The Best Family-Friendly Attractions in Austin
Austin, Texas, has a reputation as the live music capital of the world. Given the city’s many bars, nightclubs, and music venues, this is undoubtedly true.
However, in addition to offering fun for adults, Austin is also a great vacation destination for families with children. Read on to learn about some of the best attractions in the Austin area for families.
Thinkery
Previously known as the Austin’s Children Museum, the Thinkery bills itself as an “evolution” of that institution. It offers engaging, interactive exhibits for kids that focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).
With over 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, the Thinkery aims to encourage children’s natural curiosity and to promote hands-on learning. Its exhibits and programs target newborns through 11-year-olds, but parents will also find much to interest them as well.
One of the Thinkery’s exhibits, Currents, helps children learn about fluid dynamics by playing with water toys in a shallow raised pool that allows them to get their hands wet. They can also explore the relationship between water and sound by playing with drums and metal bowls in the water. Plastic smocks and air driers are provided to dry off kids afterwards.
Meanwhile, in the Kitchen Lab, kids can participate in sensory activities, investigate chemical reactions, and experiment with edible minerals. Outside in Our Backyard, kids can climb and play on an elaborate jungle-gym climbing structure, relax in the shade of native elm trees, or play with buckets and sieves in a stream.
The Thinkery is open every day. Check the museum’s website for hours and other details. Keep in mind that school groups are at the museum every Tuesday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Plan your visit after 1:30 p.m. for sparser crowds. Admission costs $12 and is free for infants 23 months and under.
Austin Zoo
Kids typically love visiting the zoo, and Austin has an excellent one. Though it is smaller than nationally-known zoos like the San Diego Zoo, the Austin Zoo is home to 300 animals representing more than 100 species. Its smaller size makes it more manageable for families with young children and allows visitors to get a close-up look at the animals.
The zoo also functions as a rescue, caring for animals retired from other facilities and those seized in animal cruelty cases. It also provides a home for exotic pets whose owners could no longer look after them.
At Austin Zoo, you’ll see big cats, reptiles, amphibians, birds, monkeys, a black bear, and other mammals. The zoo also has domestic animals, including a Texas longhorn cow, and many animals and insects native to Texas. In addition, visitors can attend daily zookeeper talks focusing on cougars, bears, primates, a Galapagos tortoise, and an alligator.
Zoo admission is $11.95 for adults and $8.95 for children ages 2 through 12. Don’t forget to visit the gift shop. You can purchase animal feed for $3 to feed the goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, and deer.
Pinballz Arcade
With two locations in Austin and a third in Buda, Pinballz claims to have Texas’ largest collection of classic pinball and video games. The owner of Pinballz opened the original Austin location after his personal collection of pinball machines grew too large. The result was a retro, 80s-style arcade.
Each Pinballz location has 30 to 100 pinball machines, and many represent the top-rated games ever. A few examples include Medieval Madness (1997), Twilight Zone (1993), and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (1993). In addition to pinball, visitors can try their hand at arcade favorites like skeeball and air hockey as well as modern shooting, dancing, and racing video games.
At the original Austin location, families with teens or tweens can also enjoy the Zombie Crisis Escape Room. This is a story-driven challenge in which teams of up to six people work together to solve a series of puzzles to escape from the room within 45 minutes — or be eaten by zombies.
The other Austin location at Lake Creek is a sprawling 100,000-square-foot entertainment center with bumper cars, lazer tag and a lazer maze, go-karts, a virtual reality arena, and mini-bowling. Mikki’s Replay Café food truck serves the original Austin location, while guest can enjoy an even more extensive menu at Mikki’s Tavern and Pinballz Whiskey Bar at Lake Creek.
Inner Space Cavern
Accidentally discovered in 1963, the Inner Space Cavern is an underground cave in nearby Georgetown, north of Austin. The cave had been hidden for over 10,000 years until construction workers building the I-35 highway drilled through the limestone to take core samples. Forty feet down, their drills came up empty, suggesting that they’d hit some kind of empty space — which is exactly what they found after further exploration.
Scientists also discovered skeletons of prehistoric animals that had found their way into the cavern and had drowned in thick mud. They later excavated the skeletons of a saber-tooth cat, camel, ground sloth, and a glyptodont (a car-size armadillo) from the cave.
Today, Inner Space Cavern is privately owned and accessible to visitors via guided tours. You’ll see stalactite and stalagmite formations and other natural features with names like “Lake of the Moon,” “Flowing Stone of Time,” and the “Ice Cream Parlor.” You can also see one of the archaeological dig sites and the bones of some of the ancient animals found there.
Three guided tours are available. The 75-minute Adventure Tour follows a paved, lighted path to the cavern’s main highlights. In the Hidden Passageways Tour, guests explore a newly-opened, rugged section of the cave using flashlights. The four-hour Wild Cave Tour is available only through advance reservation; children under 13 aren’t allowed on this physically demanding tour through undeveloped areas of the cave.
