All Aboard! Exploring Peninsula on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad
There’s no better way to experience Northeast Ohio’s fall colors than aboard the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Mindy recently shared her day exploring Peninsula from scenic views to small-town charm.
We did the scenic train picking up at the Rockside station at 9:00 a.m. You arrive 30 mins early, they guide you to your train car and you are off. We did the cigar open air car, which you have to 21+, but there are a ton of choices from coach (cozy seats with tables and games) to the dome cars which are full windows. The train goes all the way to downtown Akron, but stops at several stations along the way. Peninsula is the most popular stop and we got off there for breakfast, shopping and touring. The train is free for kids 3 and under and it is stroller friendly (we saw a ton).
While in Peninsula we did the following:
Breakfast at Fisher's Cafe, quaint place with optional patio seating and a huge menu. It is one of 2 restaurants in Peninsula.
Apple Jax Toys which also has a location in Lakewood. Vintage and toys of today
Pedego Electric Bikes offers regular and electric bike rentals for $25 hr.
Trail Mix Peninsula CVNP conservatory store with all things trains, national park, and a small snack store. You can also pre-order snacks and cold drinks if you will be hiking, biking, kayaking or anything else on the trails and pickup afterwards (a ton of people did this to our surprise)
Purplebrown Farm store - local and organic farm store with produce, meats, dairy, and dry goods. Has free samples and table to for kids activities
The Peninsula Art Academy - at first I thought this was a gallery and no go, but they offer tons of classes, from kids creativity, crafting, paper collage, painting, glassblowing and comic book drawing. Most classes are 14+ but the gal there assured me that classes for younger kids get added all the time. www.peninsulaartacademy.org/classes.
Caboose is located outside of the trail mix store and is open at 11am I believe and free to walk through. It's quick but kids were climbing all over it and seemed to really enjoy it
We also went to a couple antique stores and galleries, along with Winking Lizard for a beer, but I left those off for obvious reasons.
Obviously being in the heart of Cuyahoga Valley National Park there are tons of outdoor activities and if you bike down there, you can use the explorer pass on the train and it will take you back to your depot.
As for the train, they also offer a family fun loop, https://www.cvsr.org/excursions/family-fun-loop that is 2 hours long and includes craft making and bingo or a pumpkin cookie decorating ride for $27. The north pole adventure is coming up for winter, and will undoubtedly fill up fast, https://www.cvsr.org/excursions/north-pole-adventure/north-pole-adventure.
We had a great time. We got back on the train in Peninsula, took it down to Akron and then all the way back to the Rockside station. It was an all day event, getting us back about 4:45 p.m. but we enjoyed bumming around Peninsula. You could definitely pack some snacks and activities and just ride as well.
Shared by Mindy, a local adventurer and member of The CLE Family Collective.
Have a Cleveland story, adventure, or favorite local spot to share? Email us at hello@clefamilycollective.com.
