My husband and I want to take a mini road trip for 1-3 days with my 21-month-old daughter next month. We live in Lake County and wouldn't want to drive more than maybe four hours to our destination. Water parks are out - my husband doesn't want to do that. Any good ideas of somewhere we can get away to that will be fun for all three of us?
Our family is going to Hocking Hills in a few weeks (about an hour east of Columbus) - http://www.hockinghills.com/.
We'll be staying in a cabin. There's short and long hikes in a beautiful area, and lots of ponds, etc. It's really relaxing! We'll be driving into Columbus to spend the afternoon on our way home and probably hit COSI or the zoo.
Got to Erie - it's a little over an hour for you... there's Waldameer - very affordable - then you can go to Presque Isle and enjoy the beach - go on a Pontoon boat ride - go to the Tom Ridge Center which is free... lots to do and not that expensive...
We loved Idlewild! We took our boys there twice and my 7 year old wants to go back! He was almost 2 when we went. It is perfect for small children. The Trolly ride in Mr.Rodgers neighborhood was a big hit and so was Story Book Forest. It was very afordable as well.
The Columbus Zoo is very nice - much bigger than the Cleveland Zoo. There's also COSI in Columbus (Science Museum). We took our kids there a couple of years ago (the youngest was two) and they loved it.
If you want to drive farther, Cincinnati Zoo is also supposed to be fabulous, and there's also a really nice aquarium just over the border in Kentucky.
Another place to consider that is somewhere around Pittsburgh is Idlewild (you can find it on the web). I haven't been there myself, but my sister's family went when their children when they were young and the kids really liked the Story book forest area.
