Top 5 Unlikely Vacation Spots that Actually Rule

by Jason Dick

People sometimes look at me funny when I recommend Columbus, Ohio, as a vacation destination. 

But when a tell them it’s a place you can get a great sit-down meal and morning bagel, see a professional baseball game where an extended squirrel chase broke out, browse in a bookstore with dozens of rooms and nooks and crannies and maybe randomly meet Erik Estrada, it’s usually followed by a knowing nod — even if they aren’t fans of CHiPs.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in a small town as an only child, but I tend to look for things in places seemingly easy to overlook. 

And so I want to share a few places I’ve visited in the last year that could make for a decent little weekend or short vacation. 

I know Scranton, Pa., will never replace Paris. But I also know that as much as I love Paris, there is no place there quite like Cooper’s Seafood House. 

Keep an open mind, pay attention to the ridiculous and consider the following destinations as unlikely places that might just win you over. Some are places I went with family, as a destination. (We do a minor league baseball trip every year.) Some are places I passed through or had to go to for one reason or another. I’d go back. 

The highlights I note are highly personal, and don’t constitute anywhere near what these places offer. They are just the things that I love. 

Columbus, Oh

    • The Book Loft of German Village. Great selection spread among a labyrinth of rooms in a super cool historic part of the city and near the state Capitol building. 
    • Lindey’s. Fancy pants sit-down dinner. Also in German Village. Nice patio, great bar, fabulous food. 
    • Jeni’s Ice Cream. Founded here. I know you can get this anywhere, but there’s also something to tasting it in its natural habitat. 
    • The Lox. Nice bagel spot in the Short North, an artsy and night-lifey and boozy and fun neighborhood. 
    • Big Fun. A mind-bogglingly vast selection of collectibles and toys. Also in Short North.
    • Erik Estrada. This isn’t a sure thing. But Ponch did say he was visiting friends when I met him at the airport, so you never know. 

    Scranton, Pa

    • Cooper’s Seafood House. If you’ve seen the U.S. The Office, Cooper’s makes a great set piece for multiple episodes. And the show, if anything, underplays how bizarre and amazing this place is. A whale vertebrae! A wall of toothpaste from around the world! Gilligan’s Island dioramas! Portraits of Jack Lord! Charles and Diana royal wedding commemorative beer! A museum of ephemera that serves beer and fried fish. 
    • Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders baseball. Minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees. You never know when you’ll see the next Aaron Judge, whom I randomly saw one lazy summer night back in 2015. 
    • Mom & Pop’s Pierogies. In Wilkes-Barre, but close enough. Every kind of pierogi you’ve never heard of, plus all kinds of other Pennsylvania Dutch goodies. 
    • Downtown Scranton. From the Electric City sign and Trolly Museum, to the courthouse and commercial district surrounding it, all Gothic and Industrial architecture, it’s pretty cool. Home to many scenes in That Championship Season, an awesome movie set in Scranton starring Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, Paul Sorvino, Stacy Keach and Robert Mitchum and directed by native son Jason Miller (Father Karras, the younger priest in The Exorcist.) 

    Newark, NJ

    • Ironbound Neighborhood. A whole universe of Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian bakeries, pubs and restaurants. 
    • Madrid & Lisbon Restaurant. Whatever was in the stew I had, it was a bulwark against the cold and rain.
    • Teixeira’s Bakery. Egg custard tarts, paninis, fresh bread. The perfect way to start a day.
    • New Jersey Devils hockey. When I got into Newark’s Penn Station, there were streams of boisterous hockey fans for the New Jersey Devils-Philadelphia Flyers game at the nearby Prudential Center. It made me wish I had more time here. 

    Utica, NY

    • Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute. They’ve got a little of everything. A Jackson Pollock, a Picasso, The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole. And it’s free. We paid extra for the traveling exhibit, which was displaying every single cover Norman Rockwell ever did. 
    • O’Scugnizzo Pizzeria. The second oldest pizzeria in the United States, apparently. Serves up the local specialty, tomato pie. 
    • Erie Canal. If you grew up singing “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal,” here’s a chance to for an easy hike along the walking trails of what was once the major commercial conduit for the Eastern Seaboard.
    • The Tailor and the Cook. Fancy pants dining, with an emphasis on local farm sourced food and wine. 
    • Utica Comets Hockey. Was looking forward to this during a planned December trip, but couldn’t make it because of that horrible snow storm that made travel “very difficult to impossible” as the National Weather Service put it. They filmed parts of Slap Shot here. 

    Richmond, Va

    • Sub Rosa Bakery. Without question some of the best bread and pastries I’ve ever had. My buddy who wrote a book about bread, (Sam Fromartz, “In Search of the Perfect Loaf”) is a big fan. 
    • Alewife. It’s tough to pick just one fancy-pants sit-down restaurant in Church Hill, but if I could only go to one, it’d be this one. Grisette is a close second. 
    • Soul Taco. Just like it sounds. In historic Jackson Ward. 
    • GWARbar. Richmond favorite sons/glam metal band’s tavern. Has to be seen to be believed. Great beer selection and the food is pretty good too. 
    • Fountain Bookstore. Independent book store with nice selection of Virginia culture and history works. 
    • Black Swan Books. Antiquarian goodness. Just a ton of stuff you don’t find in very many places. 
    • Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Gorgeous facility with extensive modern selection. It was a few years ago, but it got my affection when it hosted Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée Picasso. 
    • Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball. Kooky team in a kooky stadium. The last time I was there, it was Grateful Dead Night. Very on brand for a San Francisco Giants minor league affiliate. 

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