CLEVELAND (August 26, 2026) — Cleveland offers travelers plenty to discover this fall, from new ways to experience the waterfront to major cultural openings and expanded seasonal programming. And with new professional sports teams, MICHELIN recognition and hotel openings on the way, the city’s momentum is only building.
Fall in Love with Cleveland
Extend Summer Along Cleveland’s Waterfront
The
Patrick S. Parker Community Sailing Center at East 55
th Street Marina gives visitors another place to experience Lake Erie. The first-of-its-kind development along Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline offers year-round recreation, community programming and public waterfront access. The center is also home to
The Galley, a restaurant featuring locally sourced ingredients, outdoor seating and rooftop views of Lake Erie.
Expected to be completed this fall, the Mandel Community Trail will improve 1.3 miles of existing path and add 2.7 miles of off-road path, creating a lighted, paved bike and pedestrian connection from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame downtown to the Sailing Center and beyond.
Along the Cuyahoga River, the Flats district also enters fall with several refreshed nightlife options.
Shooters reopened following a major renovation, joining the recent themed nightlife additions
Good Night John Boy,
Lost on the River and
BarFlyy.
Agave Social is expected to open soon.
Culture Takes Center Stage This Fall
At the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the recently opened “
Paul McCartney and Wings” exhibit is the first major museum exhibition dedicated to Wings. It features the most extensive selection of items from McCartney's personal archive ever made publicly accessible, including rare artifacts and photographs.
The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee exhibit is on display for only a short time before closing to make way for this year’s display. The
Class of 2026 inductee exhibit will open just ahead of the November ceremony, which will return to Cleveland in fall 2027.
The
museum's $135 million expansion is set for completion later this year and will add 50,000 square feet of performance and public space while creating a new connection to Cleveland’s lakefront.
The city is making a name for itself as a national tour launchpad for Broadway shows, with two North American tours kicking off at
Playhouse Square this fall:
“Death Becomes Her” Sept. 12-Oct. 3 opens the
2026-27 KeyBank Broadway Series and The Who’s rock musical “
Tommy” runs Oct. 6-11. The season continues into 2027 with popular productions including “
MAMMA MIA!,” “
The Phantom of the Opera” and “
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” offering theater travelers several reasons to make a return trip to Cleveland. The city’s national tour launch momentum continues into 2028, with the Broadway musical “The Lost Boys”
already announced.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2026-27 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 25th and final season as music director. The season opens Sept. 17 with “
Strauss & Shostakovich.” Welser-Möst is scheduled to conduct several major choral works, new music, an opera and much of Richard Strauss’ orchestral catalog before his final performance, “
The Last Waltz,” on May 29.
New Arrivals and Experiences
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is giving visitors a rare opportunity to see an
Amur leopard cub born earlier this year—the first born at an Ohio zoo. The arrival comes as the zoo prepares to open the first phase of its $60 million
Primate Forest later this year, including the CrossCountry Mortgage Forest Home, Tropical Forest and expanded Orangutan Forest.
Cedar Point's HalloWeekends returns Sept. 17-Nov. 1 with new haunted attractions, live entertainment and Halloween-themed ride experiences. 2026 additions include Diablo: The Infernal Path, an immersive horror maze created in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment, and Crystal Rock Massacre, a summer camp horror experience, along with the return of The Conjuring: Beyond Fear from New Line Cinema's The Conjuring Universe. Several rides will receive Halloween-themed transformations, and more than 20 daytime activities and attractions will also return for younger visitors, including Snoopy's Tricks and Treats Adventure and the Trick-or-Treat Trail.
What’s Next in Cleveland
Because one visit to Cleveland is never enough, travelers will have more reasons to return in 2027, with sports, dining and hospitality developments amplifying the city’s appeal.
A New Era for Cleveland Sports
Cleveland's sports landscape is expanding with immersive experiences and professional teams arriving over the next several years.
Opening in 2027,
Cosm Cleveland will bring its signature immersive sports and entertainment experience to downtown’s Gateway District. Cosm's fifth and largest U.S. venue will be centered around a more than 12,000-square-foot LED dome designed to place audiences in the middle of live games, concerts and events.
The unveiling of the
Cleveland Sirens marks the next chapter in the WNBA's return to Cleveland, giving fans their first opportunity to connect with the franchise before tipoff in 2028. For WNBA fans who travel to follow their teams, the reveal also offers an early introduction to a city that will soon be on the league schedule.
Forest City Cleveland will begin MLS NEXT Pro play in 2027, followed by
Cleveland Astra of WPSL Pro in 2028, adding men’s and women’s professional soccer to the city’s sports lineup. Cleveland Soccer Group has also proposed a dedicated soccer stadium near Downtown as part of its longer-term plans.
More Reasons to Return in 2027
Cleveland's dining scene is entering the national spotlight as the
MICHELIN Guide expands to the American Great Lakes region. Inspectors are scouting restaurants, with the inaugural selections set to be announced in 2027.
Downtown Cleveland's hotel options will increase next year with three properties: a 141-room
AC Hotel by Marriott, a 123-room
Tribute Portfolio Hotel in the historic Rose Building and Cleveland's first
W Hotel. The additions follow recent investments in existing properties, including a full guestroom renovation at the
Westin Cleveland Downtown and the debut of
The Club at Hilton at Hilton Cleveland Downtown—a first-of-its kind premium lounge offering all-day dining, barista coffee and dedicated spaces for working or relaxing.
Getting to Cleveland becomes easier this fall, with new and expanded nonstop service from several major markets.
United Airlines launches year-round service between Cleveland and Las Vegas on Sept. 24 and seasonal service between Cleveland and Miami beginning Dec. 3. Southwest Airlines will begin near-daily service between Cleveland and Dallas Love Field Oct. 1, followed by holiday service later in the year before the route becomes daily and year-round March 11, 2027. The additions follow
Avelo Airlines' Cleveland debut earlier this summer with nonstop service between Cleveland and New Haven, Connecticut, and Concord, North Carolina.
To keep up to date on new developments and activities, please visit
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ABOUT DESTINATION CLEVELAND: Destination Cleveland is Cleveland’s destination marketing and management organization. The private, non-profit organization’s mission is to stimulate economic growth by attracting people and connecting them to experiences that illustrate Cleveland’s diversity, creativity and contagious passion. In 2024, visitation increased for the fourth straight year to 18.6 million visits, with visitor spending infusing a record-high $6.9 billion into the local economy. For more information, visit
www.thisiscleveland.com.