Top 20 Places to Take Kids on Long Island - 2022
2022's Best Places for Kids on Long Island!
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 Long Island'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! Take some time to explore our calendar and the rest of our lists, sign up for our fabulous weekly e-newsletter, and then get out and about! And be sure to investigate Everything That's Free!
1. Adventureland
Adventureland is Long Island's Amusement Park since 1962! Enjoy a fun and exciting day on rides, attractions, games, and more. Adventureland Amusement Park is only located 30 minutes east of New York City, at 2245 Broad Hollow Rd. in Farmingdale, New York and features over 30 fun and exciting rides and attractions. Adventureland has something for everyone with a variety of thrill rides, family rides, kiddie rides, and water rides.
2. Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park
Welcome to the Ultimate Indoor Adventure Park where kids of all ages (and kids at heart) can explore thrilling attractions, challenge their body and mind, and most importantly…have a blast! We are WAY more than a trampoline park.
3. Long Island Children's Museum
The Long Island Children's Museum offers 14 interactive exhibits plus live theater, art spaces and daily activities to provide hours of discovery for children of all ages.
5. Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center
The Energy & Nature Center is on a barrier island beach within Jones Beach State Park. Exhibits and programs make use of this unique coastal setting to explore wind, wave, and solar energy as well as local dune and marine habitats. There are lots of fun things for kids to do. Inside the Center, children can feel live marine animals, look through a microscope, experience an energy-efficient playhouse, and make waves in a wave tank. Outside, children can walk through our pollinator garden, see whale bones and play musical instruments in the play area, and touch a 128ft-long wind turbine blade.
6. My Local Library
Of course, the libraries on Long Island 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 #2 in best places to take kids this year!
8. Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery & Aquarium
The Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery closed its doors as a New York State fish hatchery on March 31, 1982. The following day it was reopened as a non-profit educational center by the Friends of the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery, Inc. Its mission is to operate as an environmental education center and public aquarium that continues to raise and stock trout. We are proud to have the largest living collection of New York State freshwater reptiles, fishes and amphibians. The Hatchery is a fun place for your family to spend an afternoon together. Visitors can tour our two aquarium buildings and eight outdoor ponds, feed the hungry trout, and try our “Catch & Keep” fishing. Special events, such as Animal Passport Program and Hatching Turtle Day, offer the public an opportunity to learn more about the creatures that inhabit New York State’s natural environment.
15. New York Mets
The New York Mets are a Major League Baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball as a member of the National League East division.
19. Bayville Adventure Park
Offering pirate mini golf, bumper boats, arcade, rock climbing and more. Fun adventures for the whole family.
20. Center for Science Teaching and Learning (CSTL)
The Center for Science Teaching & Learning’s (CSTL) expanded Dinosaurs! and Animal Adventure exhibit, featuring five new animatronic dinosaurs, is open and welcoming families and groups. Dinosaurs! And Animal Adventure is the only tourist and educational attraction of its kind on Long Island and a popular family-friendly attraction. The exhibit focuses on how animals adapt and survive, demonstrated through a unique intermixing of dinosaur models and live animals together. School children and families from the New York region and beyond are expected to visit this exhibit annually to experience more than 80 unique displays.
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 STEM Educator: Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center
The Energy & Nature Center is on a barrier island beach within Jones Beach State Park. Exhibits and programs make use of this unique coastal setting to explore wind, wave, and solar energy as well as local dune and marine habitats. There are lots of fun things for kids to do. Inside the Center, children can feel live marine animals, look through a microscope, experience an energy-efficient playhouse, and make waves in a wave tank. Outside, children can walk through our pollinator garden, see whale bones and play musical instruments in the play area, and touch a 128ft-long wind turbine blade.
