Top 20 Places to Take Kids in New York's Capital District - 2022
Winners for 2022
Every May and June, thousands of local parents, grandparents, and caregivers weigh in on their favorite local places to take kids. Typically, we showcase the Top 20 winners... but this year, in honor of KidsOutAndAbout.com's 21st birthday (we originally launched in June of 2001), we bring you the Capital District's
TOP 21 Places to Take Kids!
Of course, there are literally hundreds of wonderful places to take your kids in our area, not just this year's winners! Browse through our site and discover lots more to do, sign up for our fabulous weekly e-newsletter, and make sure to click on our Everything that's free page!
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1. Landis Arboretum
Landis Arboretum is open from dawn to dusk, free to everyone, 365 days a year. You and your family can roam our hundreds of acres, hike over 14 miles of trails, watch the critters at our ponds, and observe the many birds and other creatures who make Landis home. We offer classes on nature related topics (including some on Facebook Live), welcome great bands to our Live at Landis Full Moon Music Series, and have two great Plant, Book, and Bake Sales (spring and fall). You’ll love our new Shanti Vun Meditation Garden. Landis is a great place for families, including your well-behaved, leashed dog. Visit our website for lots more information!
2. FunPlex Fun Park
FunPlex Fun Park has fun for adventure-seekers of all ages: Miniature golf, batting cages, go-karts, bungee trampoline, bumper boats,spider mountain, rock wall, water wars, and more!
3. Billy Beez Crossgates, Albany, NY and Billy Beez Sangertown, New Hartford, NY
Billy Beez is the ultimate indoor play park for kids and kids-at-heart! Our 20,000* sq. ft. play parks offer a variety of features and activities, from slides to sports courts, tunnels to towers, ball blasters to bouncy trampolines, adventure is always right around the corner at Billy Beez. The park is ideal for all ages, including infants, toddlers, adults and every age in between.
Voted best birthday party place, choose from one of our award-winning packages which includes our Private Party Room, with anywhere from 90-120 minutes of catered or non-catered customizable add-on options. Your upcoming celebration will truly WOW all of your party guests.
Billy Beez is the park that they’ll ask for by name.
4. My Local Library
Of course, the libraries in the Capital District area are not really ONE place, but MANY places... but it's important to emphasize how valuable libraries are for family learning and fun. The libraries in our area are wonderful about posting their events to the KidsOutAndAbout calendar so you always can get ideas for free things to do with your kids that celebrate education and imagination. KidsOutAndAbout.com takes this opportunity to salute the wonderful children's librarians who serve our community with such dedication. They're proud that locals voted them #3 in best places to take kids this year!
5. Liberty Ridge Farm
Upstate NY’s Original Agritourism Experience is right in the backyard of the Capital District. Liberty Ridge Farm’s 100 acres offer endless fun for everyone! The spacious facilities are available year-round and can accommodate families, friends and groups of any size for company outings, birthday parties, special events and family gatherings.
6. Adirondack Animal Land, Gloversville
The largest zoo in upstate New York, Adirondack Animal Land has over five hundred animals, plus the only safari in the Northeast. Located just an hour to the northwest of Albany. Feed and pet a giraffe in their new Giraffe Feeding area.
7. Indian Ladder Farms
We are a family owned farm committed to local agriculture and growing the best apples in the area!
8. Six Flags Great Escape
New York's most exciting theme park! Come experience Lake George's largest, most thrilling theme park filled with over 100 exciting rides, shows, & attractions!
9. Tri-City ValleyCats
The Tri-City ValleyCats are a professional independent baseball team based in Troy, New York. The Tri-City name refers to the three nearby cities of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy which make up New York State's Capital District.
10. Thacher Park/Nature Center
Thacher State Park is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, and offers scenic views, over 25 miles of trails, a beautiful new Visitor Center, a campground on Thompson’s Lake, and Thacher Nature Center. Programs for the public and school groups are offered year-round. Thacher Nature Center exhibits and displays include a geologic model of the Helderberg Escarpment, a live honeybee observation hive, a bird viewing area, live turtles, fossils, furs and other hands-on collections.
11. Five Rivers Environmental Education Center
With 10 miles of trails and 450 acres of forests, fields, and ponds, Five Rivers offers the perfect location to Love Our Lands as you practice sustainable recreation. The Visitor Center is open Monday through Saturday from 9 AM to 4:30 PM, except for state holidays. The grounds and trails are open daily from sunrise to sunset.
12. Albany Pine Bush Preserve
The Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center transforms this globally unique destination into an exciting adventure where learning comes naturally through hands-on activities. As the gateway to the Pine Bush, the Discovery Center introduces visitors to everything that makes the Preserve rare and adventurous. With the help of many volunteers, the Discovery Center offers monthly outings and programs about the ecology, natural and cultural history of the pine bush area.
13. Grafton Lakes State Park
Grafton includes four lakes, a pond and a reservoir surrounded by forest that stretches over 2500 acres. Long Pond has a large, sandy beach, which is a popular summer attraction and the park boasts over 25 miles of hiking trails to explore.
14. Howe Caverns
Whether you are visiting for the first time or re-visiting memories, you will discover why HOWE CAVERNS is New York State's second most visited natural attraction. The centerpiece of any trip to Howe Caverns is the descent 156 ft. below the Earth's surface where you will enjoy a 90-minute guided tour of the largest show cave in the Northeast. Limestone corridors, cavernous galleries, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, formations, serpentine passages and an underground boat ride all await you in our underground world.
15. Huck Finn's Playland
The Capital District's premier authentic amusement park, located in Latham. After the Hoffmans announced their retirement in 2014, the park was saved from extinction and was purchased by Huck Finn's Warehouse, which relocated the facility to the intersection of I90 and Route 787. It re-opened in 2015.
16. New York State Museum
Widely regarded as THE family-friendly learning center in the Capital District -- not least because entrance to its exhibit halls and most of its family programming are FREE. History and Science blend here, with many permanent and traveling exhibits.
17. Proctors
The Capital Region’s destination for BIG Broadway, cutting-edge film, exciting special events, and everything in between.
18. Via Aquarium
Explore vivid underwater worlds across 37 exhibits. From local favorites to the deepest depths of the ocean, explore our planet’s oceans and rivers all in your own backyard on this self-guided tour. Watch our Sharks swim overhead while schools of fish surround you in our immersive tunnel tanks. Feel the soft, smooth skin of a stingray as they swim right up to your hand in Stingray Bay. Take your family on an unforgettable journey, tickets available here or at the admissions desk. Located in the same hallway as Via Dino Discovery at VIA|Port Mall in Schenectady.
19. The Wild Center
The Wild Center is located in the Adirondacks in northern New York, comprising 115 acres of indoor and outdoor experiences, a new kind of museum connecting people with nature in unique and unexpected ways. The Wild Center is science-based, and its experiences, exhibits and programs are designed to open new ways to look into the latest discoveries made by natural scientists.
20. Ellms Family Farm
Plan a visit to Ellms Family Farm this Fall! Discover corn maze fun for young and old, pumpkin patches for pick-your-own-pumpkins, and old-fashioned activities for Fall family fun for Saratoga Springs, Albany, Clifton Park and Upstate NY! Wonderful outdoor fun that includes a unique challenge course and awesome apple cider donuts will create memories and family traditions when you visit Ellms Family Farm. Birthday parties are available on the farm in the fall: book early to ensure a very special celebration.
21. miSci: Museum of Innovation & Science
The Museum of Innovation and Science is a museum and planetarium located in Schenectady, New York. miSci's exhibitions and educational programming focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics
Winners in Special Categories
In the second part of our survey, we asked readers to select their favorites in three categories. Here were their choices.Top Arts Educator: Albany Institute of History & Art
The Albany Institute of History & Art is New York's oldest museum. Located in downtown Albany, New York, the museum offers changing exhibitions, special events, family programs, art-making activities, field trips for students, and more!
Top Sports Educator: Northeast Institute of Gymnastics
Northeast Gymnastics has been changing the lives of children for over 35 years we pride ourselves in not only developing athletes but in producing exceptional human beings. Northeast offers gymnastics, ninja classes for children 5 – 18 years old, and preschool Tumblekid classes for children 2 – 5 years old as well as birthday parties and special events. Because Northeast places emphasis on helping each child succeed and grow to their full potential character development is seen as the number one thing we can do for every child.
Northeast Gymnastics’ has partnered with Child Development Expert Dr. Robyn Silverman to bring her Powerful Words Character Development program to our students. As the only school in the Capital District to participate in this program coaches at Northeast are able to prepare our students for life outside of sports by “building skills to last a lifetime” in every student.
Top STEM Educator: New York State Museum
Widely regarded as THE family-friendly learning center in the Capital District -- not least because entrance to its exhibit halls and most of its family programming are FREE. History and Science blend here, with many permanent and traveling exhibits.
