October 12, 2025 • 5 mins
Matthew MacLaren, Director of Travel and Tourism Policy for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, shares his travel top 10 list!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got them at different places we go if we
(00:03):
helped keep them under tennessee.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Here East Year.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
All right, we're going to break down the top ten
things here to Hio. We've been talking about it for
the last hour and we're going to make sure that
we have a summarized list here for everyone listening.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So if you're just tuning in, you get it. The
best part.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
You get to hear the top ten things and make
sure you get to check them all off your list here.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So this is Joe Schmidz.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Meghan Castleberry with Peak Retirement Planning. We got Matt McClaren
here from the director of Traveling Tourism with the Ohio
Chamber of Commerce here, so go ahead and do give
us our top ten list. We'll cover anything we missed
or maybe anything we want to talk further on with
the last few minutes here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, Joe, Meghan, thank you. It's been such a fun
hour and we talked about so many things. So here
they are in order, a top ten list of number
ones things that Ohio has that are ranked number one.
King's Island Winterfest ranked is the number one holiday event
in the United States state parks. We talked about them
a lot. The Ohio State Parks ranked. It's number nine
(01:02):
on the list, ranked as the number one state parks
in the United States. All right, eight on my list
haunted houses hanted Ohio, we have one hundred and forty four,
which makes us the state with the most haunted houses
in the United States. Number seven on that list. Columbus Zoo,
all right, it is one of the top zoos in
the United States. It was ranked the third best zoo
this past year. But you know what, they haven't seen
(01:22):
your North America track yet. Once they see that, I
know it'll get a number one ranking. So Columbus Zoo
go into six. We talked about the Circleville pumpkin Show.
There is no official listing of top pumpkin shows, but
if you've been to Circleville, you know it is the
top pumpkin show in the United States. Circleville Pumpkin Show
number five. KOSAI ranked consistently as the number one science
center in the United States, and that's right here in
(01:43):
downtown Columbus. The Toledo Museum of Art got ranked the
top museum of Art in the United States. So four,
counting down to three. Cincinnati Zoom Botanical Garden, their p
and C Festival of Lights, one of the top light shows,
not one of it's been for seven years now, ranked
by CNBC, and you say today, the top late show
in the United States, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
(02:04):
best music museum in the nation. And then one number
one on that list, the number one of number ones,
the Ohio State buck Guys, the National Championships and currently
ranked number one Ohio State Buckeye football team.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Quite a bit to do there on long list.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And I know another thing we didn't talk about today,
but I just had a client that just move forward
with us. I forget which state they're in, but they're
in a different state, and they said, hey, we want
to come visit you guys. And the only thing they
said they wanted to go do was the Football Hall
of Fame in Kentton, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah right, I can put that on the list too,
so I'm sure, and maybe we'll have to make that
another special.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I'll go at Ohio Chamber dot com and Ohio Chamber
on social media. We'll post this list to tens and
let me know what we missed. I grew up in Akron, Ohio, Akron,
Canton Area Pro Football Hall of Fames amazing and certainly
deserves to be on the list too.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, there's so much there, so much fun to do.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
What do you want to point out further here, Matt,
that you want to make sure the listeners are ensuring
that they're doing or know more about.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, I'll tell you what. It is a great time
of year in Ohio, that fall time of year. I
want to make sure they're out there enjoying our free
state parks over seventy six free state parks across the state.
I want to make sure that they're getting ready for winter,
and we have some amazing things to do here in
the winter, including that King's Island Winterfest. And then start planning,
it's not too early, start planning that spring and summer trip. Joe,
(03:21):
you Megan, you gave me a couple of ideas a
little places here in Columbus to go and enjoy. Hopefully
you got lots of great ideas coming up for the
next year too.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, a lot of fun things to do here in Ohio.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And you don't got to go travel all across the
country or two different you know countries, you know, just
do it right here in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We got a little bit of all and you can
find the things to do in the state of Ohio
at ohio dot org or by following Ohio Chamber on
social media.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Absolutely meg anything to add to us here before we Yeah,
I think this is worthy to know.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I don't know if we covered this, but the ranking
of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, I feel like that's
pretty pretty exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So you're probably just being humble and didn't want to
mention that.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, it actually inspired fired me to think of what
are the number one things that Ohio is known for?
Because this year, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, where I
so happily get to work, got ranked the top state
chamber of Commerce in the United States from the National
Council of State Chambers. Yeah, thank you. We're working hard
every day to make Ohio great.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I want to know one more thing here, top five
cities for people to go to.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Here in Ohio and order and we'll start at number five.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
We got to do a whole other session on this.
I mean, you got the larger cities of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati,
you got the just the list that I love, the
Mount Verdins, the Hockey Hills.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Let's start out with the big cities and then small cities.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
They each have of their own charms. So Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo,
the hometown where I grew up of Akron, Ohio. Then
that kind of mid tier, the Geneva and the Lakes,
the Canton, Ohio's are wonderful, Youngstown, Ohio. And then you
got to get into the small towns because the small
towns really power what goes on in the state of Ohio.
The Johnstowns where you grew up, the Mount Pleasants. No,
(04:59):
it's it's all unique, it's all wonderful. Go and explore
our high Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And I always tell people like, find someone you know
in that area too, and they'll show you the best
of that area. If you go with someone who's a local,
you're gonna get the best place to eat, see the
best things, and you're gonna do it in a lot
less time.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Friends and family. That's the way to travel.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
That's right. Good stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Well, had some fun today with you here, Matt, And
this is Joe Schmitz, Meghan Castlebury. We'll be hanging around
here the next hour talking all things peak retirement and
retirement planning. So stick around with us here and we're
looking forward to it. This is Joe Schmids, Meg Casterbury,
Matt McLaren on six' TEN wtvn
We got them at different places we go if we
(00:03):
helped keep them under tennessee.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Here East Year.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
All right, we're going to break down the top ten
things here to Hio. We've been talking about it for
the last hour and we're going to make sure that
we have a summarized list here for everyone listening.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So if you're just tuning in, you get it. The
best part.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
You get to hear the top ten things and make
sure you get to check them all off your list here.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So this is Joe Schmidz.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Meghan Castleberry with Peak Retirement Planning. We got Matt McClaren
here from the director of Traveling Tourism with the Ohio
Chamber of Commerce here, so go ahead and do give
us our top ten list. We'll cover anything we missed
or maybe anything we want to talk further on with
the last few minutes here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, Joe, Meghan, thank you. It's been such a fun
hour and we talked about so many things. So here
they are in order, a top ten list of number
ones things that Ohio has that are ranked number one.
King's Island Winterfest ranked is the number one holiday event
in the United States state parks. We talked about them
a lot. The Ohio State Parks ranked. It's number nine
(01:02):
on the list, ranked as the number one state parks
in the United States. All right, eight on my list
haunted houses hanted Ohio, we have one hundred and forty four,
which makes us the state with the most haunted houses
in the United States. Number seven on that list. Columbus Zoo,
all right, it is one of the top zoos in
the United States. It was ranked the third best zoo
this past year. But you know what, they haven't seen
(01:22):
your North America track yet. Once they see that, I
know it'll get a number one ranking. So Columbus Zoo
go into six. We talked about the Circleville pumpkin Show.
There is no official listing of top pumpkin shows, but
if you've been to Circleville, you know it is the
top pumpkin show in the United States. Circleville Pumpkin Show
number five. KOSAI ranked consistently as the number one science
center in the United States, and that's right here in
(01:43):
downtown Columbus. The Toledo Museum of Art got ranked the
top museum of Art in the United States. So four,
counting down to three. Cincinnati Zoom Botanical Garden, their p
and C Festival of Lights, one of the top light shows,
not one of it's been for seven years now, ranked
by CNBC, and you say today, the top late show
in the United States, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
(02:04):
best music museum in the nation. And then one number
one on that list, the number one of number ones,
the Ohio State buck Guys, the National Championships and currently
ranked number one Ohio State Buckeye football team.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Quite a bit to do there on long list.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And I know another thing we didn't talk about today,
but I just had a client that just move forward
with us. I forget which state they're in, but they're
in a different state, and they said, hey, we want
to come visit you guys. And the only thing they
said they wanted to go do was the Football Hall
of Fame in Kentton, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah right, I can put that on the list too,
so I'm sure, and maybe we'll have to make that
another special.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I'll go at Ohio Chamber dot com and Ohio Chamber
on social media. We'll post this list to tens and
let me know what we missed. I grew up in Akron, Ohio, Akron,
Canton Area Pro Football Hall of Fames amazing and certainly
deserves to be on the list too.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, there's so much there, so much fun to do.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
What do you want to point out further here, Matt,
that you want to make sure the listeners are ensuring
that they're doing or know more about.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, I'll tell you what. It is a great time
of year in Ohio, that fall time of year. I
want to make sure they're out there enjoying our free
state parks over seventy six free state parks across the state.
I want to make sure that they're getting ready for winter,
and we have some amazing things to do here in
the winter, including that King's Island Winterfest. And then start planning,
it's not too early, start planning that spring and summer trip. Joe,
(03:21):
you Megan, you gave me a couple of ideas a
little places here in Columbus to go and enjoy. Hopefully
you got lots of great ideas coming up for the
next year too.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, a lot of fun things to do here in Ohio.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And you don't got to go travel all across the
country or two different you know countries, you know, just
do it right here in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We got a little bit of all and you can
find the things to do in the state of Ohio
at ohio dot org or by following Ohio Chamber on
social media.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Absolutely meg anything to add to us here before we Yeah,
I think this is worthy to know.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I don't know if we covered this, but the ranking
of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, I feel like that's
pretty pretty exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So you're probably just being humble and didn't want to
mention that.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, it actually inspired fired me to think of what
are the number one things that Ohio is known for?
Because this year, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, where I
so happily get to work, got ranked the top state
chamber of Commerce in the United States from the National
Council of State Chambers. Yeah, thank you. We're working hard
every day to make Ohio great.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I want to know one more thing here, top five
cities for people to go to.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Here in Ohio and order and we'll start at number five.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
We got to do a whole other session on this.
I mean, you got the larger cities of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati,
you got the just the list that I love, the
Mount Verdins, the Hockey Hills.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Let's start out with the big cities and then small cities.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
They each have of their own charms. So Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo,
the hometown where I grew up of Akron, Ohio. Then
that kind of mid tier, the Geneva and the Lakes,
the Canton, Ohio's are wonderful, Youngstown, Ohio. And then you
got to get into the small towns because the small
towns really power what goes on in the state of Ohio.
The Johnstowns where you grew up, the Mount Pleasants. No,
(04:59):
it's it's all unique, it's all wonderful. Go and explore
our high Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And I always tell people like, find someone you know
in that area too, and they'll show you the best
of that area. If you go with someone who's a local,
you're gonna get the best place to eat, see the
best things, and you're gonna do it in a lot
less time.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Friends and family. That's the way to travel.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
That's right. Good stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Well, had some fun today with you here, Matt, And
this is Joe Schmitz, Meghan Castlebury. We'll be hanging around
here the next hour talking all things peak retirement and
retirement planning. So stick around with us here and we're
looking forward to it. This is Joe Schmids, Meg Casterbury,
Matt McLaren on six' TEN wtvn
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