Ohio's Lake Erie Beachfront Resort Could Be Crowned Best Amusement Park Hotel In America

Every year, the USA Today 10Best Reader's Choice Awards showcase America's top destinations, dining and drinking establishments, and attractions. First, experts nominate candidates in a category, and then USA Today editors narrow down the list before soliciting votes from the public. After four weeks, the editors tally the votes and announce the winners on the 10Best site. As of April 2026, 10Bests have already been published in many categories, from America's Best Baseball Stadium Food and Best Hotel Bar to Best Holiday Parades and even Best Plant Nursery. 

Readers are currently voting on more 10Bests, one of which is America's best theme park hotel. Here, one might expect frontrunners to be associated with the country's most visited theme parks: Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida, followed by California's Disneyland Park, according to leading data-aggregation firm Statista. In 2025, though, this was not the case. First place went to the 3-star Hotel Breakers in Sandusky, Ohio — a city on Lake Erie that's probably not on most people's bucket lists. Next to the hotel is the Six Flags-owned Cedar Point, a historic amusement park that's been around since the late 1880s. While die-hard roller coaster fans have always revered this place, it's not among the top ten most visited U.S. amusement parks, according to Statista. Nor did it make the top 10 on Tripadvisor's list of the top U.S. theme parks.

Yet,10Best appears to have a soft spot for Hotel Breakers. In 2026, it nominated the property once again for best U.S. theme park hotel. This year, it's up against stiff competition from top-notch Disney World-adjacent hotels like Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, along with properties like Dollywood, Universal Orlando, Legoland, and Hersheypark, the largest amusement park in Pennsylvania. Will Hotel Breakers win, surprising us two years in a row? Let's explore the reasons why Hotel Breakers and its lesser-known amusement park remain a top contender in this year's contest.  

A few things stand out about Hotel Breakers that distinguish it from other theme park accommodations. First, Hotel Breakers is unlike properties that cater primarily to families with young children, like California's Legoland Hotel, which bills itself as "A Hotel MADE FOR KIDS." While young folks may love the boldly decorated rooms, themed activities, and life-sized LEGO animals in that hotel, adults may end up with a serious headache. Hotel Breakers, on the other hand, casts its net to a wider audience, mainly because the amusement park is not the only game in town here. 

Hotel Breakers is perched next to Lake Erie, on the lovely Cedar Point Beach, a must-visit Great Lakes beach. This waterfront oasis has been popular with locals and vacationers for over a hundred years. As a welcome break from the amusement park, it provides access to swimming, jet skiing, paddleboarding, and parasailing, as well as land-based activities like sandcastle-building and beach volleyball. What's more, the beach gives people the chance to do nothing at all after days spent wading through crowds and riding roller coasters at the park. And if their room has a lake-facing balcony, weary visitors might not even have to leave their rooms to have amazing lake views. Besides free beach access, Hotel Breakers boasts amenities like eight different bars and restaurants, two outdoor pools and hot tubs, and a well-equipped fitness center.

For those who do plan to hit the amusement park, staying at Hotel Breakers offers a distinct advantage: Early Entry to the park, one hour prior to the gates opening to the public. That means being first in line for terrifying rides like Millennium Force, the first rollercoaster in the world to exceed 300 feet in height. 

Cedar Point may lack the country glam of Dollywood or the emotional magnetism of Disney's Magic Kingdom. But it makes up for that with its historic ambiance and, above all, its thrilling attractions. The park has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the late 1800s, when the cars on its 25-foot-tall roller coaster reached breakneck speeds of... 10 miles per hour. 

Today, Cedar Point boasts 67 different rides, including an 18-acre waterpark and 18 different roller coasters. The park's fastest coaster — Top Thrill Two — is the highest and speediest triple-launch strata coaster in the world. It "hits 120 mph and shoots riders up 420 feet in the air before plummeting straight back down," as described by blogger Single Flyer, who survived the epic ride three times in a row. Single Flyer also described Cedar Point's newest coaster, Siren's Curse, which debuted in summer 2025: "Once you get to the top of the first hill, the train stops and the track lifts from a horizontal position to a completely vertical position. Riders are held completely vertical for a few minutes before being dropped to start a race through the track." We suggest waiting to eat your lunch until you're safely away from this ride — even watching it may make you queasy!

Beyond the twisting corkscrews and death-defying plunges of the park's fabled coasters, visitors can enjoy classic rides like carousels, bumper cars, and spinning swings, along with a giant Ferris wheel and a gondola. To maximize nostalgia, guests can enjoy sit-down meals at throwback venues like the 50s-style Coasters Diner or nosh on funnel cakes, twisted fries, chicken tenders, and other carnival classics at various venues scattered throughout the park.