Nestled at the western tip of Lake Erie, Toledo is a bustling port city along the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway. It’s home to an architecturally inspiring art gallery and dedicated children’s museum, as well as the world’s first “hippoquarium” at the Toledo Zoo.

Things to do

Admire the 19th and 20th-century American and European works on display at the Toledo Museum of Art, set within an elegant Greek Revival building in the heart of the city. Works by Rembrandt, El Greco and Van Gogh are among the highlights, together with Peter Paul Rubens's famous painting “The Crowning of Saint Catherine”.

Of particular note is the museum’s architecturally impressive Glass Pavilion, which features curved glass walls crafted in China. It was designed to showcase the museum’s outstanding glass art collection that includes a prominent sculpture by renowned American glass artist Dale Chihuly.

Travelling with kids? Let their creativity run wild at the Imagination Station, a children’s science museum on the banks of the Maumee River. Get your hands dirty in the Grow U gardens, explore the world of engineering and design in the IDEA Lab and see live demonstrations about combustion, motion and sound in the Extreme Science Theater.

Another family-friendly attraction is the Toledo Zoo, which features a “hippoquarium” where you can watch hippos in their underwater habitat. See harbour seals and polar bears in the Arctic Encounter exhibit, Masai giraffe and cheetahs in the Africa display and orangutans and western lowland gorillas in the Kingdom of the Apes.

Getting around

Toledo Express Airport is located 25 minutes’ drive from the city centre, which is just over one hour’s drive from the Detroit International Airport. Buses travel throughout Toledo and many of the city’s attractions are within walking distance of one another.