Kids

Home
Kids
Bay Area Kids Favorites

Bay Area Kids Favorites August 11, 2015KidsOff

Planning a weekend in the Bay Area requires hardly any effort. Bay Area kids have a variety of exciting destinations to choose from – it’s only a matter of deciding which ones you’d like to visit. Here are three places that kids beg their parents to take them to again and again.

Pixieland

Pixieland is a small amusement park in Concord loved by toddlers and their parents alike. The park has hardly any lines, and all the rides are designed with small children in mind. While there aren’t many rides to suit an adult’s tastes, kids are completely mesmerized by the glittering lights of the carousel, the twirling teacups, and the “flying” baron airplanes. If you’re looking for an inexpensive place for a play date, forget Disneyland – Pixieland has everything a young child could ever want from an amusement park.

Happy Hollow Park and Zoo

At the heart of San Jose is a real gem of a park – the Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. It’s a fantastic place to let children run amuck because there are so many things for kids of all ages to do! The park has several picnic areas, a giant play structure modeled after a Ranger Station, and a lemur play structure and exhibit where kids can jump and swing like endangered lemurs. Make sure you go inside the Double Ranch Exhibit, which houses more play areas for kids as well as the Animal Barn, where kids can feed and pet a variety of farm animals. For most of the kids, the petting zoo is the highlight of their experience, because no other place offers such close contact with the furry animals kids love. Further into the facility is a small zoo, where kids can view a wide variety of birds, arachnids, reptiles, and mammals. As if these activities weren’t enough to keep the kids happy, Happy Hollow also has a mini amusement park with a small roller coaster, and a miniature version of the Danny the Dragon ride. All the rides were designed with young kids age 2-6 in mind, and ride fees are included with the admission fee. Many families look forward to their next to Happy Hollow shortly after leaving.

Habitot Children’s Museum

Museums are notorious for their large hallways and hushed whispers, but not Habitot Children’s Museum. This child-sized museum feels more like a giant playroom than anything else, but the best part is that children actually learn as they play with other kids! There are so many interactive exhibits to explore. The Little Town Grocery Caf teaches kids all about social interaction as they push shopping carts around, “pay” for their groceries, and serve each other “food”. For the artistically inclined, there’s an arts and crafts area where kids can go wild with paint, clay, and other fun materials. Children can pretend to go to outer space at the museum’s spaceship, or cool down on a hot day at the water play area. For toddlers and infants under one years old, there’s a gated area where they can crawl or take their tentative first steps.