Potential Ohio trip - help?

TinoPup said:
Switching some stuff around in order to make certain days of the week, adding a few stops.

Day 1. Drive to Cincinnati, stop at Oglebay Good Zoo (it adds all of 4 minutes to my drive).
Day 2. Cincinnati Zoo. Drive to Indianapolis. Rain backup is Newport Aquarium, probably won't have time to do both otherwise.
Day 3. Indianapolis Zoo. Drive to Toledo.
Day 4. Toledo Zoo. Cheetah encounter at 2pm. Possibly stop at Indian Creek Zoo (to see tayra). Drive to Detroit.
Day 5. Detroit Zoo and hopefully Belle Isle Aquarium. The aquarium is only open fri-sun, which is why I've reversed my route. I'm really hoping to fit it in! Drive to Cleveland.
-I'd like to fit a stop at African Safari Wildlife Park in, but I don't know how I could make it fit, time-wise-
Day 6. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Akron Zoo. Rain backup is Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Drive to Pittsburgh.
Day 7. Living Treasures Wild Animal Park (New Castle location) and Keystone Safari. LT has honey badger and possibly black-backed jackal, Keystone has least weasel and spotted hyena.
Day 8. Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Day 9. Pittsburgh Zoo and National Aviary. Cheetah experience is only mon/wed/fri.
Day 10. Drive home, with possible stop at Catoctin Wildlife Preserve.
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I don't know how long the Cheetah encounter is at Toledo, but if it's any longer than half an hour you might be a little squished for time.
 
TinoPup said:
Switching some stuff around in order to make certain days of the week, adding a few stops.

Day 1. Drive to Cincinnati, stop at Oglebay Good Zoo (it adds all of 4 minutes to my drive).
Day 2. Cincinnati Zoo. Drive to Indianapolis. Rain backup is Newport Aquarium, probably won't have time to do both otherwise.
Day 3. Indianapolis Zoo. Drive to Toledo.
Day 4. Toledo Zoo. Cheetah encounter at 2pm. Possibly stop at Indian Creek Zoo (to see tayra). Drive to Detroit.
Day 5. Detroit Zoo and hopefully Belle Isle Aquarium. The aquarium is only open fri-sun, which is why I've reversed my route. I'm really hoping to fit it in! Drive to Cleveland.
-I'd like to fit a stop at African Safari Wildlife Park in, but I don't know how I could make it fit, time-wise-
Day 6. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Akron Zoo. Rain backup is Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Drive to Pittsburgh.
Day 7. Living Treasures Wild Animal Park (New Castle location) and Keystone Safari. LT has honey badger and possibly black-backed jackal, Keystone has least weasel and spotted hyena.
Day 8. Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Day 9. Pittsburgh Zoo and National Aviary. Cheetah experience is only mon/wed/fri.
Day 10. Drive home, with possible stop at Catoctin Wildlife Preserve.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a really good trip! One thing, the Carnegie museum is really nice but fairly small, it's probably a 2-3 hour visit, although you also get access to the adjoining Art Museum if that's your kind of thing. You could probably combine the Pittsburgh Zoo and Carnegie museum, then visit the aviary on the way out of Pittsburgh.
 
I don’t think Cleveland and Akron on the same day is wise. Skip Akron and wait for some future trip when it’s newest area is open.

Carnegie museums and walking around the Oakland area they are in is indeed a satisfying whole day!
 
geomorph said:
Carnegie museums and walking around the Oakland area they are in is indeed a satisfying whole day!
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Is the Oakland area the Pittsburgh university campus? It's a nice area, but I can't see it taking up a whole day. In July I did the Zoo and Carnegie Museum in 1 day, and I was staying in West Virginia!

There's also a nice Arboretum near the museum, which you could potentially do if you have spare time.
 
Toledo has a lot of exhibits for its size, especially with the museum being open now. There might be 250+ exhibits total at this point, including some in unexpected places: feathertail gliders in the indoor kids play area, birds of prey in a shed behind the reptile house, small herps and invertebrates hidden in the oak forest room of the museum. If you like to see everything it might be tough to fit in Indian Creek on the same day. Detroit is a lot bigger in area, but the exhibits are mostly spacious, wide open yards so most of it can be seen relatively quickly. It should not be difficult to tack on Belle Isle, and if you hit Detroit at opening you might be able to tack on Indian Creek on this day. One other note -- if you like wildlife watching, Peregrine Falcon nest on the Detroit Zoo water tower and often hang around for much of the year, the pond in the middle of the zoo has Blanding's Turtle that might be basking if it's warm, and in mid/late fall there typically lots of migrating waterfowl, loons, etc. around Belle Isle.
 
TZDugong said:
Sounds like a really good trip! One thing, the Carnegie museum is really nice but fairly small, it's probably a 2-3 hour visit, although you also get access to the adjoining Art Museum if that's your kind of thing. You could probably combine the Pittsburgh Zoo and Carnegie museum, then visit the aviary on the way out of Pittsburgh.
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By that point I'll probably be exhausted, so I might just want to sleep in, haha. I'll be staying with friends there so I have more time to work with, rather than extra stuff costing me another day in a hotel. My friend has a service dog, so that's a factor in planning, though both the zoo and aviary seem to be okay except for a few areas. I did see after posting that Carnegie is closed on tuesdays, so that will likely be switched to monday, the two junk zoos on tuesday, then Pittsburgh Zoo on wednesday.

geomorph said:
I don’t think Cleveland and Akron on the same day is wise. Skip Akron and wait for some future trip when it’s newest area is open.
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Akron isn't a big deal, I would really like to see the Speke's Gazelles but that's about it :)
 
Gondwana said:
Toledo has a lot of exhibits for its size, especially with the museum being open now. There might be 250+ exhibits total at this point, including some in unexpected places: feathertail gliders in the indoor kids play area, birds of prey in a shed behind the reptile house, small herps and invertebrates hidden in the oak forest room of the museum. If you like to see everything it might be tough to fit in Indian Creek on the same day. Detroit is a lot bigger in area, but the exhibits are mostly spacious, wide open yards so most of it can be seen relatively quickly. It should not be difficult to tack on Belle Isle, and if you hit Detroit at opening you might be able to tack on Indian Creek on this day. One other note -- if you like wildlife watching, Peregrine Falcon nest on the Detroit Zoo water tower and often hang around for much of the year, the pond in the middle of the zoo has Blanding's Turtle that might be basking if it's warm, and in mid/late fall there typically lots of migrating waterfowl, loons, etc. around Belle Isle.
Click to expand...

Thank you for all of this!! That was the vibe I got looking at the Toledo website, thanks for confirming it. Indian Creek also isn't a big deal, It's 20 minutes away according to google and I'd be stopping there just to see the one species; emotionally I'm not great at handling poor-quality zoos. I'm not going to leave Toledo early to fit it in or anything, that's for sure.
That's great to know about Detroit!!

drill said:
Why Indianapolis?
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... Why not?
 
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