Travel Guide: Toledo, Ohio, USA

Toledo, OH, (wiki), is about 45min. south of Detroit, MI, right on the northwest border of Ohio, & the southeast border of Michigan. The city is a port on Lake Erie, and was once a significant part of the Erie Canal system. Toledo is a good place to stop if you're on your way west to Chicago & traveling by car, or even by train.

The first stop I always recommend for a visitor to Toledo, OH, is the Toledo Museum of Art. It houses a small, but great, collection (small relative to larger cities' museums). My favorites are the Rembrandts. The Museum's virtues:
     -photography is allowed (NO FLASH)
     -you can get right up close to the artwork (no cordons, but mind
      you don't touch the artwork!)
     -admission is free (donation of your own choosing suggested)
     -the collection is great, for being a small-ish museum:
       -Rubens ("Crowning of St Catherine" & others)
       -Rembrandt
       -pre-Cubist Picasso
       -Pisarro
       -van Gogh
       -Degas (sculpture as well as pastel drawings)
       -excellent ancient artwork collection, Roman, Egyptian, Greek
       -and, a truly unique collection of glass (no, not CZ glass or
        Sony glass, but) ancient & modern -- the Museum was sponsored,
        in part, by Edward Drummond Libbey, who brought his world-famous
        glass company to Toledo (Libbey glassware/barware is used the
        world over)

Also located at the Museum of Art, is the Peristyle (link, scroll down), a Greek Revival concert hall designed in the style of an agora, where the Toledo Symphony plays much of its season. (no photography, to my knowledge, unless rules have changed, but it is well worth hearing a concert there, & sometimes the curators [accidentally?] leave the door open when the hall is empty & you might slip inside & grab a photo of a beautiful concert venue)

There's the Toledo Zoo, which has the benefit of being reasonably-sized, not too large--by which I mean, you could almost walk through the whole zoo in a day (I'd recommend about half of the zoo per day). Like the art museum, the Zoo, though small, has a rich variety of exhibits, and provides fairly close access to animals & such, which is good for photography.

Toledo also has an extensive Botanical Garden, which despite its name has multiple different gardens, including a rose garden, a daylily collection, even an English border garden. The Garden also hosts an annual art show.

A place I haven't been (yet), but dearly want to: the Rosary Cathedral, near downtown. (link with more info) There are (guided?) tours and/or visiting hours, but, somehow, I've never been there at the right time...

Food/Eating
There is the famous Tony Packo's (I love their hot pickels). Tony Packo's was made famous on the TV show M*A*S*H, thanks to actor, and Toledo native, Jamie Farr (who hosts an annual benefit & LPGA golf tournament, the Jamie Farr... Classic) there's some interesting culture in Toledo & Packo's derives from the Hungarian element in the city.

I like the Spaghetti Warehouse (not to be confused with Spaghetti Factory), 42 S Superior St, downtown -- used to be an excellent restaurant (20 yrs ago), now merely 'very good' (IMO). But still certainly worth dining there, while you are visiting. The Warehouse has some interesting decor, including an old trolley car (which you can dine in, if there are only one or two of you [small tables]).

Shopping
Also in downtown Toledo, is the Erie Street Market, which, during temperate months, hosts a Farmers' Market, as well. I particularly like the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet Store (205 S Erie St, in Toledo).

Edited by alpha_in_exile - 08 January 2011 at 03:15