cleveland's culinary mecca, was once where turn-of-the-century immigrants found their native foods and spices. Today, it features the same artisanal, cultural foods with more than 100 booths featuring the freshest selection of fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, produce, bakery, ethnic foods and international delicacies.
Provenance
- As part of The Cleveland Museum of Art's $350 million expansion and renovation, fine-dining restaurant, Provenance, offers floor-to-ceiling window views that overlook Wade Park and the Fine Arts Garden, providing a spectacular backdrop to the Chef Doug Katz driven menu. Offerings include the trademark seasonal menu items perfected by Katz, prepared with a worldly flare to compliment the world-class collections within the museum.
Attractions
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
- The new facility, opened in late 2012, is the first piece of architecture designed by London-based Farshid Moussavi in the United States. The space itself is a work of dramatic geometric art, and provides MOCA the ability to display a diverse array of innovative flexible exhibitions, programs and the art of our time.
2015 Developments:
Kimpton Cleveland Downtown
- Renovations have started at the boutique Kimpton Hotel, located on East 9th Street in Downtown Cleveland. With 122 rooms, the hotel will also have 24 luxury apartments within the building, as well as a specialty restaurant on the first floor. The $50 million redevelopment also will include 7,400 square feet of meeting space.
Hilton Cleveland Downtown
- Hilton Worldwide will operate a new $260 million, 600-room convention center headquarter hotel slated to open in 2016. The Hilton hotel, which will be designed by Atlanta architecture firm Cooper Carry and owned by Cuyahoga County, will provide 55,000 square feet of meeting space while sitting more than 20 stories high on the campus of the FirstMerit Convention Center of Cleveland and the Global Center for Health Innovation.
Cleveland Institute of Art
- The $75 million expansion and renovation of the Cleveland Institute of Art will be complete in early 2015. The project includes a three-story atrium, new art galleries and a new auditorium for the Cleveland Cinematheque.
Mabel's BBQ
- Cleveland-born celebrity chef Michael Symon is opening this East 4th Street hotspot, named after his childhood dog, in spring 2015. The restaurant will feature what Michael deems "Cleveland-style barbeque" with the sauce utilizing the made-in-the-CLE staple, Bertman Ball Park Mustard.